Square Enix Wants to Upgrade Some Existing IPs to AAA Status - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 19 September 2023 / 4,224 Views
Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu speaking during Q&A session at the beginning of August that was recently published revealed the company is looking improve the profitability of the company and is looking to into upgrading some existing IPs to AAA status.
"I want to improve our profitability," said Kiryu. "I see ample room for improvement in our operating profit margin and would like to start by working primarily on our HD games.
"In addition, rather than solely attempting to create brand‐new IPs, we intend take a nuanced approach to investment whereby we also identify existing IPs with the potential to be upgraded to AAA status, taking ROI [retun on investment] into account as well. In so doing, we hope to establish greater depth to the layers of our portfolio.
"Lastly, I would also like to continue to consistently grow our Publication, Amusement, and Merchandising segments as sources of recurring earnings, thereby enabling our Group to mitigate the volatility of the HD Game sub‐segment and improve its profitability."
It was recently reported the market value for Square Enix has dropped by nearly $2 billion since the release of the PlayStation 5 excusive Final Fantasy XVI. The stock price for Square Enix has dropped by over 30 percent from a peak of $26.50 per share on June 21 down to $18.18 last week.
Thanks, VideoGamesChronicle.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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I'd say they have 3 AAA IP currently, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts, the rest of their IP's tend to be made with lower graphics and lower budget. The easiest to convert to AAA status would probably be Nier, Automata sold extremely well (7.5m as of April this year) despite being more of a AA than a AAA, and the remake of the original Nier also sold fairly well, so I think Nier could make the switch to AAA successfully. Not sure which of their other IP have the popularity needed to pull off the level of sales needed to make back a AAA budget.
A proper AAA 3D remake of Chrono Trigger would be a success I think, and could possibly be jumpstarted into a lasting AAA IP for them with new 3D Chrono games being made going forward.
I feel like Tomb Raider AAA too. Everyone always forgets about it. lol
Square Enix sold most of their western division to Embracer Group in May 2022, Eidos Montreal, Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix Montreal, and all of the IP's associated with those 3 studios including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy of Kain, and a bunch of other IP. Square's financials were pretty dire at the time, so they were pretty desperate and sold all of those for a mere $300m.
These titles deserve a triple A remake and then AAA sequels: Final Fantasy Tactics, Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, FF3/6, and Vagrant Story. Someone mentioned Nier Automata. Definitely needds sequels, but I consider it triple A already as everthing with that game was masterful. Parasite Eve is something that I'd be intrigued to see SE bring back to life.
Literally been sitting on the greatest game of all time Chrono Trigger for 28 years besides the re-releases and minor DS upgrade.
HD-2D REMAKE!!!!!
Chrono trigger remaster/remake will help profits
AAA remake of XenoGears from Monolith here we go!
Bravely Default? Please?
While Bravely Default seems like a lower budget franchise, they're definitely priced as AAA. Maybe fully update it to FF level to have more of an appeal?
Pretty sure that’s what we’re talking about. Not pricing.
A lot of non-AAA games are full priced.
I would like a remake of Chrono Trigger, FF6/8/9 as much as anybody else. But I would also love Square to remake Parasite Eve and, on a lower budget, a remake of Einhander.
Expand and release games of different genre instead of pumping out JRPG or JRPG related games.
That's still under rumor and has not officially been announced, but fingers cross it'll be announced soon. However, there was an announcement of a FFIX animation few years ago but apparently that got cancelled (maybe cause they're planning the remake?) but it definitely got awfully quiet and haven't anything new about it since.
Final Fantasy?
I would love to see they upgrading the level of their smaller entries... vgc still keep the very wrong "since final fantasy"... the only title that didn't underperfom or lost money on the period.
That is very specifically since FF16 though. If you're talking about this year, Octopath Traveler 2 didn't underperform.
Yes, bring back E.V.O. with a AAA budget I'm all for it.... what do you mean I'm dreaming.
