Japanese publisher Square Enix recently completed its acquisition of Tomb Raider publisher Eidos and set up a European arm as well. The $117 million acquisition and subsequent restructuring has taken a chunk out of the company's bottom line, however. For the quarter ended June 30, Square Enix reported sales down 1.2% at 29.4 billion yen and the company posted a net loss of 1.67 billion yen compared to last year's profit of 2.88 billion yen.
Sales in the games segment specifically were actually up 7.2% thanks to titles like Kingdom Hearts 385/2 Days on DS, which Square Enix said has shipped 490,000 units since its launch in May. The publisher also pointed to the stable sales from the Final Fantasy XI MMORPG. As for Square Enix's other divisions, Amusement (arcade) was down almost 22% due to "severe market conditions," while Publication, Mobile Phone and Merchandising were all up. Merchandising in particular jumped 173.5% thanks to the movie Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Complete.
The next reporting period for Square Enix should be quite positive, as it'll include the big sales numbers for Dragon Quest IX, which has already sold over 3 million copies. Dragon Quest is incredibly popular in Japan and continues to boost Square Enix's balance sheet.
1 Comments
August 10, 2009
I can't say I like how square enix has treated the sony platform this gen. I never bought a final fantasy games but I did pick up those two movies. I would've hoped Eidos would be acquired by someone else as I like them. Not so many of their games but I have a handful. I still have yet to buy games like hitman nor just cause. I was thinking they could've tried a Fighting Force 3 for this gen or at least a remake of the first as DLC. A new Ninja: Shadow of Darkness 2 or Project: Snowblind 2 would've been worth a try. They have a chance to score big with the next Tomb Raider. We'll just have to see if those supposed changes will really be for the better.