Slow sales of Sleeping Dogs, others to drive $67M loss at Square Enix

Unexpectedly slow sales of games including Sleeping Dogs drove publisher Square Enix to forecast a loss of nearly $70 million, according to the company. On Tuesday, the publisher revised its profit forecasts for the six months ending September 30. Initially the company expected to break even for the period, but now it's projecting a 5.4 billion yen loss, or $67.8 million. Sleeping Dogs, released on August 14, is an open-world action-adventure that was rescued by the publisher after being canceled by rival Activision (where it was set to be the third title in its True Crime franchise). The game sold under 300,000 units in the United States in its debut month before quietly dropping off of the top 10 charts in September (exact sales numbers are not available). It was a hit in the UK, where it debuted at number one in its weekly charts, but apparently this wasn't enough to meet Square Enix's projections for the game. Sleeping Dogs isn't entirely to blame: the company also says that sales of its arcade games in Japan from subsidiary Taito have been "sluggish," and that it was forced to delay the launch of its social games service. Japan's Square Enix is also the owner of former video game publisher Eidos Interactive. Major upcoming releases include November's Hitman: Absolution and 2013's Tomb Raider.