Square Enix profits plummet, but loss avoided to close out 2010

by James Ransom-Wiley on Feb 3rd 2011 1:00PM

The potentially lucrative holiday quarter -- Q3 of Square Enix's fiscal year -- didn't bring a slowdown to the publisher's sinking profits. Instead, the company slid closer to landing in the red as 2010 came to an end. For the nine months ending December 31, 2010, Square Enix today reported a net income of ¥1.821 billion ($22.33 million), a 76.6 percent decrease in profits from the same period the year before. When the iPhone port of Secret of Mana is perhaps your most significant release during the holidays, what more can you expect?

Accordingly, net sales in the nine-month period were also down year-over-year (though just by 27.5 percent) for the business, which (aside from games) includes amusement, publication and merchandising products. Speaking of games, the holiday quarter didn't push any additional Square Enix titles into coveted "million-seller" status -- only Kane & Lynch 2 and Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 (Japan only) have reached a million in sales during the company's current fiscal year (ending March 31, 2011), and both had done so by the end of last September.

"Responding to intensifying competition in the console game market, the company has implemented organizational changes in the third quarter while also working to better select and further strengthen our most competitive titles," Square Enix president Yoichi Wada offered in a short statement accompanying the financial report.

"In other platform areas including PCs and smartphones, we have created successful examples of new content such as Nicotto Town and Sengoku Ixa," Wada added. "By pursuing these two independent markets, we are raising our ability to succeed in diverse business models." So diversified has Square Enix become, in fact, that this is the first we've ever heard of these two "successful" projects!

[Pictured: Nicotto Town; image source: nifty.co.jp]

Source: Square Enix

Tags: dragon-quest-monsters-joker-2, earnings, financial, fy-2011, kane-and-lynch-2, microsoft, million-sellers, mobile, nicotto-town, pc, playstation, ps3, q3, sales, sengoku-ixa, square-enix, xbox, yoichi-wada

Reader Comments (29)

They lost profits, we lost our love for Final Fantasy! (That was a stab at this mishandled FF MMO catastrophe)

@The Wicker Man That wasn't the only Final Fantasy misstep in recent history....

@The Wicker Man

They didn't just mishandled FFXIV; they mishandled almost everything. Yoichi Wada needs to get fired.

What the heck is Nicotto Town?

@Jack Kevorkian
Smoking game?

WADA MUST GO!

Square Enix needs to stop developing 100 confusing games at once, focus on quality and take the iOS and Android worlds by storm with more quality releases like Chaos Rings.

Kingdom Hearts was once an amazing and admired franchise and now it's been dilluted by the choice to avoid a true new installment on console and go for all these little spinoffs. FF13 underwhelmed and they wish to expand on it with something like 5 different games. They threw a rushed, ugly tower defense game onto Android when there are other offerings like Zenonia 2 and Pocket Legends.

They're really not being smart.

@JONNNathannn This is very true. iOS in general is lacking lengthy titles (this is being fixed with the likes of Dead space & Real Racing 2)- and this is especially true in the RPG category.

They did rings, and some ports. Square could clean house on the platform, and so could alot of other big names.

The only company hopping on it is EA & sorta capcom. But for now the market is being dominated by microgames made by names I've never heard of, geared towards people who want short bursts.

This isn't a bad thing, but there is clearly room for more quality releases and genres to be over-taken..

Continue to slide Squenix, continue to slide. And I'll be crossing my fingers somewhere down the line, either Sony or Microsoft buys you out and revamps the damn company to do something meaningful with their library. It's pretty sad when Squenix's best offerings are those made by Eidos.

It's sad, but times are changing. People aren't as interested in jrpg as they were in the early 2000s and 90s. Games like Oblivion, FO3, ME killed the jrpg industry.

@Anarqi That might be true, but it's also equally true that SE just isn't very good at making compelling games lately. They've squandered a lot of good will generated from their past, coasting on a name.

SE's opinion of their place in the video game world reminds me of Sony's opinion of itself in the electronics world: we will do it our way (Betamax, UMD, Memory Stick) and we expect it to work out because We're Rick James, b!tch!

It's not too late for them to admit they don't have the magic eye anymore and cast their gaze outwards to see what makes their competitor's products successful. You don't need to steal the recipe, just mix a different flavor.

I'm still hopeful their Final Fantasy series will rerun to glory (once they get over their Kojima Complex, i.e. thinking they're making a movie rather than a game. I'll gladly take sprites again (a'la Vanillaware) to get a great JRPG.

@StrangeDNA
The sad thing about it is that they haven't completely lost their magic. Dissida and Birth By Sleep are phenomal games, but they're on the worst selling console of the current generation.

They need to get someone to manage which systems they make games for. a home console Dissidia or Kingdom Hearts 3 would basically allow SE to print their own money. But for some reason they hold out on making those for crappy handheld games and even worse console ones.

@Anarqi Maybe if someone actually made a JRPG, and not some weird hybrid game, people would buy them again... (and yes, I know there are still some small developers who put out traditional style JRPG games, and it's not a slight to them, but I'm talking ones that would actually get a bit of press)

I just think they need to stop killing Final Fantasy. Most of their games are Final Fantasy. They said a few years ago they were going to focus primarily on Final Fantasy and that's what they did. It wasn't a profitable decision. Parasite Eve is a step in the right direction, but I much prefer Chrono sequel

@arrrdawg Chrono is the LAST series I'd ever want modern SE to ever touch. The original Trigger/Cross developers aren't around at all, there's no way SE could make a good Chrono game in this day and age.

It sounds like Matsuno broke off from SE and is a little more freelance, but I'd love to see all of his former Quest developers that may still be with them break off as well and go somewhere else, maybe join up with Mistwalker or something. After that, SE could die for all I care thesedays.

@arrrdawg Yeah, you don't want to see what would result of a Chrono title in this era. It would be an atrocity.

Time for more "Kingdom Hearts " games.

I used to be such a crazy Squeenix fan. My fanglasses won't, however, blind me of the idiocy that was Final Fantasy XIV. I can only give Square-Enix good luck.

Hopefully shareholders are reaching their limit and Wada will be lynched soon.

Caned and lynched, preferably.

Make a new Kingdom Hearts game for home consoles, the long-awaited FF7 remake or even bring back great titles like Xenogears and you will have profits. I've been a long time FF fan, and the new FF offerings just don't amuse me at all.

@Cafecito
I agree. They need to make games that make us feel like they care again. They need to cancel all the FF spin offs, KH spin offs, put FF on hold until they reach back to a time when they made games like Xenogears, Vagrant Story, and Parasite Eve. All these spin offs make my head spin (pun intended). I barely wrapped my head around FFXIII before they announce 3 other FF games to go along in "the universe, but not the same world or characters." Why make a game called Final Fantasy Versus XIII if it has NOTHING TO DO WITH FFXIII?!

Cancel all the spin offs, and refresh your creativity SE. It's gotten stale and you really need to take a breather before you announce more spin offs. Heck, don't even make sequels of Xenogears, PE, or Vagrant Story. Just create a new IP that you will actually put effort into. You may find yourselves back on making great games after great games.

For me, the most iconic example of SE's rampant failboating in recent history is what they did to Front Mission "Evolved." I was super pumped about handing over my money (particularly for the PC version) until I realized it was not the Squaresoft turn-based tactical gameplay I've come to love over the past decade or so, but a SquareEnix Armored Core wannabe.

What's next, FF Tactics Advance Fencing Simulator?

At the risk of sounding like an old fart, I'd love for SE to get back to the relative production value they had in the FF VII/Bushido Blade/Xenogears (or, in other words, Squaresoft) days.

On a quasi-related note, I wouldn't mind seeing a re-release of Soulblazer from Enix.

This generation I lost all hope for SE. FF13 failed to hook me with it's frustersting battle system and difficulty spikes. Then they release KH sequels on 2 different handheld devices.

I hope they don't remake FF7, I don't think the Japanese devs are capable of making a real RPG anymore.

The once proud Square Enix brand was tarnished with the buying of Eidos.

Grasping at straws for ideas and game releases.(Gun Loco,MindJack)

And the Squaresoft brand making multiple Final Fantasy's per game. Where before we had the whole story in one game now we have to buy the PS3 game,the PS3 follow up,the PSP prequel,the mobile side story, the other mobile game.

@ecco6t9
Yeah, it's rather frustrating for SE fans. I LOVE KH1 and KH2. But then they announce all these other KH games. I do not have the time, money, or gadgets to keep up on the series stories. By the time KH3 comes out, I'm lost. Just like between KH1 and KH2 I was kinda lost because I never finished the GBA KH.

Make ONE game multiplatform. That's about the smartest decision SE has made in a while, porting the FFXIII to the Xbox. I don't have an Xbox, I don't care for it, but nothing was wrong with gamers who game on the 360 to get a chance to play the game. But no more spin offs! I'm exhausted keeping up and I never even TRY purchasing let alone playing the spin offs.

@Bewoulf that too. Part of that problem is the series is across 5 platfroms(PS2,GBA,DS,PSP,Mobile) and there's too many of that series in a short time.

It's like I knew there was 2, and now there's 6.

Despite this somehow there's no funds for Square Enix to bring out the DS Saga remakes or Blood of Bahamut.

Final Fantasy games used to be my favorites without question but I havent loved that series since FF10. (6 through 10 were my favs. They may not be yours; dont kill me). Like most of the other posters here, I hope future FF and KH titles return Square to their former glory.

I think one problem with 12 (finished) and 13 (havent played yet) is that they focused on making it 'look' like a FF game (slick graphics) while story and character development took a backseat. The Final Fantasy series is built on story and character. When they had little red and white sprites moving orthogonally across a world map they had story and character (FF4,5,6). This is not something you should halfass if you are Square. If it wasnt for DQ9 I would have no reason to support SE.

On a related note: Where are all the awesome Mistwalker games? They have the creator and other quality guys and they havent done much imho. I finished Lost Odyssey. It was meh but it looked great :(

Try making good games again, maybe profits will go up? Just a thought.

this is what the get for that travesty of an mmo they released. my friends and i were excited for MONTHS. we absorbed every little bit of info! then when the game started... well it didnt you pretty much get told to start grinding "maybe the story happens later"

no it doesn't. cancel subscription uninstall.

Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days

Square Enix profits plummet, but loss avoided to close out 2010

Reader Comments (29)

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 1:03PM The Wicker Man said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 1:22PM Rocketboy said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 6:27PM Ballistic H said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 1:04PM Jack Kevorkian said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 6:27PM DeadInside said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 1:25PM Howard Roark said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 1:32PM JONNNathannn said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 2:04PM ND92 said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 1:34PM Ncrdrg said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 1:44PM Anarqi said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 2:00PM StrangeDNA said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 10:12PM Vegna said

Posted: Feb 4th 2011 2:19PM Rocketboy said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 2:08PM arrrdawg said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 2:44PM Xeogred said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 3:24PM koehler83 said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 2:21PM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 2:36PM The Only Girl said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 3:22PM koehler83 said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 3:23PM Cafecito said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 8:16PM Bewoulf said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 3:25PM Arann said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 5:24PM jimmer411 said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 5:27PM ecco6t9 said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 8:20PM Bewoulf said

Posted: Feb 4th 2011 4:31PM ecco6t9 said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 6:00PM DeadInside said

Posted: Feb 3rd 2011 6:34PM PeaTearGriffin said

Posted: Feb 7th 2011 10:06AM Eighty said

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