Sales and profits are down at Final Fantasy maker Square Enix, which just released its financials for the six months ended September 30, 2018.
Consolidated net sales fell by 15 percent to 112.2 billion yen ($990.2 million), while profits decreased by 50.7 percent to 8.6 billion yen ($75.9 million) — though that’s partly because the firm booked an extraordinary loss of 3.7 billion yen ($32.7 million) after restructuring fledgling game studio, Luminous Productions.
It’s a similar story in Square’s Digital Entertainment division, which houses its video game operations, with six-month sales dipping by 18.9 percent year-on-year to 82.8 billion yen ($730.7 million), and operating profits falling by 50.9 percent to 13.5 billion yen ($119.1 million).
The company blamed that decline on a drop-off in licensing income, along with the poor performance of smart device and PC browser catalog titles that launched during the previous fiscal year.
As the graph below shows, Square also witnessed a decline in HD game sales and revenue, despite the arrival of titles like Octopath Traveler and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
Meanwhile, in the area of massively multiplayer online role-playing games, net sales and operating profits decreased compared to the same period of the prior fiscal year.
Looking ahead, Square is sticking to its current financial forecasts, and expects to see net sales of 270 billion yen ($2.4 billion) and profits of 21 billion yen ($185.3 million) by the end of the fiscal year on March 31, 2019.
