First, the bad news: Square Enix has lowered its (delayed) revenue forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009. In fact, it has lowered the forecast so much that "lowered" is really just a polite euphemism. As reported by Edge Online, the previously expected net income of 12 billion yen has been scaled down slashed to 4.5 billion yen, a considerably smaller amount than the previous year's net income of 9.1 billion yen.

The Japanese publisher, which just proposed a takeover bid for ailing Eidos, also expects operating income to miss last year's 21? ?billion? yen and settle for an inverted 12? ?billion. The underperformance is pinned on "Amusement? (?Taito Corporation?) ?and games? (?offline segments?)," particularly the "severe business environment for Amusement,? ?and the adjourned release of a major game software??,? ?which was originally announced to be released March? ?2009.?" Said major game software is Dragon Quest IX, which will now be deployed in Japan on July 11th.

The good news: That's the end of the bad news.