Strong Final Fantasy XIV Sales Lead Square Enix to Financial Turnaround

[roseofbattle]

Strong Final Fantasy XIV Sales Lead Square Enix to Financial Turnaround

Sales of Final Fantasy titles, Thief, and Tomb Raider exceeded Square Enix's expectations, causing the company to revise financial results.

Square Enix revised its financial results for the year (ending March 31, 2014) as it expects to exceed its previous forecast. The company cited strong sales of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and favorable sales of other titles.

The company raised its net sales forecast from 140-150 billion yen ($1.32 billion to $1.47 billion) to 155 billion yen ($1.52 billion).

After poor reception to Final Fantasy XIV in 2010, Square Enix relaunched the game as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, launching on PC and PS3 in August 2013 and on PS4 this April. Over two million accounts have been registered for the MMORPG.

In addition to Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn's success for Square Enix, Thief, Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster, and Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition all had "favorable sales." The Japan-exclusive Dragon Quest Monsters Super Light also had an "encouraging start."

Just one year ago Square Enix stated Tomb Raider was a commercial failure, but sales today show the reboot has done well for itself. In March Crystal Dynamics studio expected the Tomb Raider reboot to reach six million units sold [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/132747-Tomb-Raider-Approaching-Six-Million-Units-Sold-Exceeds-Expectations] by the end of March. The title is the best-selling game in the franchise.

Square Enix's 2013 fiscal year was grim [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123943-Square-Enix-Financials-Net-Sales-Up-13-7-Billion-Lost], but this February the company reported a turnaround. Square Enix looked to cost reduction initiatives and exchange gains from the weaker yen as reasons for a change to the forecast for ordinary income and net income. It will post detailed financials on May 13.

Source: Square Enix [http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/news/pdf/140509.pdf]


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[dragongit]

Sort of the opposite since FFXIV originally nearly killed the company. Well... not sure how close to "killed" but it was a disaster. I still hope FFXV is going to be a smash hit for the single player gamers. I tried FFXIV, I enjoyed it... for the free month it comes with. Then it got to the familiar point in all MMOs, where you grind for gear, to grind for gear, to grind for gear... and it was 2 dungeons you could choose from roughly at max level when I played. and one dungeon after that.

 

[IndomitableSam]

Would still be playing if one of our Free Company members hadn't gotten hacked and took all they money we'd pooled. Customer Support did nothing and refused to help for over a month after the incident - they didn't even acknowledge that it happened, much less tell us we were out of luck. If they had at least told us that it was our fault and they wouldn't give us our money back, fine. But they refused to even look into the issue when we had chat logs and other people logged in at the time, and the member who got hacked was contacted right away (but too late to save the money) and logged in to change his passwords. We had the exact time, date, place, and chat logs and they wouldn't even look at the info or answer any calls or emails. (This is par for the course with them, by the way.)

So a whole bunch of us quit - the fact that they don't care about customers at all really soured what is actually a wonderful game. Such a shame.

 

[BrotherRool]

'Favourable sales' for Thief probably means 'it sold a copy'. I suspect they'd written it off after it's development hell. The final launch certainly seemed like they'd given up on any hope of getting it right.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

Huh. Well that's a headline that I didn't expect, seeing how disastrous the initial launch was. Good for them, I suppose.

 

[Trishbot]

Square's turning itself around? Huzzah!

FFXIV's original launch was a disaster. FFXIV: A Realm Reborn is making them money.
Square originally called Tomb Raider a disaster. Now it's one of the best-selling games in the series at over 6 million copies sold.
Square didn't have faith in Bravely Default to localize it. It's now one of the biggest third-party 3DS games of all time.
Square pushed FF13 sequels and spin-offs at us that weren't selling. A port of FFX ranks in the top 10 games of the past few months.

I'm really hoping Square Enix is getting all these messages.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I'm happy for them. They can be fearful idiots sometimes, but they did release some of my favorite games in the last couple of years. I hope they'll do well in the future too.

 

[Church185]

Hopefully they go ahead and re-release FFXII so I can throw another fist full of cash at them. That was my second favorite FF so far and I would really love to get my hands on the International content.

Also: SQUARE, MAKE A NEW CHRONO GAME!!!

 

[mdqp]

The title is the best-selling game in the franchise.

Didn't the first Tomb Raider sell more copies, actually? I think it went past 7 millions, if I remember correctly.

 

[themilo504]

I'm happy for them. They can be fearful idiots sometimes, but they did release some of my favorite games in the last couple of years. I hope they'll do well in the future too.

I also feel the same way, I hope that they actually learned from their many mistakes and won?t repeat them.

I am surprised that FF14 ARR is doing pretty well, I might check it out once it inevitably goes free to play.

 

[1337mokro]

Who knew staying realistic and not over hyping your projections would eventually allow you to be positive about your sales rather than complaining that not every game you make sells GTAV numbers.

 

[Bleidd Whitefalcon]

I'm happy for them. They can be fearful idiots sometimes, but they did release some of my favorite games in the last couple of years. I hope they'll do well in the future too.

I also feel the same way, I hope that they actually learned from their many mistakes and won?t repeat them.

I am surprised that FF14 ARR is doing pretty well, I might check it out once it inevitably goes free to play.

I wouldn't be so sure about it going free to play - Final Fantasy 11 is still sub based. They might do the same with this

 

[shadowmagus]

From all of us that's been playing ARR, you're welcome.

[

I am surprised that FF14 ARR is doing pretty well, I might check it out once it inevitably goes free to play.

You shouldn't wait that long. A decade is a really long time if FFXI is any indication.

 

[iblis666]

love ff14 arr and the new hd remake of 10 is great, just hope they do the same for 12 so i can play it on my vita

 

[Nilanius]

FFXIV: ARR, is a solid game. I been playing it since launch and I am extremely pleased with what SE has been doing with it. I had a moment where I felt a little burn out, but sims 3 helps there. And a lot of people playing ARR, are also the ones who are unhappy with Blizzard's handling of World of Warcraft. So the customers Blizzard loses, is ARR's gain. I am sure Elder Scrolls Online is also grabbing a good portion of them players as well.

 

[Aeonknight]

From all of us that's been playing ARR, you're welcome.

[

I am surprised that FF14 ARR is doing pretty well, I might check it out once it inevitably goes free to play.

You shouldn't wait that long. A decade is a really long time if FFXI is any indication.

Wouldn't pat yourself on the back that much, everyone knows the funds to fix XIV came from the FFXI players subscription fees.

 

[Roxas1359]

Hopefully they go ahead and re-release FFXII so I can throw another fist full of cash at them. That was my second favorite FF so far and I would really love to get my hands on the International content.

Also: SQUARE, MAKE A NEW CHRONO GAME!!!

Something's telling me that the moment I say I'm gonna LP Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job Edition Square will suddenly announce a new HD remake...part of me wants to chance it, but at the same time FF XII IZJE is my only Square Enix import that hasn't been made useless...I hate my timing. T^T

 

[KingdomFantasyXIII]

Square's turning itself around? Huzzah!

FFXIV's original launch was a disaster. FFXIV: A Realm Reborn is making them money.
Square originally called Tomb Raider a disaster. Now it's one of the best-selling games in the series at over 6 million copies sold.
Square didn't have faith in Bravely Default to localize it. It's now one of the biggest third-party 3DS games of all time.
Square pushed FF13 sequels and spin-offs at us that weren't selling. A port of FFX ranks in the top 10 games of the past few months.

I'm really hoping Square Enix is getting all these messages.

Actually XIII-2 sold quite well for a spinoff. It was one of the two games in Fiscal year 2011. Lightning Returns is selling okay.

 

[Church185]

Something's telling me that the moment I say I'm gonna LP Final Fantasy XII International Zodiac Job Edition Square will suddenly announce a new HD remake...part of me wants to chance it, but at the same time FF XII IZJE is my only Square Enix import that hasn't been made useless...I hate my timing. T^T

DO IT!

In all honesty I feel like we'll hear something about a FFXII remake during E3. They said sometime last year that if FFX sold well enough they would start working on FFXII (and maybe FFX-3 if anyone was interested). Then again, they also hinted at an english version of Type-0 and we know that will never happen. >.>

 

[Lunar Templar]

I am surprised that FF14 ARR is doing pretty well, I might check it out once it inevitably goes free to play.

not sayen it won't >.> but FF11 is still sub only and pretty sure it's still doing well enough to justify keeping the 'sub only' model, and its what? 10 or so years old now? Waiting might not be a good idea if you wanna play it ...

OT:
With any luck, this will teach Square a lesson or six, so they stop making shit games no one really wants and go back to making the kinda games that made them a 'thing' to begin with.

Also >.< Dark Knights, gimme a Dark Knight class in FFXIV damn it!!!