Hey folks! This week’s installment of Eorzea Reborn isn’t going to be super long because I’m actually waiting for Gamescom coverage of FFXIV to ratchet up attention for Final Fantasy XIV, but I thought I should post something I found during my daily rounds: Square Enix’s financial results, which are slated to be submitted on August 12 but were publicly announced on August 6..
The full set of slides for this report are also available at this link.
I’m not a business-savvy person, so I’ll leave the numbers to them, but I thought you might want to read the portion had something to do with FFXIV.
Sadly, that portion says a lot without actually getting into specifics on subscription number, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
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The Financial Results
The main document, titled, Consolidated Financial Results for the Three-Month Period Ended June 30, 2015 (Japan GAAP) has a section called Digital Entertainment, which includes Final Fantasy XIV inside it.
“The Digital Entertainment segment,” it explained, “consists of planning, development, distribution, and operation of digital entertainment content primarily in the form of game (sic). Digital entertainment content is offered to meet customer lifestyles across a variety of usage environments such as consumer game consoles (including handheld game machines), personal computers and smart devices.”
For the most part, it seems that mobile and casual gaming is really augmenting Square Enix’s financials. The first mention goes to the mobile and PC browser segment.
“During the three-month period ended June 30, 2015, in the area of content for platforms such as smart devices and PC browser, ‘SENGOKU IXA,’ a PC browser game and games for smartphones such as ‘DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS SUPER LIGHT,’ ‘SCHOOLGIRL STRIKERS,’ ‘FINAL FANTASY RECORD KEEPER,’ and ‘Kai-ri-Sei Million Arthur’ have continued to ride high on its already solid growth,” the report went on to say.
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Comparatively, instead of FFXIV riding high on solid growth, it said that “expansion disc sales and operations of massively multiplayer online role playing games; ‘FINAL FANTASY XIV’ and ‘DRAGON QUEST X’ have been making favorable performances.”
The next mention went on to talk about console game titles and digital downloads of catalogue titles, which also net the company “favorable results” as a result of repeat sales.
The final bit in gaming content is the following, which I think needs someone with more business sense to explain. “Net sales and operating income in the Digital Entertainment segment totaled ¥30,297million (an increase of 29.2% from the same period of the prior fiscal year) and ¥8,191million (an increase of 81.6% from the same period of the prior fiscal year), respectively.”
From my understanding, this is good, though, you can correct me in the comments.
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Money in the Merch!
The more amusing bit, I think, comes from the merchandising section as this also directly references FFXIV and the Heavensward expansion.
According to the statement, “During the three-month period ended June 30, 2015, sales of character goods derived from the Group’s own IPs increased, primarily due to the release of the first expansion disc” of FFXIV.
I’m guessing this means everything from Minfilia body pillows to Haurchefant picnic skewers were included. I jest, of course, but I’m certainly intrigued as to what merchandise sold the most. Perhaps the Carbuncle plushies?
Aside from this, Square Enix also distributed and licensed other character goods and soundtracks based on the company’s intellectual properties. Square Enix also strengthened “its character goods lineup with additional products from third party IPs and overseas expansions.”
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More good news as well: “Net sales and operating income in the Merchandising segment totaled ¥1,164million (an increase of 72.7% from the same period of the prior fiscal year) and ¥420million (an increase of 117.7% from the same period of the prior fiscal year), respectively.”
I’m happy for Square Enix’s year-on-year improvement, and I’m quite glad FFXIV played quite a role here. Next week, we’ll see what comes out of Gamescom, along with any new announcements.
Stay tuned, and don’t forget to enjoy the Moonfire Faire, which should be active come August 11, and will stay till September 7!
