Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth profits ‘did not meet expectations’ admits Square Enix

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth key art — The sales are no fantasy (Square Enix)

While early sales indicated Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Final Fantasy 16 had both seen a dip in sales compared to their respective predecessors, developer Square Enix has now officially described them as a disappointment.

Square Enix actually made the comments during a financial briefing in May, but they have only been made public now.

Speaking at the briefing, Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu said: ‘In the HD Games sub-segment, we released multiple new titles, including major titles such as Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, but profits unfortunately did not meet our expectations.’

He further went onto describe Foamstars in similar terms, adding: ‘Despite the release of Foamstars and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth in Q4, initial sales were not as strong as expected.’

It’s important to note that in May, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth had only been on the market for around two months, following its launch in late February. At the same briefing, Square Enix outlined how it intends to adopt a multi-platform strategy moving forward.

This decision is most likely in response to these lower than expected sales. Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth launched as a PlayStation 5 exclusive but it’s expected to come to PC at a later date, in the same vein as its predecessor Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

Final Fantasy 16, meanwhile, launched exclusively on PlayStation 5 in June last year and came out on PC this week, so it’s possible that its numbers could increase significantly in the coming months. It’s clear though that Square Enix probably won’t launch any future Final Fantasy games on just one platform in the future.

While this statement does mean Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Final Fantasy 16 have underperformed for Square Enix, it’s still hard to gauge by how much, considering the company is known for its… *ambitious* sales expectations. Rebirth was the fourth best-selling game of the year in the US, in May, but its sales were behind Remake.

Earlier this year, Square Enix lost £112 million after cancelling a wealth of projects, as the studio becomes more ‘selective’ in the games it takes on – but it’s unclear whether this will impact its lower budget games or AAA output.

The company’s recent track record with big budget games hasn’t been great in terms of sales, with both Avengers and Forspoken being financial flops.

Through all the financial turmoil, Square Enix is still trying to make a success of Foamstars, with the multiplayer shooter set to go free-to-play from October 4.