Square Enix swings to profits following strong Deus Ex sales

Square Enix posted a swing to profits for its full 2011 fiscal year today, with strong sales for Deus Ex: Human Revolution and its smartphone games aiding the growth. The company's Digital Entertainment division, which houses its video games business, was boosted by favorable sales figures for Deus Ex and Final Fantasy XIII-2 worldwide on consoles. As of September last year, Deus Ex had sold more than 2.18 million copies across all territories after releasing in August, although the company has not updated the total figure since then. Alongside this, Square Enix's browser and mobile games continued to grow. Sengoku Ixa, released in 2010 for mobile devices, is still supplying strong results said the company, while Final Fantasy Brigade, released via the Mobage gaming platform earlier this year, has now surpassed 2 million registered users in total. Elsewhere, Square Enix's Amusement division, which handles the development and distribution of arcade game machines, showed steady growth despite softening market conditions, with revenue down 6.9 percent to 41.9 billion yen ($524.0 million) year-over-year, but operating income up 17.2 percent to 2.6 million yen ($31.9 million). For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012, Square Enix's Digital Entertainment division posted revenues of 71.9 million yen ($898.4 million), up 11.9 percent year-over-year, and operating income of 12.6 billion yen ($157.5 million), up 11.7 percent compared to the previous year. For the company as a whole, it posted revenues of 127.9 billion yen ($1.60 billion), up 2.1 percent compared to 125.3 billion yen ($1.57 billion) year-over-year, and profits of 6.1 billion yen ($75.8 million) compared to losses of 12.0 billion yen ($150.5 million) year-over-year. Looking to the current fiscal year, the company's president Yoichi Wada said that he will be looking to strengthen Square Enix's global structure by improving the quality of its online games. He believes the company will see an improvement in earnings by the end of the year.