Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Avengers push Square Enix H1 sales up 43%
Publisher's HD Games division posts profits for the six-month period, but last quarter was in the red
Square Enix today reported earnings for the first half of its fiscal year, with major releases like Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Marvel's Avengers driving year-over-year improvement against a relatively week first half of last year.
For the six months ended September 30, Square Enix posted revenues up 43% year-over-year to ¥172.73 billion ($1.67 billion). Profits were also up 46.3% to ¥16.05 billion ($155.4 million).
Square Enix sold a total of 12.08 million copies of new games during the first half, split almost evenly between physical and downloadable versions, compared to 8.65 million copies in last year's first half when its biggest releases were a Switch port of Dragon Quest 11 and an Xbox One version of Final Fantasy 10/10-2 HD Remaster.
The publisher gave little indication as to just how Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Marvel's Avengers performed, but some of their performance can be inferred.
In the first half when Final Fantasy 7 Remake launched, the publisher's HD Games division posted net sales of ¥34.1 billion ($330.1 million) and an operating income of more than ¥10 billion ($96.8 million).
For the second quarter when Marvel's Avengers launched, Square Enix's HD Games business saw net sales of ¥23.7 billion ($229.4 million) and an operating loss of more than ¥5 billion ($48.4 million).
In other businesses, Square Enix reported its Final Fantasy 14 MMO saw revenues dip for the half year, even as monthly payers and profitability increased.
The publisher's games for smart devices and PC browsers category also performed well, with Dragon Quest Walk, Dragon Quest Tact, and War of the Visions: Final Fantasy Brave Exvius helping push revenues up 44% year-over-year to ¥63.5 billion ($615 million).
However the company's amusement facility segment posted a 39% drop in revenues and an overall operating loss of ¥1.62 billion ($15.7 million) that it attributed to the temporary closure of arcades in Japan due to COVID-19.
For the full year, Square Enix is forecasting revenues to be up 11.3% to ¥290 billion ($2.81 billion), with earnings per share of ¥201 ($1.95).