The Letter is up

[Cutriss]

For an Entrepreneur, yes. For an established corporation, no not really. Especially in our current economic climate, most businesses are trying to do MORE with LESS.

Sorry, your soundbite-laden post doesn't really negate the fact that you do indeed have to spend money to make money. SE cannot simply will this product into existence. They have to pay someone to make it. If they stop spending money on it, then they are closing the door on it and they will never profit from it. It's a gamble.

And considering the huge loss that SE recently wrote off in response to the natural disaster in Japan, we are frankly lucky that they continue to develop this game at all.

First off, they didn't write off any loss due to the disaster. The earthquake isn't even three months old and the long-tail effects of it haven't fully manifested in SE's ongoing sales. They didn't lose any major assets such as an office building. The biggest external factor affecting their profits right now is the market valuation of the yen, which is still doing better than the dollar right now, and again, earthquake was three months ago.

SE's current financial woes are of their own making. It's up to them if they want to take the gamble, but you can't gamble without putting money down.

[DurtiMonkeyToe]

Sorry, your soundbite-laden post doesn't really negate the fact that you do indeed have to spend money to make money. SE cannot simply will this product into existence. They have to pay someone to make it. If they stop spending money on it, then they are closing the door on it and they will never profit from it. It's a gamble.

First off, they didn't write off any loss due to the disaster. The earthquake isn't even three months old and the long-tail effects of it haven't fully manifested in SE's ongoing sales. They didn't lose any major assets such as an office building. The biggest external factor affecting their profits right now is the market valuation of the yen, which is still doing better than the dollar right now, and again, earthquake was three months ago.

SE's current financial woes are of their own making. It's up to them if they want to take the gamble, but you can't gamble without putting money down.

First of all, stop taking stuff so personally. I never said that you "don't have to spend money to make money." My argument originally was that SE can't or won't assign more resources to a game that is not making profit when they can be used on resources that can and will make money. This is basic business. If the gamble on FFXIV gets TOO big, believe me they will shut it down in an instant.

Secondly, There was an article on these very boards that SE lowered there financial forecast due to the recent earthquake. They either have already written it off, which is common practice for a company that KNOWS its taking a huge loss, or have PLANNED to write it off.

[Cutriss]

First of all, stop taking stuff so personally.

Not taking it personally, sorry if I sound that way. Plenty of vitriol around here after all, I meant no offense myself.

I never said that you "don't have to spend money to make money." My argument originally was that SE can't or won't assign more resources to a game that is not making profit when they can be used on resources that can and will make money. This is basic business. If the gamble on FFXIV gets TOO big, believe me they will shut it down in an instant.

Certainly. My point is this: 20 people working on the project for the next six months compared to 40 people working on the project for the next three months (mythical man month issues notwithstanding), you're more likely to stem your losses than extending them, and by the end of those three months, if it appears your product will still be viable, you can re-evaluate your staffing priorities at that time.

Basically - if you're going to commit to the project, *commit* to it. Give it the supplemental staff it needs to get back on track, or cut the project.

As the saying goes, piss or get off the pot.

Secondly, There was an article on these very boards that SE lowered there financial forecast due to the recent earthquake. They either have already written it off, which is common practice for a company that KNOWS its taking a huge loss, or have PLANNED to write it off.

That's much different. It's a write-off due to declining sales resulting from reduced marketability. It's not a direct result of the earthquake, it's an indirect result.

In a sad way it's actually lucky for them because they can attribute more of their failures to external factors without coming off as incompetent or poorly-performing.

[DurtiMonkeyToe]

Not taking it personally, sorry if I sound that way. Plenty of vitriol around here after all, I meant no offense myself.Certainly. My point is this: 20 people working on the project for the next six months compared to 40 people working on the project for the next three months (mythical man month issues notwithstanding), you're more likely to stem your losses than extending them, and by the end of those three months, if it appears your product will still be viable, you can re-evaluate your staffing priorities at that time.

Basically - if you're going to commit to the project, *commit* to it. Give it the supplemental staff it needs to get back on track, or cut the project.

As the saying goes, piss or get off the pot.That's much different. It's a write-off due to declining sales resulting from reduced marketability. It's not a direct result of the earthquake, it's an indirect result.

In a sad way it's actually lucky for them because they can attribute more of their failures to external factors without coming off as incompetent or poorly-performing.

I see your point and I understand it, but it would still probably be hard to justify in a business environment. We would need far more details than we have to know for sure, such as why is it taking so long? Is it the programming side of it that is taking longest? Or the management side of it. Arguable it is the planning phase that takes the longest but doubling the amount of leadership in charge for setting the visions and goals of the games is going to cost more and probably make things slower than adding 20 programmers to just make the work go faster.

Also, I did the required research and SE did take damage to some of their assets from the earthquake, about 0.6 billion Yen loss.

http://www.square-enix.com/eng/news/pdf/110512.pdf

Just so that I am backing up my big mouth, lol.

[Cutriss]

Also, I did the required research and SE did take damage to some of their assets from the earthquake, about 0.6 billion Yen loss.

http://www.square-enix.com/eng/news/pdf/110512.pdf

Just so that I am backing up my big mouth, lol.

Which is less than half of one percent of their market cap. I personally think it has more symbolic meaning than anything.

[Rentahamster]

Secondly, There was an article on these very boards that SE lowered there financial forecast due to the recent earthquake. They either have already written it off, which is common practice for a company that KNOWS its taking a huge loss, or have PLANNED to write it off.

The earthquake was only a small factor in their losses.

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/201...ings_revision/

The revision is due to extraordinary losses, in part from a "tightened selection standard" for games. This will result in 4.5 billion yen in losses related to development cancellations. A press release announcing the revision did not share specifics beyond this.
The company will also incur a "loss on disaster" of approximately 0.6 billion yen related to the Tohoku earthquake. This is for closures and restoration of amusement facilities.

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/201...ada_on_losses/

Speaking at an investor's briefing on the 13th (via Nikkei), Wada explained that of the 12 billion loss, about 4.5 billion came from such things as Final Fantasy XIV's reworking and the cancelation of multiple titles. Most of the 4.5 billion was related to domestic development, he said.

[Dreadnought]

The earthquake was only a small factor in their losses.

http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/201...ings_revision/


http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/201...ada_on_losses/

im glad you pointed this out, thank you.