Unexpectedly slow sales of games including Sleeping Dogs drove publisher Square Enix to forecast a loss of nearly $70 million, according to the company.
On Tuesday, the publisher revised its profit forecasts for the six months ending September 30. Initially the company expected to break even for the period, but now it's projecting a 5.4 billion yen loss, or $67.8 million.
Sleeping Dogs, released on August 14, is an open-world action-adventure that was rescued by the publisher after being canceled by rival Activision (where it was set to be the third title in its True Crime franchise).
The game sold under 300,000 units in the United States in its debut month before quietly dropping off of the top 10 charts in September (exact sales numbers are not available). It was a hit in the UK, where it debuted at number one in its weekly charts, but apparently this wasn't enough to meet Square Enix's projections for the game.
Sleeping Dogs isn't entirely to blame: the company also says that sales of its arcade games in Japan from subsidiary Taito have been "sluggish," and that it was forced to delay the launch of its social games service.
Japan's Square Enix is also the owner of former video game publisher Eidos Interactive. Major upcoming releases include November's Hitman: Absolution and 2013's Tomb Raider.
Subtitles would surely be enough, no need for a dubbed version, but aside, I am sure, it won't make a profit close to the losses of S/E. On the other hand, it would be nice to see this game come to the west.
@Simon: Probably you're right, the game is huge and is such a shame, I wouldn't mind if they translated the text and left the japanese voices (never been a fan of dubbed games anyway), corpse party did it so why not squareenix u_u' plus if they release it on the store people on the vita can play it as well
I read from Kotaku some months ago about the reason why localized games need to be dubbed. A girl from XSeed wrote that it's a necessarily to dub the game, otherwise, some game store will not put them on the shelves. Corpse Party was a very niche game in very niche genre. The game doesn't need to appeal mass market, so, having no shelve space wasn't affected the sale that much. This problem might not be the case in the future when most of the games will be sold exclusively on digital stores.
"The game doesn't need to appeal mass market, so, having no shelve space wasn't affected the sale that much. "
At least here in germany, PSP games don't get much shelve space anyway, stocking every releases of the last 6 months isn't taking up exactly much space, when it comes to the PSP ;)
This is a bit of a bummer/shocker. Considering (IMHO) the fresh take on sandbox action/adventure that game provided, the fun and campy experience, strong VO cast and its release in August...I expected much better sales. The console game space is a very, scary place these days. If gamers won't support an original IP in a slow release month...what will they support? Props to Square on taking this chance. Sad there won't be a sequel.
Calling Sleeping Dogs a new IP is a bit of a stretch. The game was announced in 2009 as "True Crime: Hong Kong" (which would have made it the third game in the series), but after SquareEnix acquired the publishing rights, the title was changed since SquareEnix didn't have the rights to True Crime. Like Dark Souls, it's a new IP only in the technical sense for legal reasons.
I think, I do speak business lingo, but would question the logic behind: "slow sales ... cost over $67M" - "slow sales of games including Sleeping Dogs may have cost publisher Square Enix [money]"
The predictions were off. They missed their estimates.
Projecting an estimate (win or loss) and "costing" money are two different things?
It only "costs" you money, when you are actively losing money - not when you are not making ENOUGH money?
(Or is my English that much off? It was the 5th language I had to learn, so I am really asking.)
"Cost" wasn't the clearest there. "Loss" (as in profit vs. loss) is probably the better word, so we updated it for clarity. Also, with these forecast revisions, you can typically expect them to be accurate, even though they're technically still "estimates."
It's hard to say if they are wining or losing money as we don't know what was the total budget. According to vgchartz, it sold a million without taking into account the steam sales. I presume they were making a sales estimate of 2 million.
On the other hand, the sales were somehow predictable. It's very hard to rock the house with a new IP when the catalog is full of big name franchise. Few games manage to do that but they are exceptional.
Say what you will, but stuff like this is why Bobby Kotick will be around for a while. Gamers were hemming and hawing up a storm because he said this game would tank and he got rid of it. Someone else picks up and, surprise surprise, the game tanks.
Call of Duty, Blizzard, and Skylanders making billions. Activision is carefully avoiding clunkers that rival companies don't have the good sense to avoid. He's going to be running things for a while.
This is to be expecte. Like every new IP it's going to sell less than expected. If you take a look at completly new franchises or reboots of older games then you can easily see that the sales aren't superb. It's a verry known fact that new games will only appeal to the core gamer and eventually spread by word to their friends. So when the next game comes out their friends will buy it and sales will increase.
Personally i think Activision did the wrong thing and not keeping this game. It's a great game and it brings some freschnes to the currently stale AAA market.
The only reason their game isn't selling is because it is waaayyy overpriced for what it is. Square Enix have mad e alot of good games before but to expect gamers to pay £29.99 for a game which wasn't highly acclaimed compared to other things on the steam site in any case (Borderlands 2 , the Killing Floor Hillbilly Hell event , Counter Strike Global Offensive etc) they didn't stand a chance. If there is no push for a promotion during a games initiation , they rarely get much recognition unless they are a big franchise game (COD is the big example there). If this game had left the £30 range and entered the £15 - £20 range , the uptake would be far greater , but for a game which is just not known about and looks way too much like True Crime (because it IS true crime) , a nearly 10 year old franchise , its an absurd amount of money.
Give us another Just Cause with a new Rodriguez and I will buy it though!
Interesting note is that Just Cause 2 was recently featured in the steam sale son the front page no less!
I agree, played it for an hour or so, the constant use of foul language turned me off since minute one, I didn't found it extremely mature, to listen to conversations about how good or bad the dead sister of the protagonist was at giving blow jobs. Of course these words came from a guy who dated the sister of the hero, because female characters able to express sexual desires didn't exist in the game.
It's not, that I think sex should not be part of a video game, it's more that Sleeping Dogs had no Sex, but only has pubertar talk about it, talk that made my brain hurt.
A short while later, I was finally put off, when during a fight, I was able to smash the face of my oponent into the spinning ventilator of an AC and leave him with a totally smashed face on the floor.
I am fed up with games, that portray Sex only in pubertar words and in a totally bad light and were the only interaction between human beings is beating each other up and leave the opponent bleeding to death on the floor, after you shaved the skin of his face.
Oh for the love of the Video Gaming Gods, just re-make Final Fantasy 7. Does SE not like money? Are they dumb? I don't care if it is retreading old ground. They want cash? Give us a remake of FF7 made in the newest FF game engine for the next PlayStation and X-Box. This will make them tons of cash. It should have happened for this gen of consoles but the next one is good enough.
Having said that, I think I remember SQE once stating during an interview (I think it was on Kotaku?) that a release of an FF7 remake would essentially mean that the FF series is finished, so it could only be done once they feel that they no longer have any new ground to tread.
If those "hardcore" fans are anything like me, then they will purchase the game no matter what. The original holds a special place in my heart.
For people to reject it, the previews, interviews, and demos would have to be absolutely horrible. Otherwise, the brand is strong enough to carry itself. I'm not saying its the perfect game, because its not, it's full of flaws. It would break even, in the very least.
This story annoys me. It's as if gamasutra have just gone to vgchartz and blamed sleeping dogs for squares losses this quarter. If they had contacted square the would have found out that sleeping dogs sold beyond their expectations. Vgchartz does not represent actual sales numbers correctly and doesn't record steam sales either. Next time gamasutra, before you go blaming a game and giving it bad press get your facts straight.
I am still looking for the vgchartz numbers in the article, but I can't find them, what I can find with the help of google is the S/E press release from 30 october 2012, here it says "In addition, sales of a major HD game title have been growing at a slower pace than expected."
I am sure, as somebody who has access to internal S/E data (otherwise you wouldn't know, that Sleeping Dogs has sold beyond their expectations), it's an easy task for you to help us readers and the author getting the "facts straight" by telling us, which other major HD title from S/E had been growing at a slower pace then expected.
This game was absolutely awesome, I enjoyed it far more than any GTA.
A lot of people didn't know about this game, I think that's a problem with their marketing department.
At least here in germany, PSP games don't get much shelve space anyway, stocking every releases of the last 6 months isn't taking up exactly much space, when it comes to the PSP ;)
The predictions were off. They missed their estimates.
Projecting an estimate (win or loss) and "costing" money are two different things?
It only "costs" you money, when you are actively losing money - not when you are not making ENOUGH money?
(Or is my English that much off? It was the 5th language I had to learn, so I am really asking.)
On the other hand, the sales were somehow predictable. It's very hard to rock the house with a new IP when the catalog is full of big name franchise. Few games manage to do that but they are exceptional.
Call of Duty, Blizzard, and Skylanders making billions. Activision is carefully avoiding clunkers that rival companies don't have the good sense to avoid. He's going to be running things for a while.
Personally i think Activision did the wrong thing and not keeping this game. It's a great game and it brings some freschnes to the currently stale AAA market.
Give us another Just Cause with a new Rodriguez and I will buy it though!
Interesting note is that Just Cause 2 was recently featured in the steam sale son the front page no less!
so no i think it's likely because it's another bloody gta clone
It's not, that I think sex should not be part of a video game, it's more that Sleeping Dogs had no Sex, but only has pubertar talk about it, talk that made my brain hurt.
A short while later, I was finally put off, when during a fight, I was able to smash the face of my oponent into the spinning ventilator of an AC and leave him with a totally smashed face on the floor.
I am fed up with games, that portray Sex only in pubertar words and in a totally bad light and were the only interaction between human beings is beating each other up and leave the opponent bleeding to death on the floor, after you shaved the skin of his face.
Having said that, I think I remember SQE once stating during an interview (I think it was on Kotaku?) that a release of an FF7 remake would essentially mean that the FF series is finished, so it could only be done once they feel that they no longer have any new ground to tread.
For people to reject it, the previews, interviews, and demos would have to be absolutely horrible. Otherwise, the brand is strong enough to carry itself. I'm not saying its the perfect game, because its not, it's full of flaws. It would break even, in the very least.
I can see this happening.
I am sure, as somebody who has access to internal S/E data (otherwise you wouldn't know, that Sleeping Dogs has sold beyond their expectations), it's an easy task for you to help us readers and the author getting the "facts straight" by telling us, which other major HD title from S/E had been growing at a slower pace then expected.
A lot of people didn't know about this game, I think that's a problem with their marketing department.
But GTA V has some big shoes to fill.