According to the Japanese site gamebiz, which regularly publishes the financial statements of the main players in the market, the studio’s turnover would have fallen by 42.9% for the whole of the year, from more than 2 billion yen to 1.25 billion yen (about 8.72 million euros). As a result, the operating profit recorded in the previous year (241 million yen, or 1.68 million euros) turned into losses of 625 million yen (4.36 million euros). , while the net profit fell from 171 million yen to a deficit of 684 million yen (4.77 million euros). The company would even have become insolvent, adds gamebiz.
In the commentary that accompanies the announcement of the results, tri-Ace explains that it suffered the backlash of the cancellation and discontinuation of certain projects, starting with Star Ocean: Anamnesis; the mobile game derived from the saga finally saw its activity interrupted at the end of June 2021 by Square Enix Japan. The company would also not have been able to obtain the expected amount of orders due to development delays and other factors, nor to welcome new projects. While developing new derivative titles or remakes of its own franchises, such as Resonance of Fate 4K/HD Edition, tri-Ace has also lent a hand on many other projects in the past.
Star Ocean The Divine Force, the sixth part of the RPG saga fantasy, will be available on October 27 on next-gen consoles and PC. An exit which was accompanied by the posting of a playable demo always accessible at the time it is. And there is no doubt that its commercial success could have a direct impact on the near future of the studio.