Square Enix reported a 24.8 percent decline in net sales, and a 56.4 percent drop in operating income for the six-month period that ended on September 30.
For the second quarter, the company reported net sales of 68.05 billion yen (843.82 million USD), down sharply from 90.56 billion yen (1.12 billion USD) from the same period a year ago. Operating income was 5.71 billion yen (70.80 million USD), down dramatically from 13.09 billion yen (162.31 million USD) from the same period in 2009.
In an earnings release today, the company blamed a "challenging operating environment" for the slowdown of unit sales during the six-month period. It also added that operating income performed slightly better than expected due to "carryover sales of major titles released in March of the previous fiscal year."
During a separate earnings call, the company offered more details on specific games sales for the period. Over the six-month period that ended on September 30, Square Enix sold a total of 8.17 million software units: 2.84 million in Japan, 2.71 million in Europe, and 2.48 million in North America.
Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 moved 1.28 million units in Japan (an exclusive to that market), Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days sold a total of 1.12 million units (0.02 JPN, 0.39 NA, 0.71 EU), Final Fantasy XIV moved 630,000 units (0.19 JPN, 0.21 NA, 0.23 EU), Just Cause 2 sold just over half a million units (0.56 million - 0.05 JPN, 0.26 NA, 0.25 EU), and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep moved 510,000 units (0.01 JPN, 0.31 NA, 0.19 EU). Figures on unit sales were provided by Andriasang.
Looking ahead, Square Enix predicts 160 billion yen (1.98 billion USD) in net sales, and operating income of 20 billion yen (248 million USD) for the six-month period that ends in March of next year.
Financial data for Square Enix is available here (PDF).
The currency conversion rate used for this story is $1 USD = 80.7000 JPY.
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Source: Daily News from GamePro.com
Thursday, November 4, 2010