Square Enix’s Live Service Disasters Have Been Years in The Making
Square-Enix certainly has a storied history- with one last hurrah saving them from bankruptcy in 1987 after a slew of failures. This ‘hurrah’ was, of course, Final Fantasy. Since then, there have been 15 main series games and countless (I mean COUNTLESS) spin-offs. You would think, then, that the business would continue to make single-player cash cows. While this is somewhat true- with the continuation of the Dragon Quest series now having 10 main entries- there have been not-so-recent rumblings of a more sinister type of game.
Live service. This is a term that many gamers have grown to despise over the last few years. But what does it actually mean? Essentially, a live service game is one where there is a series of updates after launch that are designed to keep players coming back. Although these updates are free, there is one key issue that results from this genre: releasing unfinished games. One recent example of this is Anthem in early 2019- which launched as a buggy, disastrous mess. It also fell well short of expectations- selling only 3 million copies. Ironically enough, development ceased in early 2021- just over a year after release. There was one simple reason for this: nobody was playing anymore. People aren’t willing to wait around for an unfinished game to be given updates and patches- especially when it isn’t free to play. Thus, this lead to Anthem’s player base dropping off drastically. Its safe to say that EA has had doubts after this failure (especially since they u-turned ‘Dragon Age 4’ to no longer have live service elements).
That brings us to Square-Enix and their recent foreys into live-action madness. The first big flop was their published ‘Marvel’s Avengers’ in early 2020. Not only did the game receive very poor reviews (averaging a 4.9 user score on metacritic), many heralded it as the beacon for why live-service games will never sell well. When you release a fully priced videogame that isn’t technically finished yet, it leaves many to question what the point is. As players dropped off the game because the content wasn’t coming quick enough, the revenue that Square received was falling rapidly. Although not completely dead, ‘The Avengers’ is certainly preparing its funeral. So, after this less-than-positive reception, what did Square do next? They made more live-services of course.
Although two vastly different games, the recent ‘Babylon’s Fall’ and ‘Chocobo GP’ deserve to be lumped together because of their similar quality and disrespect to the customer. It is important to keep in mind that these are both fully priced videogames- at £50 each. This makes it all the more baffling that they have features locked behind paywalls. This is especially egregious when discussing ‘Chocobo GP’, with fan favourite characters (such as Cloud and Squall) requiring the purchase of a battle pass (essentially a pass that grants the player rewards as they play over a given amount of time) on top of the purchase of the game. This, along with two separate currencies, has led to a complete mess of a game that has turned a potentially cute rival to Mario Kart into a testament to the greed of Square-Enix.
They have both vastly underperformed already, with Babylon’s Fall even being dubbed as ‘Babylon’s Fail’ by the community. On Steam Charts, we can see that there was an all-time peak of 1,166 players at one time. You may argue that being a single-player game, it is unlikely that Babylon’s Fall would receive high numbers of concurrent players- although this assertion is quickly dashed. Elden Ring (another recent single-player game released by FromSoftware) achieved a concurrent player base of over 900,000 at one time- as seen here). When you’re being beat by 750:1, perhaps its time to throw in the hat.
Not only have these been commercial failures- but critical ones too. Chocobo GP has received a surprisingly high 65 from critics while being hit with a 1.9 from users. Similarly, Babylon’s Fall received a 2.0 from users with a 40 from critics. These scores are not only indicative of the quality of the game, but the outrage that the community has towards these lazy live-service flops being put out time and time again, without care for the consumers who are actually buying them.
It seems then, that history may be repeating itself. Of course, it is very unlikely that the £5 billion+ conglomerate will go out of business any time soon- but what is troubling is their recent track record. If the move to narrative-focused masterpieces is what brought them from the brink of bankruptcy, then maybe a similar sort of game will bring them back from mediocrity in the modern age.
Square-Enix needs to put the brakes on their recent live service efforts and focus on what they do best: single-player experiences. Perhaps history will repeat itself 35 years later, and the 2022-slated Final Fantasy XVI will be the saving grace of this company- bringing it back from live service disaster. This is an especially potent ideal when considering the recent critical success of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy and the promising ‘Forspoken’ coming in October- both purely single-player experiences. However, it is unlikely that Square will want out of the live service industry so quickly. As disappointing as it is, it seems ‘Babylon's Fall’ may just be the beginning.
Sources:
https://www.denofgeek.com/games/biggest-video-game-companies-worth-value-market-cap-stock/#:~:text=Square%20Enix%3A%20%245.9%20Billion%20Market%20Cap
https://www.trustedreviews.com/news/what-is-a-live-service-game-4148217
https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/320272-bioware-axes-anthem-overhaul-will-keep-game-running-in-current-state#:~:text=Estimates%20have%20ranged%20from%203,Anthem%20around%20isn't%20crazy.
https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/dragon-age-4-will-reportedly-ditch-live-service-features-and-be-singleplayer-only/
https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/marvels-avengers
https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-5/babylons-fall
https://www.metacritic.com/game/switch/chocobo-gp
