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Square Enix FY2024 Q1 Results

- Net Sales: +14.4%
- Operating income: -78.5%
- Digital Entertainment Net Sales: +16.4%
- HD Games sub-segment sales up due to FF16 & FF Pixel Remasters but profits down partly due to amortization of development costs.
- MMO sub-segment down YoY
- Games for Smart Devices/PC Browser sub-segment down due to weak performances from existing titles.
- Publication Net Sales: -4.7%
- Amusement Net Sales: +11.3%
- Merchandising Net Sales: +28.7%
HD Games sales rose due to the release of titles including FF16 and FF Pixel Remaster. But operating income is down year on year due to development costs eating into profits.



Full report can be accessed here:

 
Ooof. Not really great results. Why did mobile drop? And with that MMO drop no wonder they want to reach more platforms.
 

Zheph

Member
Expecting mobile to get better numbers once the new FF7 mobile game drops
 
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Fabieter

Member
Ooof. Not really great results. Why did mobile drop? And with that MMO drop no wonder they want to reach more platforms.

Yea they knew in 2019 that they will drop in the fiscal year 2024. The reason they made the jump now it that its the best time so start on a new platform with a completely new story around the corner.
 

YukiOnna

Member
The MMO segment will bounce back first when the new Xbox peeps join in early spring of next year, then in the summer when the next big expansion releases. Not sure what's the deal with the mobile drop though.
I mean the MMO segment being down in post patch cycles isn't new and as you said it'll bounce back with 7.0 launch next year. Although the slight increased length in patch cycles probably contributed to this, but it was for employee benefits and whatnot.

Mobile titles from SE tend to have a short shelf life and struggle to compete with the likes of CyGames and whatnot so it's not surprising. It's a lot with little return.

Good thing XVI seemed to pull its weight where it was supposed to.
 

Rykan

Member
The MMO segment will bounce back first when the new Xbox peeps join in early spring of next year, then in the summer when the next big expansion releases. Not sure what's the deal with the mobile drop though.
It really won't. That audience just isn't there at all. Final Fantasy games don't sell well on Xbox platforms, never mind an MMORPG that requires a subscription. It's going to be as irrelevant as XI was on Xbox 360.

FFXIV is probably well past its peak. It will see a temporary boost during expansion windows until players finish the Mary Sue storyline. It's an old game, and SE should really start preparing for a successor now that XVI is wrapped up.
 
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The Fuzz damn you!

Gold Member
sony buyout is the wayout for them
I reckon it would be a damn fool idea for Sony to buy them. They will bring on astoundingly high employee costs and have not demonstrated that they are able to deliver the AAA experience that Sony would be buying them for. FFXVI was a mess. An enjoyable mess, but a mess all the same. They would be a liability, and Sony needs profit-generators that wont taint their image.
 

YukiOnna

Member
Good increase in HD games, but 10 billions mobile decrease in 2 years is a lot. I hope they'll focus on traditional gaming
Seems like it. From May:
image.png
 

Griffon

Member
MMO droping makes complete sense. FF14 is getting long in the tooth, the game is so old that they even got to finish the main story. The technical debt and gameplay systems have a lot of old issues that'll plague the game until its death.

The truth is they need to make a new more modern MMO within the next 4 years.
 
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Zheph

Member
MMO droping makes complete sense. FF14 is getting long in the tooth, the game is so old that they even got to finish the main story. The technical debt and gameplay systems have a lot of old issues that'll plague the game until its death.

The truth is they need to make a new more modern MMO within the next 4 years.
I completely agree but the fanbase won't accept that nicely. One of the reason you don't see a WoW 2 also

It would take something quite wild to make the shift easy a bit like what Path of Exile 2 was supposed to be but they even dropped that and will have PoE1 and 2 running separately...
 

yazenov

Member
Ooof. Not really great results. Why did mobile drop? And with that MMO drop no wonder they want to reach more platforms.

I mean, how many percent of those 20 million Xbox Series owners would subscribe to a 10-year-old Japanese MMO? I wonder what is their expectation here?

I think it's more like planting the seed for their next MMO. Or for Square-Enix to receive the huge truckload of cash as compensation for putting FF14 on that console to bridge the relationship.
 
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brian0057

Banned
Have they found a way to somehow blame Tomb Raider for this ?
Square Enix will lay the blame for the financial troubles on their western studios so they don't have to acknowledge that spending almost 20 cumulative years developing 2 Final Fantasy games isn't a sound monetary decision. Give it time. Crystal Dynamics is on the chopping block.
 

Hudo

Member
I am usually not a fan of "hey, look, a company made profits/losses!" kind of threads (as the mods already made abundantly clear). But Square Enix is actually interesting to me because they either win hard or lose hard. It's crazy.
 

ChiefDada

Gold Member
Square Enix, one of the few single player centric publishers left, is struggling? In 2023?

Financials are actually pretty good. If people understood amortized development costs is costs incurred prior to the financial period but only just now being recognized, they would have a better understanding. It would be more accurate to describe prior period financials as "overstated" because of how costs are being reported and timing of recognitions.
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
Square Enix, one of the few single player centric publishers left, is struggling? In 2023?

tumblr_pg9rw4kQGI1s9a9yjo1_400.gif


Embrace modernity, or be left behind.

Nah ...it is more that they are still coasting off the IPs of their big creative period during the paystation era and really havn't produce NEW ideas since.
And I do not mean just new IPs but a diverse portfolio.. during the Playstation era they had games like ... the bouncer, tobal, dirge of cerberus, FF tatics, einhander, brave fencer musashi, bushido blade ... just ton of well rated critic darlings even if they didn't sell a ton. it all added up.


FF14 is still pretty big though and thats not single player. :messenger_blowing_kiss:
 
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Fuz

Banned
Expecting mobile to get better numbers once the new FF7 mobile game drops but ooof not great
Don't be so sure.
Even from rabid fanboys who got an advance copy to *cough*advertise*cough* test, it's got very mild or even negative impressions.
 

Zheph

Member
Don't be so sure.
Even from rabid fanboys who got an advance copy to *cough*advertise*cough* test, it's got very mild or even negative impressions.
Ever Crisis? Damn the trailers looked good but fair enough, I am not into mobile gaming but was happy to try it at least
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
Single player centric?
You are seeing the same graph as we, right? More than half of their sales come from the "MMO" and "mobile" division.
I can't speak to mobile, but how many of Square Enix last 20 games have been MP oriented vs SP oriented?
 

Fuz

Banned
Ever Crisis? Damn the trailers looked good but fair enough, I am not into mobile gaming but was happy to try it at least
Apparently the story is butchered to sell it in little pieces later on, and even the youtubers weren't expecting that. Among other problems (I didn't follow closely, just saw the tepid reception).
 
The MMO segment will bounce back first when the new Xbox peeps join in early spring of next year, then in the summer when the next big expansion releases. Not sure what's the deal with the mobile drop though.
Maybe, but FFXIV is 13 years old. Even the reboot was a PS3 game.

I imagine we will hear about FF Online 3 at some point. Maybe, FFXVIII.
 

Fbh

Member
I can't speak to mobile, but how many of Square Enix last 20 games have been MP oriented vs SP oriented?

On console, sure. And I do think releasing low quality shovelware like Diofield Chronicle, Star Ocean and 20 thousand farming games one after another is a mistake.
But their biggest title is arguably FFXIV which is an MMO, and most of their mobile stuff is either multiplayer or at least GAAS and both of those divisions had poor results. It's not like the single player stuff alone is doing badly while all the rest is doing amazing.

Square is having issues but I think it goes beyond just "not releasing enough multiplayer games"
 
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