Quote Originally Posted by DPZ2 View Post
Prove that statement. Please. Use real numbers.

A game that cost 1 billion yen to make, and has 2 billion yen in sales, while another game with a similar cost had 12 billion yen in sales, is not a "flop", except to the hype machine. A game that cost 1 billion yen to make and has 800 million yen in sales is a "flop".

Any game introduced at the same time as the FF7 remake, or the next Nier game, is not a flop if it makes money.

I really get tired of people believing that FFXIV is the only money-making game that Square Enix produces. It is, by far, the most recognizable of the games produced, but it is not solely responsible for the company's profits.

The Digital Entertainment sector of Square Enix lists about 185 billion yen for net sales for FY2023/3 Q1 ‐ Q3 (reported on 3 February). The entire MMORPG section had just under 22% of that total in net sales.
The problem with looking just at the profit side of things is that it doesn't give the full picture. A game can be a profitable success and still be a PR flop. I'd argue that a PR flop is far more damaging than a profit flop because PR flops hurt the overall brand. Games that have a huge hype and sell well only to turn out to be terrible are extremely hard to overcome. Because not only will the people who purchased the PR flops be more hesitant to buy Square Enix games in the future, but newer gamers will too because the bad PR will be all over the place.

Let's look at the FF series in of itself in the west. FFXVI could be a huge huge success, but it will likely earn less as a result of the receptions of FFXII and FFXV. The only counter balance it has going for it is the fact that it is being made by CBUIII. Or look at Kingdom Hearts III. People were itching for it eager for it, and now many long time KH fans are horrifically burned by it. If they were to make a KH4 game you can be sure that it will see overall less attention and sales due to KH3's reception.