Despite Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail and Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake doing better than anticipated, Square Enix still reported a drop in video game profits by almost 10% over the past year.
In its financial report for the first nine months of the current fiscal year ending on March 31st, the Japanese publisher confirmed net sales for its Digital Entertainment sector have dropped 10.7% and operating income 9.9% due to the weak performance of mobile and browser-based games and to the low sales of games released this year compared to the sales of those released the previous fiscal year, including the Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters and Dragon Quest Monsters: The Dark Prince. Still, some of the publisher's new releases did well, as the Dragon Quest HD-2D Remake sold better than expected. The Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail expansion also sold well and has driven an increase in the MMO segment profits over the previous year.
The results reported in the latest financial report aren't particularly surprising, considering how Square Enix reported last September how sales of Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth did not meet expectations, expectations that were reportedly reasonable this time. Thankfully, the second entry in the Remake trilogy seems to be doing quite well on PC, so there's the chance that sales will eventually meet the publisher's expectations. It definitely would be a shame for such a good game to be considered a failure in terms of sales.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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