The studio behind Forspoken, Luminous Productions, will be closing shortly. The staff will be absorbed by parent firm Square Enix and sent to other projects. The publisher established the company, which comprised Final Fantasy XV creators, in 2018 to build on new brands, although Forspoken was its sole title as a solo studio.
In a statement, Luminous said that its staff would return under Square Enix’s direct control on May 1st. Meanwhile, the devs will continue to work on an update to fix Forspoken’s performance difficulties, as well as an expansion set to release this summer.
“When we founded Luminous Productions in 2018, our ambition was to create AAA games that blended technology and creativity to give totally new play experiences,” the company said on Twitter. “Getting the opportunity to do so has been a dream come true.”
Square Enix said in a statement that it is integrating the Luminous team as “part of the company’s efforts to further improve the competitive capability of the group’s development studios, a target outlined under its current medium-term business plan.” It went on to say that Luminous is “not just with AAA title production capability, but also with technological competence in areas such as gaming engine development. The combination of the two organisations will improve the Group’s capabilities to generate HD games.”
This is not the first time Square Enix has acted swiftly against its studios when projects fail to meet expectations. It sold three Western studios — Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, and Square Enix Montréal — as well as properties such as Tomb Raider and Deus Ex to Embracer Group last year for a comparatively low $300 million. The change happened after Marvel’s Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy (which did not sell well despite positive reviews) did not perform as well as Square Enix had intended.
Forspoken is one of the year’s most anticipated games. Nonetheless, Square Enix published it in January to lukewarm reviews. It’s unclear how well the game has done commercially.
According to Steam statistics, Hi-Fi Rush, a game announced and launched on the same day by Ghostwire: Tokyo studio Tango Gameworks, surpassed Forspoken in its first week on the site. This is despite the fact that Hi-Fi Rush is accessible on Game Pass for $30, as opposed to the $70 that Square Enix charged for Forspoken. To be fair, the data only includes sales from the same week on Steam, not preorders or purchases through Steam key vendors.
That’s not a good look for Luminous or Forspoken in any scenario. Square Enix acquiring the company is terrible news for Forspoken fans looking for a sequel. Meanwhile, Luminous created Final Fantasy XV and Forspoken using a proprietary engine. It’s also unclear what the Luminous Engine’s future holds following the merger. Whatever happens, let’s hope the Luminous team isn’t trapped working on Square Enix’s NFT rubbish.
