Square Enix Suffered A 6% Net Sales Loss In The Last Fiscal Year

Square Enix has recently released its financial reports for the last fiscal year ending March 31, 2023, detailing all the milestones for the eventful 12 months. The investors briefing delves deeply into all the statistics of the giant conglomerate; it is paving its way for a notable fiscal year as Final Fantasy 16 approaches its awaited release. Regardless, the last business year was seemingly full of hurdles in terms of net earnings and operating income.

The net sales for the last fiscal year amounted to 343,267 million yen, which is a negative six percent loss compared to the previous year when the net sales concluded to 365,278 million yen. Moreover, the operating income also suffered a loss this time around, dropping to a whopping 44,331 million yen from the previous 59,261, which is a negative 25.2 year-on-year loss.

The significant loss in net sales and operating income has reduced the income for the giant conglomerate since the lack of sales brought down the overall sales made by the company. Hence, digital entertainment sales were also down by 12.2% year on year. Square Enix notes that there were not many game releases in the last fiscal year, bringing down its sales compared to the 2022 fiscal year, which had many prominent game releases. 

Square Enix’s last fiscal year saw the release of “CRISIS CORE -FINAL FANTASY VII- REUNION,” “FORSPOKEN,” and “OCTOPATH TRAVELER II.” Still, it generated fewer earnings than the previous fiscal year, which witnessed the launch of titles like “OUTRIDERS,” “NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139…,” and “Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy,” causing net sales declined versus the previous fiscal year.

A similar mishap took place in the MMO segment of the report, with Square Enix suffering a loss compared to the 2022 fiscal year. All in all, the company still sold a staggering 16.43 million units in the last fiscal year, which is quite a reduction in contrast to its 29.45 million copies in the 2022 fiscal year. 

Square Enix’s earnings report also talks about blockchain and web3 technology, raising the eyebrows of the community. It is looking to expand its domains in the new technology and deeply explore it in the current fiscal year. Moreover, the report also talks about how the last fiscal year saw some progress in the polemical tech. It has been obsessed with NFT technology, as it was recently integrated into a new horror game Symbiogenesis. 

Furthermore, it wants to invest in “optimal allocation of internal development resources with focus on AAA titles.” And it wants to step up its game of hiring “engineers and other development talent (to develop not only HD and smart device games but also content for future cross‐platform offerings)” for the current fiscal year.

Square Enix is currently preparing to release a potential Game of the Year nominee, Final Fantasy 16, which is slated to come out on June 22, 2023. It is a PlayStation 5 timed exclusive, and unfortunately, it is not cross-generational, so the PlayStation 4 release is not planned. The PC version also currently remains unconfirmed.

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