Square Enix CEO says PS4 and Xbox One have given consumers ‘more confidence

Square Enix has numerous successful AAA titles such as Tomb Raider, Hitman: Absolution and many more, which give us the idea that they do know what the consumers want. A few years ago when we just have the Xbox 360 and the PS3 which was bottlenecking games due to its outdated hardware, a lot of people felt like it consoles was coming to an end.

Just before the releases of the “next gen consoles” at the time, Square Enix released a trio of games: Tomb Raider, Hitman: Absolution and Sleeping Dogs. While the latter held its own, especially for a new IP at the end of a console cycle, Tomb Raider and Hitman didn’t perform up to immediate expectations.

Even though Tomb Raider eventually sold over 8.5 million copies, but on the month of release, figures wasn’t that great, well what Square Enix had expected wasn’t close, and as Phil Rogers, Square Enix CEO of the Americas and Europe, pointed out, it was a different time in the industry. “We had big hope [for their success]. We work with big ambitions. But if we look back at the market it was in an interesting place,” Rogers told GI.

It was the point of the console cycle was ending and a time when consumers were not as engaged with the platforms as they are now whereas today and things are quite different. He went on to say that gamers today are more confident in the PS4 and Xbox One, and the games that are being released for them. “The market today is more confident. The new generation of machines have installed well, and I think consumers have more confidence.

“All of those games were successful in the end. What we learned – and it seems obvious when you look back – is that digital has grown for every business, It’s something that people underestimated until they could see the results, and see what digital actually offers,” Rogers said.

Rogers spoke about AAA games and the types of financial support companies like Square Enix are putting into them.

“Big games have big expectations. We know that the investments that we’re making are large, and it’s a job to manage that well. But we’ve learned from that experience, over the lifetime of a product, is that things can work out well,” Rogers said.