Square Enix says Guardians of The Galaxy Underperformed

Square Enix has released their 3Q FY2022/3 Financial Results Briefing and has revealed that the critically acclaimed Marvel’s Guardians of The Galaxy has not performed according to their expectations.

According to the report, Marvel’s Guardians of The Galaxy had also initially “undershot” Square Enix’s initial expectations despite positive reviews however they do admit that the game has seen better sales growth since its release and into 2022.

In the same report, Square Enix also said in the Q&A section, that their mobile division has also underperformed and that to rectify this, they will be stepping up their internal mobile development efforts.

The company has been primarily outsourcing their mobile titles and while they have released several new mobile games in the last year, they state that the majority of them have not met expectations. They did not mention any game in particular.

With all this being said, Square still has plans to continue releasing mobile games despite these setbacks, including releasing new titles late this year in the fourth quarter. Even with the sales underperforming, the net sales of their mobile games have actually risen in January of 2022 due to a change in accounting policies.

Square Enix in general has a bit of a reputation for being a publisher with incredibly, perhaps unrealistically, high standards. In 2013, Square also stated that the Tomb Raider Reboot by Crystal Dynamics also underperformed despite the game selling over 3.4 million copies worldwide in a month. It seems if a game is not doing Final Fantasy VII numbers, Square Enix becomes concerned it’s not doing enough.

Marvel’s Guardian of The Galaxy is available for PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC. Check out our interview with the game’s creative director Jean-François Dugas from Eidos Montreal.