Today Square Enix announced its financial results for the first nine months of the fiscal year, related to the period between April 2023 and December 2023.
According to the financial documents, sales for the whole company were 257,612 million yen (up 0.8％ year-on-year) while operating income was 34,918 million yen (down 15.5％ year-on-year).
Looking at the Digital Entertainment business, which focuses on games, Net sales were 179,654 million yen (down 2.6％ year-on-year) and operating profit was 30,715 million yen (minus 20.7％ year-on-year).
Square Enix also provided a breakdown of sales for the various branches of the Digital Entertainment business.
Sales for HD games (games for consoles and PC excluding MMOs) were 66.8 billion yen, up from 58.1 billion yen in the previous year. This is due to the launch of games like Final Fantasy XVI, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince, and the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters.
Sales for MMORPGs dropped (from 40.5 to 34.8 billion yen) as users are waiting for new expansions for both Final Fantasy XIV and Dragon Quest X, which will come respectively in Summer 2024 and March 2024.
Sales for mobile games also dropped (from 85.7 to 78 billion yen) as new games like Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis and Dragon Quest Champions did not manage to outweigh the weak performance of older games.
The drop in sales and operating income was motivated by the declines in the MMO and smartphone segments, as well as increased development cost amortization and advertising spending.
That being said, Square Enix still hopes to turn things around in the fourth quarter. The company's outlook mentions 360 billion yen in sales (up from 343.2 in the previous year) and 55.0 billion yen in operating income (up from 44.3 in the previous year).
Recently, we heard that Square Enix hopes to achieve that mainly thanks to the launch of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, increased performance of Final Fantasy XIV ahead of the expansion Dawntrail and following the Fan Festivals, and more. The new CEO Takashi Kiryu also explained his strategy going forward.
If you'd like to compare today's results with historical data, you can check out our article on the previous financial results, published in November.
