Toppenspel som Sleeping Dogs, Hitman: Absolution och Tomb Raider kan man tro var rena guldgruvan för Square Enix, men så är inte fallet. Hela trion sålde mindre än förväntat, visade det sig när Square Enix gjorde bokslut för budgetåret 2013 (som tog slut den 31 mars), och Yosuke Matsuda, senior executive managing director hos företaget, hade lite att säga om saken:
"I believe that this situation is not a one-time event for the fiscal year ended March 2013, but is a structural issue within the packaged product sales model. As a result, I believe it is difficult to guarantee an appropriate return on our investments within the revenue model of purely packaged software"
En av lösningarna som Matsuda ser är att utgivarna går ifrån det nuvarande sättet att arbeta, där spelprojekt ofta utvecklas i flera år i skymundan.
"Poor asset turnover means that we have little contact with customers during several years of development of a game title. In a model where a game is developed without customers knowing what it's like for many years, the product is presented to customers only after it has been finished, and all investment is recovered at one time, customers are forced to wait for too long, and opportunities for profit are passed up."