Two weeks ago, we learned that Tomb Raider had sold 3.4 million retail copies – a not insignificant result for you or I, maybe, but for Square Enix? A profound financial disappointment. Now the publisher has revealed that its targets for the Crystal Dynamics game in EU, US and Japanese markets combined were at least another one-and-a-half million higher than that.
Former Square Enix president Yoichi Wada told Siliconera: “Game quality and Metacritic scores led us to believe that Hitman had potential to sell 4.5~5 million units and 5~6 million units for Tomb Raider in EUR/NA and Japanese markets combined.
“Of course, we want to hedge risk in budgeting these units directly into the forecast, therefore we base the forecast on 80-90% of the total sales potential of each title. However, it is disappointing that our results fell below these marks.”
In its financial report to shareholders a fortnight ago, Squeenix cited an “ineffective” North American sales team as one key reason for the “extraordinary loss” the company has suffered over the last financial year.
It’d certainly be a kind of madness to point the finger at Tomb Raider itself: a wonderful game which has barely left the lips of players since its launch. Would you agree?