Just Cause 4 didn’t meet Square Enix expectations

Just Cause 4, which is the last game of the Just Cause series was released December 2018 with very high expectations. Square Enix was very aggressive at marketing the new game. But today, it seems Square Enix not happy at all because of the sales of Just Cause 4. The game is sold much fewer units than Square Enix has expected. So, Square Enix made a statement about the financial report of the company. 

Just Cause 4 did not sell enough

Square Enix stated:

“Our 3Q plan was premised on the HD Games sub-segment offsetting sluggishness in the Games for Smart Devices/PC Browsers sub-segment, but results were disappointing as we sold fewer copies of the HD game “JUST CAUSE 4” on launch than we had expected. Both net sales and operating income declined YoY at the Digital Entertainment segment. 3Q at the HD Games sub-segment was marked by growth in the holiday season of digital sales, especially of “SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER,” and by the launch of “DRAGON QUEST BUILDERS 2.” Meanwhile, while we released “JUST CAUSE 4,” we sold fewer units on launch than we had anticipated and were therefore unable to offset charges such as the amortization of development costs.

We think the main reason is that we were unable to provide an experience that was novel enough that players would choose to buy them before any of the other numerous major titles on the competitive landscape. Also, while it is true that we are seeing a shift away from sales of boxes to digital downloads, with this many titles competing with one another, initial sales are definitely an important element in increasing user awareness. For that reason, we do need to engage in a certain amount of advertising just ahead of a new title’s launch.”

We think the main reason for Just Cause 4 failure is the game is lacking quality in both visual and story aspects. Developers at Avalanche Studios also wasn’t able to fix the issues with the game after release. The people who bought the game is still waiting for patches to fix issues like low performance, bad water effects, and low-quality textures.