Square Enix Is Rethinking How It Approaches Games, And It's Coming At A Huge Cost

Square Enix has announced that it expects to lose $140,000,000 in "content abandonment losses" for the fiscal year, which ended on March 31, 2024.

According to a new financial report, the Square Enix Board of Directors met at the end of March to discuss how to move forward with game development. Square Enix has reaffirmed its stance on being more selective about which games to develop. Upon close examination of Square Enix's current development pipeline, it seems like there have been several projects canceled and will result in a 22.1 billion yen, or $140,000,000, loss as a result of abandoning them. Square Enix did not name or reveal which ones were canceled.

Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu revealed earlier this year that it would be revising its game development processes to focus on fewer, but higher-quality, titles. Furthermore, he said that Square Enix would be aggressive in applying AI to both game development and publishing pipelines.

Back in 2023, Square Enix's stock took a nosedive due to apparent weak sales of Final Fantasy XVI and considerable profit decline. 2022 saw the release of smaller games from Square Enix such as Harvestella and The Diofield Chronicle. However, Kiryu reportedly planned to shift Square Enix's priorities back to developing bigger-budget games. Some of the big projects Square Enix has in store are Dragon Quest XII and Kingdom Hearts IV. The former is reportedly going through rocky development while the latter is rumored to be released in 2025.