FF:Enhanced_Reality
Member
Sequel to my thread about Sony buying Insomniac! /s
But hey, all joking aside, I think I really have a more compelling point this time and really, it comes down to this. Do the post-acquisition Eidos titles sell really badly? Or are the expectations from Square Enix just too high?
Okay, so Eidos were a publisher like Midway and Acclaim that just struggled to modernise right? Cash losses constantly reported. Poor business and poor excuses for said business led to buyout by SCi and then another buyout by SquareEnix. Sounds like a bit of a troubled company right? I guess you'd be fair in saying that they had their fair share of problems. But they still had value in their intellectual property that was just vastly misused and led to their circumstances for requiring a buyout. Tomb Raider, Hitman, Deus Ex and Legacy of Kain. Four IP that alone would normally be a core foundation for a video game publisher. Or so, you would have thought.
If anything, the following words have become, to me, synonymous with titles released by the post SquareEnix acquisition Eidos and those words are simply, "Failed to meet expectations."
Tomb Raider 2013 and Hitman Absolution both sold 3.5 million copies by the financial year of March 2013. With Sleeping Dogs notching just shy of 2 million in sales for a brand new IP. So call it 9 million in sales, kay? So how did SquareEnix forecast this cluster of games to sell close to 15 million units? Though arguably, the 2013 Tomb Raider really hit off when it came to the PlayStation 4 and XBOX One.
Rise of the Tomb Raider was a well known sales disaster. Perhaps the XBOX exclusive arrangement was partly to blame for that, even Crystal Dynamics were taken back by that announcement and they were developing the fucking game. Suffice to say, Tomb Raider has a core audience on PlayStation which has been the focal point for the character that was once said to have built the house of Eidos.
Investors stated that sales of Shadow of the Tomb Raider were 'low' with 4.12 million copies sold as of December 31st 2018.
Deus Ex Human Revolution sold 2.2 million before the directors cut. A title Square actually put back because they already saw their titles suffering in the console space and wanted to address these issues. But perhaps not understanding their market they went all in pushing DE:HR in North America when the majority of sales came from Europe.
Now let me be clear, I love all these games. Not all of them to a high degree but Human Revolution I loved immensely. I even named my son Jensen because his character was an inspiration to me. I thought with the sales of Human Revolution we would never get a sequel but lo and behold, we got one. But favourable reviews, a number 1 spot at launch and great fan feedback wasn't enough to save Mankind Divided from putting the future of the series on hiatus. Meddling from the publisher, an incredibly poor 'augment your pre-order', a tacked on multiplayer mode and the silly micro transactions that almost felt compulsory in a game that was so hard to level up, left for a bad taste in the mouth and fans left wanting. As much as fans like me want a third Deus Ex title with Adam Jensen, the outlook right now, frankly is low.
I won't even get on to Hitman and Just Cause which have stories of their own. Sleeping Dogs appears to be dead as a door nail after that stupid MMO title killed the majority of interest in the future of the franchise and where in the blue hell is Legacy of Kain? Perhaps the slogan of modern Eidos should be failed to meet expectations...
But SquareEnix, whilst arguably greatly diversifying it's offerings as a publisher by acquiring Eidos were looking to offer more to the consumer, where does the fault lie for the lack of success? Low sales for very popular franchises despite great games. Were they really low or were the bar set too high? Does SquareEnix really understand the western IP they bought into and how to leverage it?
Looking back since the acquisition over the past decade, was it the right thing to do for both companies? I would argue it wasn't the best idea. It's caused a lot of upset and the Eidos development teams are now apparently supporting Square by developing technology or working solely on Marvel properties, that is according to an ex-employee, even though Crystal Dynamics are a mad talented studio. I would argue someone like 2K or dare I say it... Activision might have been a better fit Eidos in the long run. Without going to a console manufacturer that is.
Whatever the future holds, for them it isn't looking very promising...
But hey, all joking aside, I think I really have a more compelling point this time and really, it comes down to this. Do the post-acquisition Eidos titles sell really badly? Or are the expectations from Square Enix just too high?
Okay, so Eidos were a publisher like Midway and Acclaim that just struggled to modernise right? Cash losses constantly reported. Poor business and poor excuses for said business led to buyout by SCi and then another buyout by SquareEnix. Sounds like a bit of a troubled company right? I guess you'd be fair in saying that they had their fair share of problems. But they still had value in their intellectual property that was just vastly misused and led to their circumstances for requiring a buyout. Tomb Raider, Hitman, Deus Ex and Legacy of Kain. Four IP that alone would normally be a core foundation for a video game publisher. Or so, you would have thought.
If anything, the following words have become, to me, synonymous with titles released by the post SquareEnix acquisition Eidos and those words are simply, "Failed to meet expectations."
Tomb Raider 2013 and Hitman Absolution both sold 3.5 million copies by the financial year of March 2013. With Sleeping Dogs notching just shy of 2 million in sales for a brand new IP. So call it 9 million in sales, kay? So how did SquareEnix forecast this cluster of games to sell close to 15 million units? Though arguably, the 2013 Tomb Raider really hit off when it came to the PlayStation 4 and XBOX One.
Rise of the Tomb Raider was a well known sales disaster. Perhaps the XBOX exclusive arrangement was partly to blame for that, even Crystal Dynamics were taken back by that announcement and they were developing the fucking game. Suffice to say, Tomb Raider has a core audience on PlayStation which has been the focal point for the character that was once said to have built the house of Eidos.
Investors stated that sales of Shadow of the Tomb Raider were 'low' with 4.12 million copies sold as of December 31st 2018.
Deus Ex Human Revolution sold 2.2 million before the directors cut. A title Square actually put back because they already saw their titles suffering in the console space and wanted to address these issues. But perhaps not understanding their market they went all in pushing DE:HR in North America when the majority of sales came from Europe.
Now let me be clear, I love all these games. Not all of them to a high degree but Human Revolution I loved immensely. I even named my son Jensen because his character was an inspiration to me. I thought with the sales of Human Revolution we would never get a sequel but lo and behold, we got one. But favourable reviews, a number 1 spot at launch and great fan feedback wasn't enough to save Mankind Divided from putting the future of the series on hiatus. Meddling from the publisher, an incredibly poor 'augment your pre-order', a tacked on multiplayer mode and the silly micro transactions that almost felt compulsory in a game that was so hard to level up, left for a bad taste in the mouth and fans left wanting. As much as fans like me want a third Deus Ex title with Adam Jensen, the outlook right now, frankly is low.
I won't even get on to Hitman and Just Cause which have stories of their own. Sleeping Dogs appears to be dead as a door nail after that stupid MMO title killed the majority of interest in the future of the franchise and where in the blue hell is Legacy of Kain? Perhaps the slogan of modern Eidos should be failed to meet expectations...
But SquareEnix, whilst arguably greatly diversifying it's offerings as a publisher by acquiring Eidos were looking to offer more to the consumer, where does the fault lie for the lack of success? Low sales for very popular franchises despite great games. Were they really low or were the bar set too high? Does SquareEnix really understand the western IP they bought into and how to leverage it?
Looking back since the acquisition over the past decade, was it the right thing to do for both companies? I would argue it wasn't the best idea. It's caused a lot of upset and the Eidos development teams are now apparently supporting Square by developing technology or working solely on Marvel properties, that is according to an ex-employee, even though Crystal Dynamics are a mad talented studio. I would argue someone like 2K or dare I say it... Activision might have been a better fit Eidos in the long run. Without going to a console manufacturer that is.
Whatever the future holds, for them it isn't looking very promising...
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