Square Enix Announces Increased Sales, Profit

Officials from Japanese publisher Square Enix have released details of the company’s financial results for the full year ended March 31st. During the year group net profits increased 35.8 percent to ¥14.93 billion ($139m). Group pre-tax profit increased 41.9 percent to ¥25.9 billion ($241m) on ¥73.86 billion ($687m) in sales, up 16.9 percent. Per share group net profit rose to ¥135.63 from ¥100.04 a year earlier. The company has pointed towards its online game services as a primary source of growth, with operating profits more than doubling to ¥4.99 billion ($46m) on sales of ¥13.85 billion ($129m). The company’s major online title continues to be Final Fantasy XI, recently announced for the Xbox 360, as well as Cross Gate in China. By comparison operating profit for its offline games division rose by 19.8 percent, to ¥19.65 billion ($183m). Sales rose 10.4 percent to ¥41.94 billion ($390m). Dragon Quest VIII and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories proved to be the company’s most successful titles of the year, with the former selling 3.61 million units in Japan alone since last November. Chain of Memories on the Game Boy Advance has sold over 1 million units worldwide, while Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls on the Game Boy Advance has also almost reached 1 million copies worldwide. Overall the company shipped 6.3 million games in Japan, 3.76 million in North America, 920,000 in Europe/Australasia and 70,000 in Asia. The company’s mobile division also performed well, with revenues up by 63 percent to ¥4.5 billion ($42m) and profits by 50 percent to ¥1.7 billion ($16m). The most popular mobile titles proved to be Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII and Front Mission 2089 – both of which have so far only been released in Japan. For the current business year, the company says it expects group net profit to rise to ¥15.5 billion ($144m) on sales of ¥90 billion ($837m). Final Fantasy XII for the PlayStation 2 is expected to be released during this time and is likely to be the company’s biggest game of the year.