Square Enix held its annual earnings call this week, and the results proved instructive.exist financial performance report In the first quarter of the current fiscal year (ie, April-June), data for many of the company’s key business segments appeared to be underwhelming, with one notable exception.
While total net sales and operating income fell 15.5% and 16.7%, respectively, compared to the same period last year, revenue from its MMO segment actually increased in the first quarter of 2022, including its flagship game Final Fantasy XIV. While the company’s HD gaming division “didn’t reach the levels of previous years” and its mobile gaming division found new entries “couldn’t offset the weak performance of existing titles,” the MMO division, which includes just three games, had a strong showing. Numbers, which specifically mention that the number of subscribers to Final Fantasy XIV is increasing year by year.
Despite the strong performance, Square Enix said in the report that it has no plans to release any further expansions for Final Fantasy XIV this fiscal year, opting instead to focus on user retention through “various operational initiatives.” This isn’t particularly unusual, however – the most recent expansion, Endwalker, launched in December 2021, and traditionally, major expansions have been released every few years with some smaller updates in between.
While the rest of fiscal 2022/23 may see the return of high-definition gaming, it all seems to lend a lot of credibility to the advantages of the gaming-as-a-service business model. Since the report doesn’t go past June 30, notable July releases like Live A Live and Powerwash Simulator are not included in the data, while the rest of the year will see highly anticipated releases including Forspoken and Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII Reunion.
