Square Enix looks to have cancelled games, stating it will be ‘more selective’ in future

Square Enix has suggested it’s cancelled or rescoped unannounced game projects, as it continues to reassess its overall development strategy.

During a meeting held on March 27 – the details of which were shared on Tuesday – the company decided that it would “revise the Group’s approach to the development of high-definition (HD) games with the intention of being more selective and focused in the allocation of development resources”.

The publisher says that following this evaluation, it expects to report “content abandonment losses” of approximately 22.1 billion yen (141 million dollars).

This suggests that several projects have been cancelled, or rescoped amid a challenging games market.

Earlier this year, Square Enix decided to conduct a fundamental review of its development process, in an attempt to improve the quality of its games, according to Bloomberg. The decision followed the appointment of Takashi Kiryu as its new president last year.

During a conference call in February, Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu reportedly said, “We are reviewing from scratch what the organisational structure is, and what the best way is to implement the contents of the pipeline.”

The publisher is reportedly keen to reduce the amount of development it outsources to external studios, and wants to focus on in-house development for its more high-profile titles, with the aim being to increase both quality and profit margins.

According to analysts who spoke to Bloomberg, the new development process will include a new checking mechanism that will let the company make decisions on a game’s quality at an earlier stage of development.

Earlier this month, Daniel Ahmad, director of research and insights at Niko Partners, claimed that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Square’s biggest release of the year, has been “underperforming.”

Further reading

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Square Enix has lost nearly $2bn in market value since Final Fantasy 16’s release

Employees and analysts express concerns about its development structure and quality control

“It’s selling about half of what Remake sold in the same timeframe and looks like it’ll have a weaker tail (prior to any PS+ like release),” Ahmad wrote on X.

It’s worth noting that Final Fantasy 7 Remake was released for PS4 in April 2020, when the console had an installed base of over 100 million units, double that of the PS5.