Canceled game projects are always disappointing, especially if they’re mid-development, since it means all of the work that was done ended up being a waste of time. Tose, a co-development studio for Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion and other games, suffered plenty of losses due to these canned titles.
According to the company’s Q3 earnings report (via Automaton), Tose suffered a major decline in profit this year, due to the aforementioned canceled projects. While this isn’t the end for the company, it’s not looking good right now and it seems like they’ll need to work on more games to make up for this.
The projects canceled weren’t mentioned, though it was speculated that Square Enix of Final Fantasy fame may have been responsible for them. Square confirmed that they canceled a number of projects that they didn’t see as beneficial, which is why they’ve also dropped the limited-time PlayStation exclusivity.
If true, it’s a shame to see Tose suffer from this since they’re very good at co-developing games and delivering great products. We already mentioned the Crisis Core remaster, which ran well on every system it came out on, including the Nintendo Switch. They also helped Nintendo with Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, which we gave a high 9 out of 10.
Since they’ve regularly teamed up with Square Enix, we wouldn’t be surprised if they teamed up for more RPGs in the future. The company has been really good at re-releasing games recently and that trend can continue with Tose’s help. Considering how Square Enix has also suffered from some losses, we imagine that they could use these co-developers for more projects.
Final Fantasy’s future seems to be in multi-system releases and that’s a very good thing. Square Enix has already confirmed that a PC version of Final Fantasy XVI is in the works. We also imagine that the third and final entry in the FF7 Remake trilogy will be multi-plat from the start.