Square Enix claims Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy has 'undershot' sales expectations.

pcgamer.com:

You could set your watch to it by this point. Square Enix is claiming a game published by its western arm has failed to meet sales expectations. This time it's Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy on the chopping block. In a newly published outline of a financial results briefing, representative director Yosuke Matsuda said that «despite strong reviews», sales of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy «undershot our initial expectations.»

It's an unsurprising statement from a publisher for whom «undershot expectations» appears to have become its motto. Last year, Square Enix called sales of Marvel's Avengers «disappointing», following a lukewarm reception to its attempt at a live-service superhero action game. In 2018, both Just Cause 4 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider got the a look of disapproval, with Matsuda saying Tomb Raider «got off to a weak start», despite selling 4.12 million units as of February 2019, and the game's own developers expressing their happiness with the game's performance. 

Then there was poor old Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, sales of which were identified as the reason for scrapping the rebooted series in favour of new, Marvel licensed projects. The very same projects Square Enix is now saying are failing to meet sales targets.

It does seem like there's an issue surrounding Square Enix's western-developed games. The question is whether it's a problem of performance, or a problem of expectation. All the above games released toward the end of the year, i.e. the most competitive period in the gaming market. Compare that with Square Enix's remake of Final Fantasy VII, which released in April on a single platform and sold 3.5 million copies in three days.

Indeed, it appears all of Square Enix's library lives in the