Square Enix Issues Financial Report

via IGN


Square Enix announced today its midterm results for the year, covering April to September 2007. Hidden among all the massive yen figures was talk of upcoming game developments.

First, the numbers. Sales for the period stood at 72.2 billion yen, down 4.9% from the same period last year. Operating income was up 6.4% to 9.8 billion yen.

Looking in particular at the company's games business, sales in the offline division were up 6.6% to 20.448 billion yen. Operating income in this division dropped 3.8% to 4.147 billion yen. The company's online games business saw a 29.5% drop in sales to 5.413 billion yen, with income dropping 13.5% to 2.864 billion yen.

Japan was the company's biggest market. Over the six month period, the company sold 3.94 million pieces of software in its home territory, ahead of the 1.32 million in North America and 1.61 million in Europe.

The company's biggest titles for the term were all available only in Japan. Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII topped the list with 710,000 units sold. Final Fantasy XII Revenant Wings came in at second with 530,000 units sold. In third, Dragon Quest Sword and its 490,000 units.

Numbers aside, the real meat of the earnings statement came as president Yoichi Wada fielded questions from investors at the company's earnings conference today.

The burning question was, of course, a release date for Dragon Quest IX. Unfortunately, Wada would only say that a date hasn't been finalized, and that it probably won't happen before the end of the current fiscal year (March 08). Currently, the game is flagged with a general 2008 date.

Wada was asked to comment on reports from a while back regarding stoppage of development on the White Engine, the internal engine that's being used for Final Fantasy XIII. "Development on the White Engine has not stopped," responded Wada. He admitted that there is some feeling of unease within the company, as those using the engine to make games have not yet become accustomed with it.

One questioner suggested that Square Enix has a difficult time creating new franchises. To this, Wada pointed to Dragon Quest Sword, Square Enix's involvement in the Wii Ware program, Final Fantasy XI, and the DS Style series.

Finally, a question about Square Enix's trends of late towards a focus on portable hardware versus consoles. "True titles for the current generation have yet to be released," Wada responded, while admitting that the current challenge is to do just that. "Regarding resources, we're putting a large number of people on console software development. Until those [titles] are released, we have to increase revenues from our portable software."