Square Enix notes 'weak sales of big console titles' Tomb Raider, Hitman: Absolution
Square Enix announced a massive restructuring today, which included the dismissal of president Yoichi Wada, but we really hope the company takes a long look in the mirror about its sales projections. Buried within the briefing of the consolidated results forecast, the company had a slide expressing the "weak sales" of three of its games.
These allegedly anemic sales involve three games that will have sold millions of units by the end of the company's fiscal year on March 31. It seriously raises the question: how broken is Square Enix's business if Tomb Raider's expected 3.4 million units sold (not including digital distribution) is considered "weak?"
"Despite the high critical acclaim, [the games listed] failed to meet each target," the briefing notes. "In particular, North America sales force was ineffective, ending up with 2/3 of number of units sold in Europe."
Oddly – beyond this being a clear sign Square Enix North America is being thrown under the bus – this is the second time we've had to scratch our heads about Eidos/Square Enix sales projections. In 2009, the company was disappointed by the sales of Tomb Raider: Underworld, which launched in November and sold 1.5 million copies by the end of 2008. Soon after the publisher did a round of layoffs at Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics.
