Square Enix To See 'Big Impact' From PS3 Price Cut Next Year

Square Enix head Yoichi Wada told reporters Wednesday that the PlayStation 3's recent price cut won't have a major impact on the company's current fiscal year, but expects "a big impact" next year. Wada told media members in Tokyo the price cut and PS3 hardware redesign doesn't warrant an increase in sales and profit guidance for the current fiscal year ending March 2010. "In terms of the impact (the PS3 cut) will have on this financial year's earnings, I don't think there will be a major difference. But I expect there to be a big impact from next year," he said in a Reuters report. Square Enix's highly-anticipated Final Fantasy XIII is expected to launch on PS3 in Japan in calendar Q4 this year, and sometime in the next fiscal year (beginning in April) in the U.S. and Europe, where the game is also launching on Xbox 360. Square Enix recently acquired U.K.-based publisher Eidos, which released the Rocksteady-developed Batman: Arkham Asylum this week, a game that is expected to be a strong seller, considering the brand recognition and strong reviews. Earlier this year, Square Enix released Dragon Quest IX for Nintendo DS, a major hit for the firm that has sold 3.64 million units in Japan to date. A week ago, Sony announced at the Cologne, Germany GamesCom convention that it would be dropping the price of the PS3 to $299 from $399, at the same time redesigning the hardware into a sleeker package.