Just how real or imagined is Square's decline?

[ForceStealer]

I'm typing this before I do any of the following research. I'm not trying to prove to anything, this is just something that I'm curious about. Is Square's apparently decline due to greater scrutiny of the internet? Or were there plenty of lousy games back then that just no one paid attention to. I'm gonna list the SE games released in the last 5 years (2006-2011) and the same span at their peak (1996-2001) next to each game's metacritic score.
Now, I hate the effect metacritic has had on games, but it seems better then just me saying "good. okay. sucks." next to each title.
If nothing else, hopefully it will be a handy source.
So here we go. Remember this will only be games developed by Squaresoft/SquareEnix - also no remakes or International/Final Mix versions. (Not chronologically listed either)

2006-2011

• Dirge of Cerberus Final Fantasy VII - 57
• Final Fantasy XII - 92
• Dawn of Mana - 57
• Mario Hoops 3-on-3 - 69
• Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings - 81
• The World Ends With You - 88
• FF Crystal Chronicles Ring of Fates - 77
• FF Tactics A2 Grimoire of the Rift - 80
• Yosumin DS - JP Only, N/A
• Front Mission 2089 - JP Only, N/A
• Sigma Harmonics - JP Only, N/A
• Snoopy DS - JP Only, N/A
• Pingu's Wonderful Carnival - JP Only, N/A
• FF Crystal Chronicles Echoes of Time - 75
• Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days - 75
• Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light - 71
• Final Fantasy XIII - 85
• Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII - 83
• Dissidia Final Fantasy - 79
• Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep - 82
• The 3rd Birthday - 70
• Dissidia 012 - 78
• Soul Eater: Monotone Princess - JP only, N/A
• FF Crystal Chronicles The Crystal Bearers - 66
• Mario Sports Mix - 64
• The Last Remnant - 66

Average: 78.7

Well that certainly doesn't bode well

1996-2001

• Bahamut Lagoon - JP only, N/A
• Super Mario RPG - 88 (Gamespot's "Critic Score")
• Treasure of Rudras - JP only, N/A
• Final Fantasy VII - 92
• Final Fantasy Tactics - 83
• SaGa Frontier - 73 (Gamespot's "Critic Score")
• Front Mission 2 - JP Only, N/A
• Einhander - 89
• Chocobo's Dungeon - JP Only, N/A
• Xenogears - 84
• Parasite Eve - 81
• Brave Fencer Musashi - 81
• Another Mind - JP Only, N/A
• Chocobo's Dungeon 2 - 68 (Gamespot's "Critic Score")
• Final Fantasy VIII - 90
• Chocobo Racing - 62 (Gamespot's "Critic Score")
• SaGa Frontier 2 - 74 (Gamespot's "Critic Score")
• Racing Lagoon - JP Only, N/A
• Legend of Mana - 73 (Gamespot's "Critic Score")
• Front Mission 3 - 84 (Gamespot's "Critic Score")
• Threads of Fate - 76 (Gamespot's "Critic Score")
• Vagrant Story - 92
• Final Fantasy IX - 94
• All-Star Pro Wrestling - JP Only, N/A
• Gekikuukan Pro Baseball: At the End of the Century 1999 - JP Only, N/A

Average: 81.4

So there you have it.
Just some notes and thoughts.
1. As you can tell, several of the more obscure older games did not have a metacritic score so I used the critic average that Gamespot posts, but that number is obviously a smaller sample. Also clear are the games that were in Japan only, and I can't speak to their quality or know of a site that does. Let me know if there is one.
2. The first thing I notice is that there aren't THAT many more games in the 90s block. It always seemed like there was so many more games then. Still, interesting to think about considering the prevalence of the argument that the source of their recent problems is due to spreading themselves too thin. Also surprising considering that there are a LOT more games being published by Square these days. And even if that doesn't consume as much manpower it consumes capital.
3. As I said, remakes were omitted as well. It's not an issue with things like the DS remakes as they were outsourced. But there a few like the War of the Lions, that was basically superior in every way to its original in the '96-'01 window and scored better.
4. Maybe I should have marked the platforms of each game, but its pretty clear regardless. An enormous majority of Square's newer games are on the DS and the PSP. Whereas nearly every single game on the older list was on PS1. The DS and PSP are closer to the PS1 in graphical power (the PSP closer to the PS2), I don't know if that says anything...
5. I have to admit, the average isn't quite as far apart as I thought. Still, I wouldn't say the decline is imagined, (the thread title was more sensalitionist, I admit) but still only 3 points on what I have already confessed is a scale I'm not thrilled about (metacritic). But let me know what you think.

Also, I'm sure you will, but let me know if I missed any games.

(and this is the kind of crap I do instead of studying for the CPA exam )

 

[Tennyo]

Very interesting to read. Too bad some of them don't have scores or had scores from a different source. I wonder just how much such a thing skews the results.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Snoopy DS, homie?

 

[Dana Scully]

Honestly, for all the doom and gloom and bawwwing that surrounds just about every move SE makes nowadays, I don't see them going anywhere for a long, long time.

 

[Max Payne]

Honestly, for all the doom and gloom and bawwwing that surrounds just about every move SE makes nowadays, I don't see them going anywhere for a long, long time.

I hope not because if they go eidos does too. That's just not acceptable.

On topic, I only speak from experience on how terrible SE's stuff is. There is no outside influence in the equation.

 

[Joker]

Funny, we were just discussing this earlier this afternoon.

 

[Ghost X]

I don't think game scores and amount of games produced necessarily equates to how a business should be / is performing. I am under the impression they're losing a ton of money, for instance. So even if they're making decent games (which I certainly think they aren't of late), something else clearly isn't happening, eg: those games being sold and/or them making bad business decisions (FFXIV, lol).

 

[OneWingedDemon]

I was under the impression they were losing a lot of the Western market, on top of the disaster that was 14.

 

[Geostigma]

I hope not because if they go eidos does too. That's just not acceptable.

On topic, I only speak from experience on how terrible SE's stuff is. There is no outside influence in the equation.

Quoting for relevancy to my general opinion so that i dont really have to post my own thoughts.

 

[Alex]

The perception that a company is in decline and no longer capable of putting out a quality product and be just as (if not more) relevant to sales than whether or not it actually is in decline. Unfortunately for SE, the general way that the company is perceived is exactly that.

Unless we're talking about financial decline. In which case we all know the SE is so far up shit creek that not even a small army of paddles would help them out.