Avengers Accused of Being the Ringleader of Square Enix's IDR 877 Billion Losses

GAMEFINITY.ID, Jakarta – Square Enix’s HD Games division in its last quarter report reported a loss of USD 62 million or around Rp. 877 billion. This is allegedly because their flagship game, which was released last September, Marvel’s Avengers failed to meet revenue expectations despite having spent a lot of money. While Square Enix didn’t specify actual sales figures for Avengers, the company’s overall revenue figures show that the game failed to live up to expectations.

In its most recent report for the three months ended September 30, the Japanese publisher reported net sales of 23.7 billion yen, down 30 percent from the previous quarter’s 34.1 billion yen, when Final Fantasy VII Remake was released. Operating income took a bigger hit than the previous quarter, dropping from a profit of 12.5 billion yen to a loss of 6.5 billion yen (about USD 62 million).

Quoted by GAMEFINITY.ID from Video Game Chronicles, according to Japan-based analyst David Gibson, these figures show that Square Enix spent almost USD 190 million to produce and market Avengers. Unfortunately this game only sold about 3 million units.

“It looks like the total cost of the game is close to $170 million – $190 million considering they spent 70 percent of the cost in (quarter) plus marketing costs. Square is adamant they can make a recovery.”

If totaled from the previous quarter, Square Enix’s revenue in the last six months (first semester of 2021) rose 43 percent year on year (yoy) to 172 billion yen (USD 1.67 billion) and profit rose 46 percent to 16 billion yen ( USD 155 million). This increase was driven by the income of Final Fantasy VII Remake, as well as games for mobile devices and PC.

When it launched in the United States last September, Avengers had a strong start. However, in October it was reported that the issue with Avengers’ player count was decreasing, with the PC version dropping below 1,000 concurrent players. Even on consoles, finding other players to join has reportedly become more difficult since the game launched in September.

Developer Crystal Dynamics later said it believes players will return to Marvel’s Avengers as they plan to release post-release content and fixes for the superhero game. In a statement published last month, Crystal Dynamics studio head Scott Amos said the developer listened to feedback and suggestions from its playerbase, and was optimistic the number of players would grow.

Amos lists a number of features he plans to add to Avengers, including new missions, a new Outpost, and new characters including Kate Bishop and Clint Barton. However, the release of the DLC characters, as well as later versions of the game, was delayed by the developers, after they focused on improving the base game first.

“The launch of Marvel’s Avengers was not without turbulence, and we recognize that a number of issues are reducing your enjoyment of the game. This is not in line with Crystal Dynamics’ value of expertise, and for that we sincerely apologize.”
“Over the past few weeks, our teams around the world have been working on bug fixes and tuning key game systems guided in part by your feedback. Since launch, we’ve been releasing quick updates to address these bugs, improve game stability, and improve our matchmaking system. While our work is never finished, these fixes and additions have improved the overall player experience. ”