SquareEnix Earnings Call

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SquareEnix Earnings Call
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 Lakshmi.Jaerik
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By Lakshmi.Jaerik 2010-11-09 13:45:04
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On a recent financial earnings call, SquareEnix President Yoichi Wada was hammered by reporters for the slip in SE's stock price and significant reduction in earnings projections due to FFXIV.

Wada acknowledged that the game suffered from large-scale quality control problems at a systematic level, and that the company is engaged in a "desperate battle" to win back the trust of its fans within the next few months.

It was somewhat clear that while the earnings call was supposed to be about all SquareEnix products, the reporters in the room were fixated on XIV's miserable performance and Wada's plans to improve it. In response to media observations that FFXIV is potentially not retaining enough subscribers to be successful, Wada said:

満足してもらえれば、離れた利用者も戻ってくる。逆に(利用者から)『もう無理だ』と思われたらそれ以後はない。信頼回復に尽きる。
"If we can satisfy those users who have left, they'll come back. But if (users) have given up on us, there's no future (for this game.) We'll be unable to regain their trust."

SquareEnix's total sales for the term beginning in September 2010 are down 25% from the year previous. Operating income is down by 71%. Operating profits are down 56%, with net profits down 36%.

Oddly, later in the call, Wada mentioned interest in games with free-to-play models and direct item sales, pointing specifically to DragonQuest and Facebook style viral marketing models, where the direct sale of virtual items makes up 30-40% of gross revenue. It is unclear if he meant this could be a potential business model for XIV as well, touching off quite of bit of rampant speculation.
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By sefirot 2010-11-09 13:53:38
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hmmm
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By Pawnskipper 2010-11-09 14:05:06
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Wow. Such an anticipated game possibly being downgraded to the sims status. lol And let this be a lesson to all big business. You cant skimp on quality and expect people to over look for too long. Nice try though.
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 Asura.Authority
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By Asura.Authority 2010-11-09 14:16:40
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While I was absolutely hoping for an amazing game when it came to FFXIV, I think that if it does fail it will be the best thing to ever happen to the MMO industry.

Aion isn't a good example, because while it failed in North America, I believe it is still popular in Korea. Even the Japanese are not happy with FFXIV. Look at the money put into this game. If this doesn't deter other companies from making low quality games just to make a quick buck, then I don't know what will. Lets hope that if FFXIV goes down the tubes, we never see a shitty MMO again!
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 Ifrit.Kungfuhustle
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By Ifrit.Kungfuhustle 2010-11-09 14:19:34
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<Random Guy>:"Horacio, looks like FFXIV ain't selling too hot."
<Horacio>:"I see. I guess this game finally got..."
<puts on his dark sun glasses>
<Horacio>:"... played out."

yeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh...........
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 Lakshmi.Aurilius
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By Lakshmi.Aurilius 2010-11-09 14:24:06
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That joke doesn't really work because the game wasn't really played out. The franchise is played out.

You are awarded no points, and may god have mercy on your soul.



I said on these forums on many occasions how much the game sucked when I played it during the end of the Beta, but people were so naive to believe all the bugs would come out in the last month or two. Well the bugs didn't go anywhere.
 Valefor.Quickmart
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By Valefor.Quickmart 2010-11-09 14:28:33
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Quote:
pointing specifically to DragonQuest and Facebook style viral marketing models, where the direct sale of virtual items makes up 30-40% of gross revenue.
It should be obvious by now their problems are deeper than just FF14.
Wada needs to go. He's been steering the company further into the direction of pissed off gamers. He doesn't "get it". This bastardizing of their top brand products into low quality crap is killing them. You can't just slap a theme onto generic crap put the final fantasy or dragon quest name on it and rake in millions. It does. not. work. And that's not even touching how he threatens his own staff and scares everyone in his company away from doing anything new. Everything about this guy screams wrong (and also, it screams jackass).
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By Lazyjin 2010-11-09 14:30:12
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"If it's not broken, don't fix it"
SE: if you are trying for +1 or +2 then you will have a big chance of failing.
lol karma is a *** :P
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 Fenrir.Schutz
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By Fenrir.Schutz 2010-11-09 14:39:54
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Pawnskipper said:
Wow. Such an anticipated game possibly being downgraded to the sims status. lol And let this be a lesson to all big business. You cant skimp on quality and expect people to over look for too long. Nice try though.

I sort of get what you are saying, but the SIMS brand is a bad example to use to indicate either a drop in sales or development attention or revenue. It's actually one of the top money-making cash cow segments of EA and represents a huge portion of EA's ongoing development resources.

As for FFXIV going to a cash-shop F2Play model, I will quit for sure when that happens. F2Play = no support for accounts or in-game issues, no attempts to change game-breaking bugs or abuse, and depending on the implementation of the cash-shop contents usually results in rife RMT presence and bot-farming.
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 Valefor.Slipispsycho
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By Valefor.Slipispsycho 2010-11-09 14:43:27
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Lakshmi.Jaerik said:


Oddly, later in the call, Wada mentioned interest in games with free-to-play models and direct item sales, pointing specifically to DragonQuest and Facebook style viral marketing models, where the direct sale of virtual items makes up 30-40% of gross revenue. It is unclear if he meant this could be a potential business model for XIV as well, touching off quite of bit of rampant speculation.

God, please no.
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By sinner 2010-11-09 14:47:42
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Well never fear! Call of Duty Black Ops is here. Not even 3 months into 14 and I'm eager to log off and play something else. What a shame.

 Ramuh.Vinvv
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By Ramuh.Vinvv 2010-11-09 15:28:44
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sinner said:
Well never fear! Call of Duty Black Ops is here. Not even 3 months into 14 and I'm eager to log off and play something else. What a shame.

same as all the other COD games.
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 Bismarck.Rellz
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By Bismarck.Rellz 2010-11-09 15:38:38
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\
Ramuh.Vinvv said:
sinner said:
Well never fear! Call of Duty Black Ops is here. Not even 3 months into 14 and I'm eager to log off and play something else. What a shame.

same as all the other COD games.
basically... black ops is a dissapointment IMO (this coming from someone who enjoys CODs alot) save ur money and stick with MW2
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By deadfire 2010-11-09 16:47:13
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Bismarck.Rellz said:
\
Ramuh.Vinvv said:
sinner said:
Well never fear! Call of Duty Black Ops is here. Not even 3 months into 14 and I'm eager to log off and play something else. What a shame.

same as all the other COD games.
basically... black ops is a dissapointment IMO (this coming from someone who enjoys CODs alot) save ur money and stick with MW2

When MW2 is even more terrible.
 Valefor.Slipispsycho
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By Valefor.Slipispsycho 2010-11-09 16:48:28
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deadfire said:
Bismarck.Rellz said:
\
Ramuh.Vinvv said:
sinner said:
Well never fear! Call of Duty Black Ops is here. Not even 3 months into 14 and I'm eager to log off and play something else. What a shame.

same as all the other COD games.
basically... black ops is a dissapointment IMO (this coming from someone who enjoys CODs alot) save ur money and stick with MW2

When MW2 is even more terrible.
World at War > the next three installments.
 Lakshmi.Jaerik
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By Lakshmi.Jaerik 2010-11-09 16:50:03
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As far as I know, Call of Duty is now on a Madden-style yearly production schedule.

Infinity Ward is mostly gone, having shattered into pieces and losing most of their talent after the huge Activision blow-up and mass resignations earlier this year.

Not sure who's now attempting to pick up the franchise pieces.
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 Sylph.Pwrlessgirl
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By Sylph.Pwrlessgirl 2010-11-09 17:40:26
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Well, I'm reluctantly supporting FF14 by staying loyal to it and paying the upcoming monthly fees, however....
If they do not put an Auction House and get rid of this retainer crap, there will be 2 less account for S.E. by January 2011.

I am hanging on to FF11 becuase theres' a 75% chance I will be back Full time into it.

to S.E.: Use what you learned from ff11, put an auctionhouse and save me the trouble searching through 100's of people for things I don't need, needless to say save me those two hours to go out and kill stuff.
If Steven Spielberg waited 10+ year for technology to advance enough to make a movie like Avatar, you can take another 5 years and come up with a good MMO that is fun to play, and not a second job.
 Seraph.Corrderio
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By Seraph.Corrderio 2010-11-09 19:44:03
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I seriously hope they don't consider XIV a F2P game being supported by micro transactions. After trying a few I have yet to find one that doesn't have some kind of catch to try and make you buy items unless you want to progress at a snail's pace.
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By Asura.Authority 2010-11-09 20:51:07
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Seraph.Corrderio said:
I seriously hope they don't consider XIV a F2P game being supported by micro transactions. After trying a few I have yet to find one that doesn't have some kind of catch to try and make you buy items unless you want to progress at a snail's pace.

See, that's the whole point. You end up spending more on optional stuff than you would have on the actual monthly fee.
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 Seraph.Corrderio
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By Seraph.Corrderio 2010-11-09 21:14:10
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Exactly, that's another reason I stay away from F2P. F2Ps seem to cost more a month than a standard P2P game.
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By Kujata.Akeda 2010-11-09 21:30:23
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Asura.Authority said:
Seraph.Corrderio said:
I seriously hope they don't consider XIV a F2P game being supported by micro transactions. After trying a few I have yet to find one that doesn't have some kind of catch to try and make you buy items unless you want to progress at a snail's pace.

See, that's the whole point. You end up spending more on optional stuff than you would have on the actual monthly fee.

I heard some people were paying $400 a month on the 'Cash shop' items for Atlantica Online O_o. What I find even more sad is that they had a poll once time asking people what they'd want most and like 80% of the people voted for 'Respect from GMs'.


As for XIV, did they only release XIV so they can put out good earnings numbers for their stock holders? This Wada guy should just swallow his stupid JP pride and actually listen to what the players want and not implement some silly 'vision' of what he thinks XIV should be.
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By Ragnarok.Corres 2010-11-09 22:03:07
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Valefor.Quickmart said:
Quote:
pointing specifically to DragonQuest and Facebook style viral marketing models, where the direct sale of virtual items makes up 30-40% of gross revenue.
It should be obvious by now their problems are deeper than just FF14.
Wada needs to go. He's been steering the company further into the direction of pissed off gamers. He doesn't "get it". This bastardizing of their top brand products into low quality crap is killing them. You can't just slap a theme onto generic crap put the final fantasy or dragon quest name on it and rake in millions. It does. not. work. And that's not even touching how he threatens his own staff and scares everyone in his company away from doing anything new. Everything about this guy screams wrong (and also, it screams jackass).
this. a whole *** line of cream-cocaine for this man.
Wada is an absolute *** who doesn't know ***. he must go. no question about it.
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 Caitsith.Jadi
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By Caitsith.Jadi 2010-11-10 08:18:29
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Sylph.Pwrlessgirl said:
If they do not put an Auction House and get rid of this retainer crap, there will be 2 less account for S.E. by January 2011.

Don't bet on it.. First thing is they are going to put in a search function to the market wards so that when you search for a item retainers with that item will have an icon above their head.

I kinda want an AH too but I wouldn't assume they will just nuke the retainer system to add them, they put a lot of work in it. The search feature will help immensely tho.

MH's + AH is prob better than Retainer + Market Wards.

Hopefully SE has buckled down and figured out this is VERY important for them to fix. I hope their dev's have a steady stream of pizza and soda flowing. We are with you skillful coders.. fix dis ***. ^^
 Titan.Eiryn
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By Titan.Eiryn 2010-11-10 09:29:15
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Sylph.Pwrlessgirl said:

If Steven Spielberg waited 10+ year for technology to advance enough to make a movie like Avatar, you can take another 5 years and come up with a good MMO that is fun to play, and not a second job.

*James Cameron

Spielberg is a sellout.
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By MiracleWorks 2010-11-10 14:33:11
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I'd be pretty shocked if we saw an AH before PS3 release, everything they're doing is to slow people down
from getting things done fast, right now at least anyway since there's no endgame content

yes they're adding search the wards, but it's something that should have come with it
I don't buy that they thought searching through 3 cities of retainers to get 1 you're looking for was going to be a good idea,
they want you to waste time, why? look at all the steps their taking
no airships yet
no chocobo yet
no AH yet
fatigue system
slow as hell anima regen
completely removing SP from cures rather than fixing the problem

the best part of it all, they're adding NM's before adding/fixing all these things, again ANOTHER time sink,
it's clear as crystal they don't want things to be fast paced (atleast right now anyway)
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 Valefor.Slipispsycho
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By Valefor.Slipispsycho 2010-11-10 14:43:37
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You're not going to get an AH, so just quit now if that's going to be the deal breaker..

They would not be putting as much effort into the retainer system as they are if they had even the slightest desire to add an AH, an AH would pretty much make the retainer system completely obsolete.

I for one am glad there is no AH.. I do multiple crafts, plus multiple DoW classes, the only time I've had any problem finding exactly what I need, was before the bazaar wanted/selling systems were added to this site and YG.. Between those systems and the handful of members still in our LS, I have exactly what I need within 10 mins or less (which isn't really all that much slower then walking to an AH and going to the item you want and putting in your bid).

I'm convinced those who claim it takes forever to find what you want are either being stubborn and refuse to let the system work, or just plain haven't used it and claim it's broken. System works fine for me.

And watch, the same people bitching about no AH, will be bitching about constant undercutters, low margins and the difficulty of making an honest buck if the AH system was to be implemented.

If they do add an AH system, I hope they put some ridiculous tax on it, like 30% paid by the BUYER, to encourage people to use the retainer system.
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By sefirot 2010-11-10 15:01:24
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Valefor.Slipispsycho said:
You're not going to get an AH, so just quit now if that's going to be the deal breaker.. They would not be putting as much effort into the retainer system as they are if they had even the slightest desire to add an AH, an AH would pretty much make the retainer system completely obsolete. I for one am glad there is no AH.. I do multiple crafts, plus multiple DoW classes, the only time I've had any problem finding exactly what I need, was before the bazaar wanted/selling systems were added to this site and YG.. Between those systems and the handful of members still in our LS, I have exactly what I need within 10 mins or less (which isn't really all that much slower then walking to an AH and going to the item you want and putting in your bid). I'm convinced those who claim it takes forever to find what you want are either being stubborn and refuse to let the system work, or just plain haven't used it and claim it's broken. System works fine for me. And watch, the same people bitching about no AH, will be bitching about constant undercutters, low margins and the difficulty of making an honest buck if the AH system was to be implemented. If they do add an AH system, I hope they put some ridiculous tax on it, like 30% paid by the BUYER, to encourage people to use the retainer system.

QFT! well said!
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By Unmei 2010-11-10 15:12:25
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Yeah the game is way better with no AH I've been playing since Oct 15th and have made over a mil already. A AH will destroy the markets system like 11's is.
 
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 Lakshmi.Aurilius
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By Lakshmi.Aurilius 2010-11-10 16:17:03
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If you consider it destroyed. I don't consider casual players having access to the same gear as hardcore players a bad thing. Only the hardcore that feel entitled to things because they play more feel this way.

I believe the term thrown around like ***at a monkey fight is elitist.
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