Square Slide

Japanese game maker Square is projecting a steep slide in profits for the current year to March 31. The company is predicting a group profit of just 900 million yen, a big change from the 7.8 billion yen profit Square posted last year and the record 9.9 billion yen the year before that. The company blames this year's slide on the delayed launch of the last Final Fantasy title. The company is projecting sales of six million units of its first Final Fantasy for Playstation 2, schedule for release on July 19. "We aim to renew our group record profit next year," said Square executive vice president Hisashi Suzuki. Square is planning to list it shares on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange after settling the current business year.