Square Enix Goes From Loss To $20.9M Profit In Q1

While many Japanese-headquartered publishers fight a strong yen and weak overseas sales, it's all good news for Final Fantasy house Square Enix, which reported a 1.8 billion yen ($20.9 million) profit for the first fiscal quarter ended June 30. The profit reverses a 1.7 billion-yen ($19.8 million) loss incurred for the same period a year prior. Overall sales climbed over 10 percent to 32.5 billion yen ($377.8 million) year over year. Square Enix owns other businesses, like merchandise and publication, but its Digital Entertainment segment houses its games business, which the company said saw 16.6 billion yen ($193 million) in sales and 5.9 billion yen ($68.6 million) in operating income. Despite mixed critical reception, the "continued strength" of the U.S. and European release of Final Fantasy XIII in March is bearing part of the credit for the climb -- but the company declined to reveal unit sales numbers for the title, instead emphasizing Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2's 1.25 million units sold since it launched in April alongside ongoing positive performance for Eidos' Just Cause 2, which launched in March. The publisher joins other Japanese companies that have released quarterly results in recent weeks, like Capcom, Sega, Konami and Namco Bandai, in stating its aim to focus on globalization and moving more of its business online. "As we continue to strengthen our existing businesses in the second quarter and beyond, we are also vigorously pushing forward our mid- and long-term growth strategies of globalization, becoming 'network centric' and strengthening our own-IPs," says Square Enix president Yoichi Wada.