Forspoken

January 24, 2023

Platforms

PC (Microsoft Windows) PlayStation 5

Companies

Luminous Productions Square Enix

Genres

Adventure Role-playing (RPG)

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On February 3, 2023, 9 days after Forspoken's release, Square Enix released the outline of the Results Briefing held on that day, which showed some insight on the publisher's takeaways concerning its recent game releases.

While the briefing primarily focused on the financial results of numerous underperforming "small and mid-sized titles" that released in the quarter of October-December 2022 to try and fill the gap for declining net sales in the "HD Games sub-segment", the company decided to make a comment on the sales and reception for Forspoken. On page 6 of the outline, Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda stated the following:

"Reviews of “FORSPOKEN,” which we released on January 24, 2023, have been challenging. However, the game has also received positive feedback on its action features, including its parkour and combat capabilities, so it has yielded results that will lead to improvement of our development capabilities of other games in the future. That said, its sales have been lackluster, and while the performance of new titles with February and March release dates will be the ultimate determinant, we see considerable downside risk to our FY2023/3 earnings."

The effects of the game's negative reception would come to fruition on February 28, when Square Enix announced that its developer, Luminous Productions, would be absorbed back into Square Enix on May 1 to "further bolster the competitive prowess of the Group's development studios". Despite Forspoken's failure, Luminous Productions said that they would remain committed to the game in the meantime, releasing patch updates and working on the game's upcoming DLC "In Tanta We Trust", which would later release on May 26, after the studio's closure.

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