Everybody knows Square Enix has had some trouble over the last year, although we didn’t know quite the extent of the damage. Thanks to the magic of financial reports, we now know exactly what it looks like. The damage? 13.7 billion Yen, or approximately 135 million US dollars. Ouch. It’s not all bad news however. Company wide sales are actually up 15 percent year-over-year, and game sales are up a whopping 24.5 percent. For those who believe internal forecasts, Square is expecting to be profitable next year, although I’m a bit scared, seeing their projections for a few games (mostly A Realm Reborn), and knowing they have slightly inflated expectations across their whole portfolio (see Tomb Raider predictions)
For what it’s worth, the new president of the company is promising to review all operations, which I have to think will be a good thing. They’re also looking to invest less in technology, and shift some of that towards advertising, which I suppose is a smart thing to do if you think that’s why you aren’t meeting your sales figures for critically acclaimed games. They’re also looking to focus more on regional releases, as well as upping their presence in mobile. Lastly, they’re looking to regionalize releases more (scary from our perspective), while also lowering costs in development and lead times for games (which should get a collective hallelujah from the chorus).
