News: Square Enix Announce Financial Results, Low Western Figures Page 1

Square Enix Announce Financial Results, Low Western Figures

Square Enix have posted their financial results today for the fiscal year ending March 31st 2013.

The company suffered a net loss of ¥13.7 billion and aims to revitalise development with a new strategy to hopefully return to profit.

Citing smartphones and tablet PCs as a major change in the industry, the company are to focus "all efforts on a substantial earnings improvement through driving reforms of business structure in order to establish new revenue base". The company is disappointed in the weak performance of big names like Sleeping Dogs and Tomb Raider in North America and Europe.

However Dragon Quest X is "showing steady performance" on the Nintendo Wii and recently released Wii U edition.

The company is seeking to produce better content for different regions, particularly the western market. With that in mind the RPG giant is projecting a net income figure for FY2014 as somewhere between ¥3.5 billion and ¥6 billion.

Are you happy with Square Enix's efforts over the last year - what titles would you like from the RPG giant?

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Marcus J. Hopkins 14.05.2013#1

"Are you happy with Square Enix's efforts over the last year - what titles would you like from the RPG giant?"

Not in the very least.

Let me revise that - not in the West.

It's great that SE's efforts over the past few years have been largely focused on providing great content for their Japanese market, but frankly, I'm over it. Enough with region-exclusive games; enough with releasing games with dedicated, long-term fan bases (namely Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest) exclusively in Japan, simply because you don't expect them to sell very well.

I understand that, from a business perspective, those kinds of decisions are made from a cost/benefit analysis, but it doesn't seem that those analyses were put to use when they went about acquiring every company they could gobble up over the past decade in a craven effort to expand their holdings.

You put out crappy games, you get crappy results. You pump millions of dollars in production into Final Fantasy XIII over six years, and focus all of your efforts on visuals instead of doing what the series does best (tells a compelling story with great characters), and you get exactly what you pay for - NOTHING. You release a great remake like Dragon Quest VII on 3DS, and you reap the rewards.

Red XIII 14.05.2013#2

Absolutely hit the nail on the head there. I would really love to see SE come out of this slump, but since hardly any of the greats from the old days remain, I'm almost torn between that and actually WANTING them to go under for all the crap they've put out. Or at least enough to initiate massive reforms. Hopefully that's what this is.

I can't express how happy I would be to see a truly great Final Fantasy game again, and a new Square series. I don't want remakes, I don't want spin-offs, and I don't want reboots. There have been some good ones, don't misunderstand, but with a new generation underway, it's time to get creative again. Think outside of the box again, and really push the boundaries. Someone has to start the chain reaction to get the industry out of the toilet--and I'd have to say SE is one of the last companies I'd expect to start that wave--but I hope that when it comes, they will hop on and ride it.

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coffeewithchess 14.05.2013#3

I haven't played many (any really) Square Enix games, but my wife is a fan of the Final Fantasy games, but even those haven't really seemed to catch big attention in recent years.

I really wonder when the industry is going to reach the bottom though, and hopefully they can get back to making games for fun.

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Asuna 14.05.2013#4

I haven't been very keen on keeping up with what SE has been putting out lately but from what I've heard, I've been shaking my head at them. They're making so many desperate attempts at earning money that it's giving me a little secondhand embarrassment; milking FFXIII, releasing a great amount of remakes for games, iPhone apps... It's a shame because many people including myself have been big fans of their games.

But even though they're in a bad state right now, I really doubt they'll wipe themselves out of the industry soon. I'm a bit indifferent to the titles they have been coming out with recently and this sounds a bit like a helpless dream, but... maybe FFXIII Versus would be nice? I can't help but still want it since it's the whole reason I bought myself a PS3.