IGN gave Forspoken a 6/10. Square Enix folded the studio.
The Original Review
“Forspoken is a game of spectacular highs and frustrating lows, but its parkour combat is one of the freshest things I've played in years.”
Run the numbers first. IGN's modal score for major Square Enix releases over the preceding decade: 7.4. IGN's score for Forspoken: 6. That 1.4-point delta represents, by IGN's internal curve, a devastating critical failure. A 6 from IGN is their version of a strongly-worded letter. Their floor is 6. Their ceiling is 10. The entire human experience of game quality maps onto a four-point scale, and Forspoken landed at the bottom of it. The math ain't mathing.
The review acknowledges 'frustrating lows' — a phrase so muffled by editorial bubble wrap you could drop it from a building and it would bounce. The dialogue, which spawned an internationally mocked trailer before the game even launched, receives approximately one paragraph of careful both-sidesing. The open world emptiness earns a vague 'repetitive.' The story, which features a protagonist who responds to a magical apocalypse with the energy of someone who spilled coffee, is described as 'uneven.' These are not criticisms. These are the reviewer gesturing in the direction of a dumpster fire while describing the light as 'warm.'
Post-release data: Luminous Productions merged back into Square Enix in April 2023, four months post-launch. The studio was effectively dissolved. Square Enix reported a $67 million impairment loss attributed directly to Forspoken. The game's Steam concurrent player peak was 6,899. That is fewer concurrent players than some Twitch streams mocking the game's dialogue trailer.
Here is what the 6/10 actually communicated: 'we are aware something went wrong here, but we remain professionally obligated to imply you might still enjoy it.' A 6/10 says possible. The data says dissolved. The math ain't mathing.
