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Square Enix shares circle six-year low

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Feb 6, 2009 5:39 pm PT

Just months after it made a $200 million bid for Tecmo, RPG giant's share price slides 11 percent after earnings report delay.

The past week saw a series of game company earnings reports from Electronic Arts, THQ, Capcom, and Konami. Today, it was supposed to be Square Enix's turn, but the Final Fantasy XIII publisher decided yesterday to delay its earnings announcement until February 12.

"Sorry, we just can't afford all those hair-care products anymore."

Whatever the factors behind it, the delay had an immediate impact on Square Enix's share price. On Thursday, its value plummeted on the news, closing at ¥1,972 ($21.45) on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. That was its lowest closing price since May of 2003, shortly after one-time competitors Square Co. and Enix Corporation merged. The stock rebounded somewhat on Friday, ending the day at ¥2,080 ($22.62).

This week's Square Enix troubles stand in stark contrast to last August, when the publisher's financial position allowed it to make a $200 million offer for Ninja Gaiden publisher Tecmo. Though Tecmo opted for a now-consummated union with Dynasty Warriors-maker Koei, Square Enix vowed it would look for other acquisitions. Whether it is still in the financial position to do so will be made clear by next week's earnings report.

326 Comments

  • Dark5tar_cloud

    Posted Jun 2, 2009 7:05 pm PT

    ill never leave squares side it WILL be good i know it

  • dannyatkinson

    Posted Feb 22, 2009 7:52 am PT

    I totally agree Bassist_4Life. Bethesda rocks.

  • ivan_osorio

    Posted Feb 12, 2009 7:13 pm PT

    "If FFXIII disappoints me I'm done with Square Enix. Period. I'd rather play Atlus RPGs anyways." Fixed for the J-RPG crowd like myself.

  • Rizer

    Posted Feb 11, 2009 12:53 pm PT

    Wow, a day delay and a public freak out cost them to plummet that much? Once FFXII actually comes out that alone probably will probably change things. It's the next offical FF number after all, not playing it is like First-Person shooting fans saying "Halo 4 is out? Nahhh...don't wanna try it". Every RPG gamer is going to pick it up at least once.

  • Bassist_4Life

    Posted Feb 11, 2009 11:58 am PT

    If FFXIII disappoints me I'm done with Square Enix. Period. I'd rather play Bethesda RPGs anyways.

  • TheoleDominion

    Posted Feb 11, 2009 10:33 am PT

    I'm a huge fan of SE,but some of the dated concepts has got to go! Maybe that's why they're seeking partnerships with western dev now. I'll list some my problems with recent JRPG's and see if you agree with me.

    Static Environment- Though I've seen improvements, they really need to make it more immersive and interactive instead of being "locked" into a certain path.

    Text- I'm for texting especially for the hearing-impaired but there's no excuse for not having voice narratives included. Also the amount used is overwhelming at times (Lost Oddessy for example) I did just as much reading than actually playing,and that's bad. They need to be able to tell the story better in realtime while playing, as oppose to interupting the player in order to read for long periods of time. It really kills the gaming experience.

    Voice-acting- I really grow tired of the "corny" and "awkward" dialogue. With the amount of voice talent out there's no reason why the bad acting still exists in most JRPG's today.

    Skills/Technique- I love games with a robust amount of this stuff. The problem is alot of them have very little or no effect on gameplay or becomes obsolete before you're even mid way through the game. If you're gonna have alot of them,make it MEANS something.

    Character Models- a few postings have already touched on this. Does EVERY character have to be a kid with a spikey hair-cut? Or to the other extreme looong flowing white or black hair? How about putting in the character customization featured in most of the better RPG's today.

    Party/Combat System- I believe Star Ocean is heading in the right direction in making combat realtime even when switching characters. I can't tell how many times in similar games where you eventually end up putting the entire party on "auto" and you do more watching than actually playing.

    These are just some of the problems I see in a genre I love so much. Hopefully JRPG's devs will "get with the times" and I'll start seeing the improvements and great strides I've seen in other RPG's such as Oblivion,Mass Effect,Fallout 3 etc...

  • dannyatkinson

    Posted Feb 11, 2009 5:01 am PT

    @pickelsrocks
    The problem with that Idea is that FF is mostly the only game that they make that is any good. They do make other games that are good but most of them are terrible. I still miss Squaresoft.
    They were so much better.

  • Cabal23

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 7:49 am PT

    Perhaps Square/Enix should come out with a game that doesn't rely on the past eleven Final Fantasy games. A new story, new characters, a new perspective maybe. That would actually involve creation of something new, something Japanese gamers aren't all too hip on. Oh yeah do hairstyles not change in Japanese games? Is there some sort of time freeze on the advancement of hairstyles? What is up with the same old spiky haircuts?

  • Zerabp

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 7:29 am PT

    @ Zaphod While you are right about the different delays generally associated with FF games in this case it is not as applicable as it was already confirmed that localization and translation were being done simultaneously. Take the fact that it is being in released in Japan on time and that means that the Game is done and ready to be released for the PS3. My point isn't that they shouldn't release it for the 360, my point is why would they wait and the only reason I can come up with for not releasing one then the other is that they are afraid of the products quality. Again Fanboys on both sides (I'm not calling you one) are failing to look at the big picture. Ps3 Fanboys need to admit that multi-platforming is best for gaming and developers, unless a clearly superior system is available. While the Ps3 has a few legs up on the 360 if it is fully tapped, it's just not enough to convince a dev to make less money then they can with a multi release. With 360 fanboys, you all need to realize that this is a finished product being delayed to release multi-platform, not only that but they haven't even announced if it has started actual production on the port. So while it was smart to release it on both systems you need to ask why they are waiting to release it on both systems at the same time, when they could be making money of one version to help fund the other. The only conclusion one can come to is that the only reason for the delay is that they haven't made a quality product, thus releasing one first would actually endanger sales of the other because of poor reviews both from gamers and critics. The simultaneous release prevents this as everyone goes and buys it before realizing the product is not as good as it was hyped or hoped to be. I personally hope I am wrong but there is just too much pointing towards the fact that I'm not. Sadly I'm going to buy it anyways.

  • NAWAF005

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 1:28 am PT

    she looks cute with her realistic hair

  • picklesrocks

    Posted Feb 10, 2009 12:38 am PT

    maybe they should make more franchises rather than making final fantasy 72

  • EnaVRi

    Posted Feb 9, 2009 9:05 pm PT

    @ the_Darkwalker
    Yeah PS3 is a lot expensive compared to 360... But for people who is not living in US, like me... Don't have that 3 years warranty for RROD... I'm picking PS3 so that I won't be spending $100 for every time my console breaks down... And the only thing that the 360 is selling good in my country is that it can play pirated software...
    If you find the 360 fanboys here ridiculous... Go to my country... They are waaaay more ridiculous...

    Here we argue about exclusive games... and there they argue that they have the cheaper software... US$2 a disk meanwhile PS BD are US$60

  • IHeartCloud

    Posted Feb 9, 2009 8:52 pm PT

    Not joking at all, but when my mom saw the picture of Noctis (from XIII Versus), she seriously thought it was a chick. Personally, I'm all for the androgeny, ahahaha

  • PodXCOM

    Posted Feb 9, 2009 7:51 pm PT

    Enough with the hair and androgynous jokes already. That joke has been getting really old, really fast.

    I could make more money then WoW if I got a penny for every time someone said a hair or androgynous joke on a game news.

  • PodXCOM

    Posted Feb 9, 2009 7:50 pm PT

    Enough with the hair and androgynous jokes already. That joke has been getting really old, really fast.

    I could make more money then WoW if I got a penny for every time someone said a hair or androgynous joke on a game news.

  • slipknot61174

    Posted Feb 9, 2009 6:49 pm PT

    Hmmm... maybe if they tried releasing some games on PS3 AND 360, they may have been able to recoup some losses. Sure, for the most part, these games were stinkers, but the same rationale that 360 diehards are using to excuse the delay of FFXIII applies here, I believe: selling games to the widest possible audience is the best possible way to make money, right? Right??

  • BtmnHatesRbn

    Posted Feb 9, 2009 5:28 pm PT

    Square Enix has taken the same exact path as Sierra On-Line before they were absorbed by Cendant.

  • Noctobum

    Posted Feb 9, 2009 1:00 pm PT

    @ The_Darkwalker

    I agree with you that these accessories are not crucial but rather a bonus or a nice to have. I just wanted to point to others that if you have a 360 with most of those accessories (if not all) than you do have the money in buying a PS3 as well. Again, you are right that having a choice is a good thing, it helps you distinguish between what you need and what you want.
    Another to point is that the PS3 is marketed and made as a multimedia unit (hence the internet browser and blu-ray) and not just a gaming console like the 360. I've played both, and like both. So to me, for default features, I like the nice "bonuses" that the PS3 included without having me to run around and get them.

    but yeah, I'm going to get Star Ocean, and it better be good...
    I love SE through and through, but I'm slowly losing my confidence in them.

  • maverick_76

    Posted Feb 9, 2009 12:57 pm PT

    The_Darkwalker,

    Are you sure that silver allows you to play online multi-player? I could have sworn that silver is only for online store usage and downloading of patches, updates, etc. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure I'm correct. On the news story I don't know if it is a good idea for SE to be looking for an acquisition at this time, unless the cash stores of that company will help the financial standing of SE, I would think taking on a ship with a leak is not a smart idea if you can't afford to patch it up.

  • darkdemon_x

    Posted Feb 9, 2009 12:51 pm PT

    everyone talking bout squre enix going down as a bad thing(not talking bout ppl that hate se for no reason) this is how we got the final fantasy series, square was gonna make a "final" fantasy game and they were going bankrupt but b/c of the sales of the game they made a great comeback and brought us many great games.
    ps. i don't want se to go down just saying next best rpg coming soon?

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