Square Enix admits Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Final Fantasy 16 profits "did not meet expectations"

Square Enix has admitted that profits of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and Final Fantasy 16 "did not meet expectations".

The comment comes from its financial results briefing held in May and finally made public today.

Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu shared the results, stating: "In the HD Games sub-segment, we released multiple new titles, including major titles such as Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, but profits unfortunately did not meet our expectations."

Further, he stated initial sales of Foamstars and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth - released in Q4 of the last financial year - were "not as strong as expected".

It's important to note these comments were made in May, at the same time Square Enix announced it was "aggressively pursuing" a multiplatform strategy. Shortly after, reports it laid off a number of employees in its US and European offices emerged.

At this point in time, Final Fantasy 16 had been out for a year and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth less than three months.

Still, there has been much speculation around the sales of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and its reported underperformance according to industry analysts.

Sales tracking from Circana previously stated Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is the fourth top-selling game in the US, but remains far behind sales of previous entry Final Fantasy 7 Remake.

The release of Kiryu's statement today, then, is the first official acknowledgement of the game's sales. Still, it's unclear by how much the game "underperformed" and Square Enix is notorious for its high expectations.

Much has also happened since this financial report. Firstly, Final Fantasy 14 expansion Dawntrail was released in July, which will likely have had a positive impact on overall company profits. We'll find out in the next financial briefing.

Secondly, Final Fantasy 16 was released yesterday on PC, continuing the company's push towards multiplatform releases.

And while Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth remains a PS5 console-exclusive for now, it's likely it will follow Final Fantasy 7 Remake with a PC release in future.

Could these games also come to Xbox? Final Fantasy 14 producer and director Naoki Yoshida told Eurogamer the company would like to "further deepen the relationship with Xbox gamers" following the release of the MMORPG on Microsoft's console.