Square Enix: Tomb Raider Missed Sales Targets, President Yoichi Wada To Step Down

Tomb Raider 'Missed Sales Targets'
|

The reboot of iconic video game Tomb Raider has apparently missed its sales targets - despite shifting more than 3.4 million copies in three weeks.

In our review of the game we gave the new Tomb Raider five stars - and generally it was regarded as an excellent reboot.

But the combination of huge production and marketing budgets with a lack of next-gen hardware appears to have made the sums harder to balance for Square Enix and other big publishers of so-called AAA titles.

Square Enix said that all of its big titles, including Tomb Raider, Hitman: Absolution (3.6m units) and Sleeping Dogs (1.75m) had fallen short of expectations.

The company said it expects "extraordinary losses" in the financial year, equating to a fall of about $143.2 million, and said president Yoichi Wada will step down.

Wada will be replaced by Yosuke Matsuda in the interim, according to MCV.

The company now faces grim results, "a management reorganisation" and a nervous wait for next-generation consoles to reach the market at the end of the year.

Square Enix said that sales in Europe were relatively strong compared to its "ineffective" North America sales force, who shifted just two-thirds of the European numbers.