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Square Enix sales jump 33.2%, profits fall 55.7%

Publisher takes in $998 million as Dragon Quest IX sells 4 million, Batman Arkham Asylum 2.63 million, Kingdom Hearts 385/2 1.22 million.

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Square Enix may have shaved its profit forecast for its full fiscal year last week, but the publisher is still showing substantial top-line growth. Reporting on the first six months of its current fiscal year today, Square Enix said that revenues for the period jumped 33.2 percent to ¥90.6 billion ($998 million), bolstered in part by the publisher's April acquisition of UK-based Eidos. However, profit for the period took a nosedive, falling 55.7 percent to ¥2.68 billion ($29.5 million).

Japan certainly loves Dragon Quest IX.
Japan certainly loves Dragon Quest IX.

Between Eidos and its internal studios, Square Enix had a number of top performers during the April-September period. Dragon Quest IX, which is currently available only in Japan for the DS, sold 4 million units through September, while fellow DS role-playing game Kingdom Hearts 358/2 sold 1.22 million units since its Japanese launch in May and its late-September rollout elsewhere. Though the bulk of its Japanese sales fell outside the reporting window, Dissidia Final Fantasy for the PSP sold an additional 720,000 units during the period.

As for the Eidos label, Batman: Arkham Asylum has now sold 2.63 million units in North America and Europe since debuting on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in August and on the PC in September. Hitman creator IO Interactive scored some small success with its new property Mini Ninjas, which shifted 600,000 units across the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS, and PC since its early-September premiere.

All said, Square Enix's Games segment saw revenues rise 117.5 percent to ¥48.4 billion ($533 million) during the April-September period. Operating income also rose significantly, climbing 63.5 percent to ¥10.4 billion ($115 million) from the year-ago period. The Games segment shifted 12.07 million software units total during the first half of the year, and Square Enix expects that number to balloon to 26 million units by the end of its full fiscal year on March 31, 2010.

Laying out its projections for its full fiscal year, Square Enix said revenues are expected to rise 32.7 percent to ¥180 billion ($1.98 billion). Despite the aforementioned downward revision, the Japanese publisher still expects to turn a ¥10 billion ($110 million) profit, up 57.9 percent year-over-year.

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Avatar image for Quinzark
Quinzark

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@Ric_SlayeR It's next month isn't it? anyway if there ever stuck they really could get away with re-releasing updated versions of the old ps1 FF's

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Ric_SlayeR

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WTH is FF13?? If they want some profit they will have to launch it soon...

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chefstubbies

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Sales up & profits down... Sucks to be you Square-Enix.

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Glade_Gnarr

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There's a square enix non-gaming segment?

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Cabal23

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The thing is many people are over JRPG's because western RPG's have been showing a ton of innovation, something Japanese developers need to take a note from. Honestly after the past couple of FF's, I gave up. Nothing has changed very much. I am having too much fun playing Dragon Age to care what Square/Enix is doing. They are so last year.

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Humorguy_basic

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Most of their profit is made in Japan -and that's a million miles from what is going on in the west. Don;t confuse a company doing well in Japan when most of the companies in the west are struggling.

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LosDaddie

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Makes sense. No big console game came out

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method115

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Batman was a great game just no re playability at all. I never felt like going back through the main game. It was worth the experience though good game.

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Kleeyook

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Where the hell is my FF13 Versus and Agito!!!!?

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LordRaymond

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One game FInal Fantasy 13!

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wiidsduelpack

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Square Enix is crazy to see much success. With Modern Warfare 2 and all those good titles coming up which are not from Square Enix, the company will see sales slow.----------------------------------------- MS is also getting more competitive as it is buying of more companies and getting itself richer. New Batman game sold 2.63 million copies which is low considering it was on two consoles. Its success will rely more on the DS as it has sold more than 6 million games for the console.

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Katra

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@ Franzkill Shoot, I can see Square making loads of money remaking all the ff's 1-9 in todays hd quality games. I would like ff9 the most though.

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ngelsok

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hmm....with all that money they made, you would think that they could hire a bigger team to translate the american version of Final Fantasy.....sorry, I just want a good damn RPG for the ps3......nothing compares to the FF series or DQ series....hell where is the new kingdom hearts at? you guys need to start working on that as well, i want to play it this century!

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dewwy

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I think Eidos will be able to up their game quality while under the Square Enix umbrella. Now if only Square Enix could put out multiple 360/PS3 hits in the same year and not pump out countless Kingdom Hearts handheld games and other sub-par console games.

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SDBusDriver1979

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Good call on square to buy eidos when they did, definitely paid off with Batman.

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zelda_adict

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Meh, never really liked Squenix (DQ, FF and KH were not very good in my opinion). Atlus, on the other hand, have made some VERY good games that are unfortunately given scores that, although good, are still lower than, say, FF10. Good Job with being unbiased, Gamespot. I guess I'll just trust Rpgfan from now on. I'm still hoping for FF13 to be good, although I truly loath the fact that they used Yuna's VA for Lightning.

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Cross313

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Concurred DQ series is in my opinion the greatest rpg's ever made.

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kingofcosmos231

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"So Dragon Quest is better than Kingdom Hearts? What?" dragon quest is indeed better than kingdom hearts

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drangel_jam

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I'm glad Batman kicked arse.

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Franzkill

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@tyco ex I reckon Square Enix are just teasing upon that very obvious assumption. I know how crazy some of my mates and other gamers alike are about FF7 |(heck so am I). Square Enix know that they can release it at any time and people would flock to the stores (online, high street, whatever) and grab a copy even if it was sold at £100. The prospect of it redone in crisp HD visuals along with trophy support and quality voice acting would make any gamer poop there pants really.

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Shinkada

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tl;dr: Square still stealing money from idiots.

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ColonelX24

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So Dragon Quest is better than Kingdom Hearts? What?

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tyco_ex

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Meh, if squenix ever needed money all they would have to do is make a ps3 remake of ff7 and watch their profits triple.

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SecularSage

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Once again, GameStop doesn't really understand what these financials mean. The question is whether or not they are financially healthy going in to the next quarter. Revenues are up because of the acquisition of Eidos. Having a new publishing label will do that. 33% sounds like a healthy jump, but it could be a bad thing if they were expecting more in the short-term from the merger. Profits are down because most of their profitable sales will come during Q3 and Q4. Right now, they're investing a lot in the FF XIII games and other IPs. The second half of FY 2010 is going to be where they're going to make their profits. The interesting part of the story is that profit projections are being lowered. Is that because Square Enix overvalued Eidos? Or is it because they overvalued their three core IPs -- DQ, FF and KH and have yet to hit sales projections? That's the real question.

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CybertronR

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I love comments!

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rocka_

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Go square!!!

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TheKungFool

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Now imagine if they'd have been smart enough to release FF Dissidea as a PS2 or PS3 release.........

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gilbertus

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Well, FFXIII will surely boost some numbers in december... Unfortunately, knowing square, they'll probably release FFXIII in north america after march 31, so they can start the next fiscal year with a boom...

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2bitSmOkEy

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Well Dragon Quest and Batman were both great games congrats...

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ahpuck

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dragon quest is one of the main reasons i still have my ds.

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OneMoarLevel

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I wish them nothing but success, i love their games :)

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etramleinad12

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Birth By Sleep could probably fix their money issues. ;)

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kairikh

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forgot eidos was a part of square, and i kept wondering why batman looked so realistic :P yay square deserves it, i cant wait to see their profit from final fantasy by the end of 2010 quarter

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oldschoolKEN

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Good for you square. Now gimme DQIX! I have 75hrs on DQVIII and am so close to completing it. So i'll let you slide this time, if only because your so good lookin'.

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mr_squibble

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Definitely looking forward to DQIX in the US.

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CoolKidX

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Mini Ninja's old 600 thousand? Wow.

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coldsauce09

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more power to square. i love their games from the last generation and still waiting for theyre KO punch.

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shii666

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Hmm... Maybe they should release a game for the PS3.

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Virtual_Erkan

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How much did Dissidia Final Fantasy sold in US?

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BallinBoy69

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Who cares

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hashabnelah

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This is nice for Dragon Quest IX, as it set new precedence for being the first non-Nintendo game to break four million sales in Japan.

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