Square Enix has great games, but doesn't know how to sell them, according to Eidos Montreal founder Stephane D'Astous, who left the company on Friday.

The publisher "has some things to learn about how to sell their games," D'Astous told Polygon in a new interview.

"We are in a situation that we have great games that could have sold more," he said. "They need to attack that very, very seriously," he said. "Last year was supposed to be a home-run season, but we didn't hit a single home run; maybe a double or a triple, but they weren't home runs."

Source

Now with the issues that came about with Final Fantasy XIII, XIV and the ridiculously long wait that went into development of Versus XIII (now renamed XV) and Kingdom Hearts III, I can't help but think there's more to it than just not being able to sell their games. That said I can see it being a contributing factor. For a while now Square has relied on reputation alone to sell their games and while that's all well and good, reputation alone doesn't always guarantee success.

Thoughts?

Well I think many people would agree that once squaresoft merged with Enix it was all downhill from there, 
It was the terrible job they did with FF XIV and the wait for Versus 13 and KH3 that was the nail in the coffin.

Over the years I just sort of felt like the games deteriorated
They were exploring using different battle systems, which you cant blame them for, but most of the time they were not well received, yet they just made them worse, and farther away from what the fans said they wanted to see.
They were trying to make their games more action oriented and aimed at westerners, but
why? since I think FF XIII didn't do to well here?? is that right? (at least I know XIII-2 did not for sure)

another thing, if you will please excuse my rant

Growing up, I was a huge fan of kingdom hearts, I played KH1 when it first came out when I was 10 years old,
I have been waiting for KHIII since I was 14 years old (im 21 now)
they waited too long, and they lost me as a fan, I grew up and out of it
I just don't want the game as bad as I did 7 years ago..
not to mention I was not amused with the whole, you know, five side games for four different handhelds that they released, that weren't even good games. Getting a DS and a PSP and a GBA put me through hell because I/my family didnt have much money 
Im not buying KH3 at all,  out of spite

So there you go, Square Enix

I just think they made too many mistakes in marketing and of they dont start making some big changes they are really going to be hurting

Final Fantasy XIII sold well but was pretty much torn apart by critics and I can see why. Not that many interesting characters, more time seemed to have been infested in making the game pretty and only being able to control one character in your party during a turn-base battle system was a, "What were they thinking!?" moment. And that's not even getting into the leniency issues. I don't know how well XIII-2 did and I'm having a hard time figuring out why they're basically trying to make it the next Final Fantasy VII. They're already working on a third title for XIII.

Square certainly does have an issue with bad business, though. Back when they made the first Final Fantasy title in 1987 the company was on the verge of going bankrupt.

Like EndlessDaylight, I played KHI when I was 10 - 11 years old. I actually skipped Chain of Memories for the GBA since I didn't like the lack of controls I had with the GBA's D-Pad versus the PS2's control stick. Bought Re: Chain of Memories for the PS2, beat the game, but still really hated it because I hated the game system. I loved KH2 wasn't too much of a difference from KHI and this was about a year or two after KHI. 358/2 Days... what the (censor) was that?! I had so much trouble playing that game I gave up on it! Hated it! Loved Birth By Sleep!

But when KH 3D came out... I'm not going to by a flippin' 3DS since I don't really care for most of the games for that console. KHIII, I don't care anymore! I'm not going to buy a PS3 to play you! I might when I get the PS4 and you're available through their digital gaming!

As for Final Fantasy. I like a lot of the earlier ones. Got really frustrated over VIII though. But my favorite by far is FFX and FFX-2. Everything afterwards I never cared for the new battle systems. While the graphics were amazing and everything... It felt more of a hassle to play than I've ever experience especially XII. After trying XII, I just plain gave up on FF.

Sigh. It pains for me to write this but here goes.

You know, the more I think about it, the more I see Yoichi Wada's tenure as a downright trainwreck. I didn't even get FFXIII due to how if the non AI controlled character dies, it's game over. Even if two other party members are still alive. It works in Shin Megami Tensei but it doesn't work in FF at all.

I just feel Square was at their best when Hironobu Sakuguchi was the executive producer of Final Fantasy. The first two games were a work-in progress, like experiments. When FF3 was released in 1990, it really picked up with the advancements to the job system and the first one with summons.

The SNES "trilogy", FFIV-VI, was where I think it hit its pinnacle. Even then, the original FF4 hasn't really aged well at all, appearance wise. FF7 changed the way we looked at RPGs forever and FF8 brought in an interesting spell system and one of the best final boss themes in the series. FF9 returned to basics and had one of the most touching moments in the game.

Ironically, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy's former rival, is doing better than before the merger. Now if SE could localise DQ7 for the 3DS, it'd be great. I'm not paying $150-$200 for the PS1 original. >:C

The Kingdom Heart games sound like they're all over the place story wise. I only ever played the original one for the PS2, never looked into the others. Only games I'd get a PS3 for are Metal Gear Solid 4 and Infamous.

With Kingdom Hearts, I think story wise it's not all over the place. They're just really milking the storyline too much and having too big of a gap between the games to keep everyone really interested.

Because if you look at the Kingdom Hearts storyline in chronological order instead of game order of appearance, there are a lot of things much bigger than we originally anticipated from the original Kingdom Hearts game. Personally I find the story fascinating since they were giving us more and more of the story as we go on. But again since they take so long, most people would just read the story summary online instead of going through the hassle of getting the console for the game, the game, and playing the game.

So it's kind of like George Lucas with Star Wars. Set out to make one story and end up with nine.

Lol, that sounds about right, ToriJ.

I still adore Kingdom Hearts and I feel like they need some props for pulling off a successful Disney/Final Fantasy mix. I never would have thought that sort of mix could work anywhere else except for fan-fiction.

I love the gameplay and the storyline, but I absolutely will not sit around waiting for sequels when I feel as if I'll get nothing out of it. I can wait years and years for a Legend of Zelda game, because I know they use that time to make it kick-butt. Totally don't feel the same with KH. I never bought the side-stories 'cause I was like 'oh, the sequel will come out real soon and it'll explain the side-stories, then I can go back and really understand the side-stories when I go back and play them.' Then I waited... and waited... and waited. ('Cause there was only one side-story between KH1 and KH2. The wait after each game wasn't too long either.)

I fell in love with RPGs and Square Enix through Final Fantasy X. I would buy any Square Enix game just because of the creator, but I actually haven't liked any of the newer games past FFX. So, I don't really plan on ever buying any other Final Fantasy game.

Sailor Venus wrote:

Lol, that sounds about right, ToriJ.

I still adore Kingdom Hearts and I feel like they need some props for pulling off a successful Disney/Final Fantasy mix. I never would have thought that sort of mix could work anywhere else except for fan-fiction.

I love the gameplay and the storyline, but I absolutely will not sit around waiting for sequels when I feel as if I'll get nothing out of it. I can wait years and years for a Legend of Zelda game, because I know they use that time to make it kick-butt. Totally don't feel the same with KH. I never bought the side-stories 'cause I was like 'oh, the sequel will come out real soon and it'll explain the side-stories, then I can go back and really understand the side-stories when I go back and play them.' Then I waited... and waited... and waited. ('Cause there was only one side-story between KH1 and KH2. The wait after each game wasn't too long either.)

I fell in love with RPGs and Square Enix through Final Fantasy X. I would buy any Square Enix game just because of the creator, but I actually haven't liked any of the newer games past FFX. So, I don't really plan on ever buying any other Final Fantasy game.

Venus we agree about Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy in general~!

Seriously I think I would only by the remake of Final Fantasy X because the graphics will be better and last time I read anything about it it was going to be the International Version for everyone. So we can battle the Dark Aeons and other bonuses.

That was another thing that irked me about Square before and now that it's with Enix. The Final Mix games from Kingdom Hearts. There were a few things that only happened in Final Mix and that were shown in cut scenes through KH II and if I didn't want all the Final Mix cut scenes I would have been so confused on why that cut scene flashback happened and I know for a fact I never had that encounter while playing KHI.

Final Fantasy X is my favorite FF game of all time and I could go on and on about how much I adore it and why, but the game that properly introduced me to Square, Final Fantasy and RPGs in general, especially JRPGs was Final Fantasy VII. It was also the first RPG I ever beat.

The first game I played was FFX-2... oops xD

I absolutely love FFX and FFX-2. I've easily logged in over 200 hours on FFX and with FFX-2 I was determined to get 100% with one play through.

Once I started playing FFX I had to see it through to the end. Given my own upbringing I was really able to relate to Yuna as a character. I'm going to refrain from talking about X-2 right now since I plan on playing it later this week for my August 5th review.

Sweet! Can't wait to read your review!