Square Enix Loses ¥5.7 billion due to Poor Console Sales

by William D'Angelo, posted on 05 February 2013 / 5,541 Views

Square Enix has released its financial report for the nine month period which ended December 31, 2012. The company posted a loss of 5.7 billion Yen, which is the total opposite of a 5 billion Yen profit for the same period a year ago. Revenue for game sales did increase to 102.7 billion Yen, from 95.7 billion Yen.

"During the nine-month period ended December 31, 2012, the Company has not recovered the operating loss posted in the six-month period ended September 30, 2012," said Square Enix in a statement to GamesIndustry International. "[This is] primarily due to the increasingly difficult condition of the world-wide console game market, under which the Group is struggling to achieve a fair expected return on its investment."

"On the other hand, content for other platforms such as PCs, smartphones and SNS such as ‘Sengoku Ixa,’ a browser game, and ‘Final Fantasy Brigade,’ a social networking game for Mobage, are generating an acceptable profit."

"In addition, newly released game titles, such as ‘Kaku-San-Sei Million Arthur,’ a social networking game released in April, 2012 serving more than 1 million registered users, have been expanding at a satisfactory pace. Registered users of Final Fantasy Artniks,’ a social networking game released in November, 2012 for Gree, exceeded 1 million at the end of December, 2012."

Despite the losses for the nine month period, Square Enix expects to report a profit for the full fiscal year which ends March 31, 2013. The company is hoping that Tomb Raider will be a success. The game is set to be released in March 5.

18 Comments

Iveyboi (on 05 February 2013)

Blame the market or blame your lack of quality titles..

Show replies (1)

Tridrakious (on 05 February 2013)

The market is being blamed, because Square turned its back on the market. So they can blame us all they want to, but they fucked up and are now bleeding money, because its fanbase is leaving them behind.

Soonerman (on 05 February 2013)

They deserve it. Who the hell wants to play FFXIII 3.0 to theSecond power. If they stopped trying to milk their titles they might sell more than they think.

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BlkPaladin (on 05 February 2013)

I read this as forget any new console titles for the time being, that are not already announced. We are going to put all of our eggs into the mobile/F2P market.

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V-r0cK (on 05 February 2013)

Most disappointing dev/publisher this gen :(

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Tridrakious (on 05 February 2013)

Completely agree.

DarkFury (on 05 February 2013)

Even Sleeping Dogs did not manage to sell high numbers -we shall see if Tomb Raider saves the day.

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Heavenly_King (on 05 February 2013)

I dont think it will based on the trailers and gameplay vids.

ToraTiger (on 05 February 2013)

Whoaaa.

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ps3-sales! (on 05 February 2013)

Such a lazy developer/publisher Square has become. Does anybody remember when you actually respected the talent at Square? me neither.

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Tridrakious (on 05 February 2013)

It was before this generation.

Nem (on 05 February 2013)

This is mostly excuses. The losses come from most japanese assets beeing focused on the FFXIVARR mmo and i suppose the flop of hitman and FFXIII-2.

Show replies (4)

Heavenly_King (on 05 February 2013)

Hitman sold quite good.

DigitalDevilSummoner (on 05 February 2013)

FF XIII-2 sold pretty good a well

jacks81x (on 05 February 2013)

A flop would imply that they made less than what it cost to make the game, which in either case is not true. Hitman and FFXIII-2 both sold over 2.8 million copies worldwide. If they didn't make a profit on a game that sold 2.8 million copies, they probably shouldn't be in the video game business.

the_dengle (on 05 February 2013)

I wouldn't be surprised if one of those needed 3 million sales to turn a profit. Considering the infamous "5 million" target for Dead Space 3.

Darc Requiem (on 06 February 2013)

You only can press excrement into disc form for so long before people get wise to it.

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SMACKDOWNER (on 06 February 2013)

Oh ok that's funny last time i checked the Wii was at 98m,Xbox 74m,PS3 72m.Sorry Square Enix but it's not the lack of console sale's.It's your garbage games that you have shipped this gen.Of course your just like everybody else blame everyone but yourself's.

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BaldrSkies (on 05 February 2013)

FF14 and DQ10 were both considered failures. That's 2 expensive MMOs down the drain.

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small44 (on 05 February 2013)

So the smartphone gaming will kill many studios if Square Enix make the same effor for console and smartphone they would doing good.

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ils411 (on 06 February 2013)

They have no one to blame but themselves. FFXIII Versus still nothing and has been development forever. FF Type-O already translated but not released etc. Its Their fault for being dumb asses.

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Exia (on 05 February 2013)

Hmmm where is FFversus13? 6-7 Year delay, for a game LOL. Nice try SE, but you only have yourself to blame. Shi**y after Shi**y game and never releasing the games we wanted

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Skrunch-a-tron (on 05 February 2013)

HA. serves those buffoons right for not letting any final fantasy characters into all stars! or... well, um... maybe they uh... ehhhh, you know what? I'm not going anywhere with this.