fiscal-year-2012
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Square Enix sales up, profits down in first half
After releasing its revised forecast for the first half of its fiscal year last week, Square Enix has announced the actual results (PDF). Surprise, surprise, the revised forecasts were right on the money, with the company reporting net sales of ¥61 billion ($760 million) for the six months ended September 30, an increase of ¥3.5 billion ($43.6 million) over the same period last year. As forecast, Square has posted a ¥5.4 billion ($67 million) net loss during the past six months, compared to a ¥3.7 billion net income during the same period last year.The company's performance is laid at the feet of lower than expected console game sales, development costs for mobile games and "sluggish" arcade machine sales and revenues. Last week's forecast specifically mentioned slow sales of "a major HD game title," presumably Sleeping Dogs, which launched in August.
Sega Sammy sales and profits down in first half, consumer business sees growth
Sega Sammy has reported its financial results (PDF) for the first half of its fiscal year, ending March 31, 2012. The company reported sales of over ¥136 billion ($1.7 billion) a decrease of ¥16 billion ($199,000) over the same period last year. Net income reached ¥3.87 billion ($48 million), a slight decrease over the ¥3.98 billion ($49 million) reported for the same period last year.Sega Sammy attributes the decline to "turmoil in the global financial markets, mainly in Europe, and the economic slowdown of emerging nations." As a result, sales of amusement machines (pachinko, etc) slowed, as did the sale of packaged video games.It's not all bad news, however, as Sega's consumer video game business is one of the few sectors of the company to see some growth. The division posted an operating loss of ¥780 million ($9.7 million), a dramatic improvement over the ¥6 billion loss ($74.7 million) posted during the same period last year. Part of this growth is attributed to strong Japanese sales of Hatsune Miku Project Diva F for the PlayStation Vita. Phantasy Star Online 2 has also done well, registering over a million players and exceeding Sega's in-game purchase forecasts.Earlier this year, the company announced plans to restructure and streamline its consumer video game business, resulting in staff cuts in Europe and America and the closure of offices in Europe and Australia. Going forward, the publisher plans to focus on digital distribution and its core brands, including Sonic the Hedgehog, Total War, Football Manager and Aliens.
Square Enix lowers financial forecast in wake of slow sales
Square Enix has revised its financial forecast (PDF) for both the six month period ending September 30 and its fiscal year ending March 31, 2013. Expected sales for the six month period have been reduced from ¥76 billion ($952 million) to ¥61 billion ($763 million). Projected net income for the period has been reduced from breaking even to a ¥5.4 billion loss ($67 million).The fiscal year forecast, meanwhile, has dropped from ¥165 billion ($2 billion) to ¥150 billion ($1.8 billion), with expected net income dropping from ¥9 billion ($112 million) to ¥3.5 billion ($43 million).The reasons behind the revision in the six month period, according to Square Enix, were "sluggish sales" of new arcade machines and that "sales of a major HD game title have been growing at a slower pace than expected." Presumably, the game in question is Sleeping Dogs, which was released this past August to generally favorable reviews. The notice also cites the "delays of a social game service launch." Fiscal year revisions were made in light of the aforementioned issues and "uncertainties of the business environment."Square Enix's next major release is Hitman: Absolution. Agent 47 returns on November 20.
EA spending $80 million on next-gen development over next year
According to EA's results for fiscal 2012, the period from April 1, 2011 through March 31, 2012, it's been a good year. The publisher saw growth across many sectors, but perhaps most surprising was talk of investing $80 million in development of games for "Gen4 console systems" over the next 12 months, EA's fiscal 2013.It speaks to not only when we could potentially get our hands on some new hardware, but is potentially indicative of how much cash a major publisher will need in order to produce games for the next generation of AAA blockbusters. $80 million for one "Samaritan" seems like par for the course, right? That's how much we imagine it'll cost to produce one game in Superfuture 2013.
