Earlier today, Square Enix announced that company president Yoichi Wada is stepping down from his position, alongside a report that the publisher is expecting significant losses due to sluggish Western sales and arcade performance.
In a report that discusses these losses, Square Enix share the titles of the games that fell short of expectations: Tomb Raider, Sleeping Dogs and Hitman Absolution. Despite strong sales, all three games have failed to sell as well as Square Enix hoped they would.
Sleeping Dogs, which launched in August 2012, has moved 1.75 million copies to date. Hitman Absolution, which followed in November, has sold 3.6 million copies to date. And finally, Tomb Raider, released earlier this month, has already moved 3.4 million copies. The aforementioned figures don’t take digital sales into account either.
Despite the high critical acclaim, these games have failed to meet their targets, Square say. In particular, sales in North America were weak, ending up at two-thirds the amount sold in Europe. Additionally, price pressure was strong, which forced Square to spend additional costs on price protection.
