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Square Enix profits plummet, but loss avoided to close out 2010
The potentially lucrative holiday quarter -- Q3 of Square Enix's fiscal year -- didn't bring a slowdown to the publisher's sinking profits. Instead, the company slid closer to landing in the red as 2010 came to an end. For the nine months ending December 31, 2010, Square Enix today reported a net income of ¥1.821 billion ($22.33 million), a 76.6 percent decrease in profits from the same period the year before. When the iPhone port of Secret of Mana is perhaps your most significant release during the holidays, what more can you expect? Accordingly, net sales in the nine-month period were also down year-over-year (though just by 27.5 percent) for the business, which (aside from games) includes amusement, publication and merchandising products. Speaking of games, the holiday quarter didn't push any additional Square Enix titles into coveted "million-seller" status -- only Kane & Lynch 2 and Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 (Japan only) have reached a million in sales during the company's current fiscal year (ending March 31, 2011), and both had done so by the end of last September. "Responding to intensifying competition in the console game market, the company has implemented organizational changes in the third quarter while also working to better select and further strengthen our most competitive titles," Square Enix president Yoichi Wada offered in a short statement accompanying the financial report. "In other platform areas including PCs and smartphones, we have created successful examples of new content such as Nicotto Town and Sengoku Ixa," Wada added. "By pursuing these two independent markets, we are raising our ability to succeed in diverse business models." So diversified has Square Enix become, in fact, that this is the first we've ever heard of these two "successful" projects! [Pictured: Nicotto Town; image source: nifty.co.jp]
Monster Hunter again captures 'center stage' in Capcom 9-month fiscal report
At this time last year, Capcom was thanking Monster Hunter Tri for helping the company boost its 2009 year-end financial results. Today, Capcom heralded the monstrous shipments of Monster Hunter Freedom 3 that closed out 2010 and propelled the publisher's profits up nearly 300 percent in a nine-month period. During the first three quarters of its current fiscal year (which ends March 31, 2011), Capcom netted ¥6.836 billion (nearly $84 million) in profit -- up from just ¥1.731 the same period the year before. Sales of "Consumer Online Games" (what we call "video games," excluding mobile content) were the driving force, totaling ¥54.057 billion ($663.6 million) -- a bit more than 76 percent of total sales for the business, which includes arcade and amusement ("slot machine") operations. Joining Monster Hunter Freedom 3 (currently only available in Japan), Capcom noted three additional "million-sellers" in the nine-month period (April–December 2010): Dead Rising 2 (with more than 2 million units shipped); Super Street Fighter IV (1.6 million units shipped "mainly to Europe and the United States"); and Lost Planet 2 (1.5 million sold -- "though the figure was less than [the] projected shipment"). During the period, Capcom also worked on "rebuilding the development departments comprising our core competence" in an effort to shift greater resources to its mobile operations, with specific focus on social gaming. Sales of "Mobile Contents" for the three quarters amounted to a modest ¥2.383 billion ($29.25 million), led by a bevy of iPhone releases and some "positive surprises," including the popularity of The Smurfs' Village on Facebook. And Capcom hasn't even accounted for all the MaXplosion press in January yet!
Layton's Unwound Future and Kirby's Epic Yarn join Nintendo's million-seller club
In a supplemental document to Nintendo's latest quarterly earnings report, the company noted its million-sellers during the past three fiscal quarters (April–Dec. 2010), with Professor Layton and pink power-puff Kirby standing out from the games featuring keywords: Mario, Pokémon and Wii. Through the end of 2010, DS puzzler Professor Layton and the Unwound Future had reached global sales of 1.9 million units since its September 12 debut, while Dragon Quest IX just squeezed into the million-seller club with 1.02 million copies sold (since July 11). The Wii-llion seller list for the nine-month period featured several Mario and Wii [Fill in Blank] games, but Donkey Kong Country Returns was also a popular pick, moving a bananas 4.21 million units since its late-November release. Additionally, Kirby's Epic Yarn managed to stitch up sales of 1.4 million units in two and a half months at retail. Sitting on top of DS and Wii million-sellers for the period were Pokemon Black/White with 5.3 million copies sold (and it's not even out in North America and Europe yet!) and Super Mario Galaxy 2 with a hearty 6.2 million units in mushroom-fueled sales, respectively.
Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver reaches 8.4m sold; other Nintendo million-sellers revealed from last fiscal year
As an addition to its overall earnings report, Nintendo has released a list of first-party million-sellers from its last fiscal year (ending March 31). Many of these games, including Wii Sports and Wii Fit, have been out for years, but still managed to sell more than a million units over the last four quarters! On DS, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver have sold an astonishing 8.4 million copies -- 3.78 million in Japan, where the game's been out since September, and 4.62 million outside of Japan in just a few short weeks of availability before the close of the fiscal year. Nintendo's Japan-only Tomodachi Collection sold 3.2 million copies, and Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box moved a respectable 2.43 million copies outside of Japan. Even Style Savvy, which has a somewhat low profile in North America and Europe, sold 1.21 million copies in those territories. As for two perennial bestsellers, Mario Kart DS and New Super Mario Bros. each sold over three million copies outside of Japan in the last fiscal year. Nintendo's marquee 2009 Wii titles, Wii Sports Resort, Wii Fit Plus and New Super Mario Bros. Wii, sold more than 10 million units each in North America and Europe alone; and worldwide, those titles sold 16.14 million, 12.65 million, and 14.7 million copies, respectively, through the fiscal year. But if you think those are big numbers, think again. Thanks to Wii Sports being bundled with the Wii system outside of Japan, the game now totals 63.46 million units sold. Heck, even Link's Crossbow Training (bundled with the Wii Zapper) broke a million sold in the last fiscal year. Head past the break for the complete list of million-sellers from Nintendo's fiscal year ending March 31, 2010. Source [PDF] - Supplementary information about earnings release [Nintendo]
