Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion
Image: Square Enix

Square Enix has today released its Outline of Financial Results Briefing, which was held on 3rd February 2023, and from the sounds of a comment from current CEO and president Yosuke Matsuda, blockchain is still very much in the company's future (via Wario64, Stephen Totilo).

In response to the question about sustainable growth from FY2024/3 (which sees the release of the highly-anticipated Final Fantasy XVI and the potential release of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, two huge titles for the company) to FY2025/3, Matsuda said that the company had a "good spread of new releases in FY2025/3 and beyond", but then ended by saying "We also hope that you will look forward to the blockchain games we plan to launch in FY2024/3 and thereafter".

Square Enix has been one of the biggest video game developers to get involved in NFTs and blockchain, both joining a blockchain itself and creating Final Fantasy NFTs, much to the dismay of many fans all around the world. In fact, president Matsuda (who is stepping down from his role this summer and being replaced by director Takashi Kiryu) has been the biggest spokesperson for the medium in the past, and it sounds like the company is continuing to press forward in the market:

The Q&A came at the end of a Financial Report that, unfortunately, didn't spell a ton of good news for the company. Between Q1 and Q3 of FY2023/3, Matsuda revealed that "many of the new small and mid-sized titles we launched this year did not perform as well as we had expected". The company has also shut down a number of mobile games over the past few months.

The developer has had a pretty packed schedule in the last 18 months, but Matsuda admitted that the company struggled to get over FY2022/3's high hurdle. Final Fantasy XIV, arguably the company's biggest success in the last few years, was a large part of its FY2022 results with the release of the Endwalker expansion.

Titles release between Q1 and Q3 FY2023/3 include (and we're only counting Switch releases here) Live A Live, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion, Tactics Ogre: Reborn, Dragon Quest Treasures, Harvestella, and The DioField Chronicle. No specific games were mentioned in the report, but it's disappointing to hear that, even on a general scale, these more off-beat titles and rereleases have potentially underperformed.

Q4 FY2023/3 is almost at an end, and for Square Enix, it'll be relying on Theatrhythm Final Bar Line, Octopath Traveler II, and PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo for a bit of good news in terms of Switch and multiplatform releases. However, this same report does touch on a non-Switch game in Forspoken, which launched this January, saying sales for the open-world RPG have been "lackluster".

Even with the three other titles mentioned above, Square Enix predicts that it will see "considerable downside risk to our FY2023/3 earnings". We really hope Square Enix isn't banking everything on blockchain. For us Switch owners, at least we still have the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters to look forward to...

What do you think Matsuda's comments? Are you hoping for more success in Square Enix's future? Let us know.

[source hd.square-enix.com, via twitter.com, twitter.com]