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Square-Enix Sees Profits Sink

Posted by Zonk on from the out-of-mana dept.

Gamespot reports that RPG maker Square-Enix reported an almost 70% decline in net profit for most of last year. From the article: "Square Enix attributed most of its financial difficulties to its primary business--games. The company had a profitable nine months, releasing a number of hits: Kingdom Hearts II, which shipped 1.1 million units in Japan since its release in December; Romancing SaGa for the PS2, which shipped 500,000 units (Japan: 450,000, USA: 50,000); and Dragon Quest VIII, which shipped 430,000 units in North America. However, the numbers couldn't match those of the previous year, when Dragon Quest VIII shipped 3 million units in its first three days of release in Japan. The segment's sales fell 43.3 percent to 21.2 billion yen ($180 million), and its operating income plunged 95.1 percent to 974 million yen ($8.28 million)."

1 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Hopefully not pinning hopes on FFXII by the_demiurge · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My brother got a copy of Dragon Warrior VIII for Christmas, and I had the opportunity to try out the FFXII demo.

    I'm glad I did. The battle system was one of the most boring I've ever played in an RPG. The game practically plays itself. In the 'Boss Battle' in the second mission, I won without giving any orders to my characters at all except for using one ether when I ran out of magic points. Your allies heal themselves and you and there seemed to be little point in casting magic spells yourself except to heal.
    I realize that Final Fantasy has always been a game with changing mechanics and battle systems, but making the battle system as simple as possible is not a step in the right direction.

    So maybe the high distribution of DW VIII will contribute to the downturn in sales in more ways than one...