Following the release of Final Fantasy 16, the market value of Square Enix has decreased by approximately $2 billion

The shares of a Japanese publisher reached their highest point this year in the days leading up to the release of Final Fantasy 16 in June. However, on Wednesday, they closed at their lowest level since May 2022.

The decline in shares occurred after reports that the sales of the game for PS5 did not meet the company's expectations.

Furthermore, this is also related to the disappointing results of other major releases, such as the failure of Marvel's Avengers in 2020, the servicing of which will end this month, and Forspoken, the debut game from Square Enix's Luminous Productions studio, which reportedly faced "unsatisfactory" sales.

In an analysis of the recent events at Square Enix published in Bloomberg, anonymous employees and contractors claim that the company is facing issues in the game development structure and quality control, while analysts express concerns about its long-term prospects.

"Saturating the market with unfinished, poorly tested, or unsuccessful games is a bad decision," said Tokyo-based developer and gamer Michael Prefontaine, referring to Marvel's Avengers, Forspoken, and The DioField Chronicle. "The company overestimated its capabilities by releasing too many projects without proper control."

Current and former Square Enix employees also argue that one of the reasons for these problems is the company's decision to give individual producers too much control over the scale and direction of projects. They also believe that games suffer from insufficient documentation and team organization.

"We remain concerned about the game development structure and quality control within the company, which could impact long-term performance," said analyst Ijia Zhai of Macquarie Capital Securities Japan.