Square Enix H1 FY2025 Results: FFXIV Dawntrail Shines While Console Sales Slow

Square Enix has released its financial results for the first half of fiscal year 2025, covering April through September 2024. The report reveals a mixed performance across its digital entertainment division (Video Gaming), with MMO success offsetting slower console game sales.

What’s Driving Square Enix’s Success?

The MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) sub-segment emerged as a standout performer, with impressive year-on-year growth:

• Net sales: 32.4 billion yen (up 35.5% year-on-year)
• Operating income: 13.1 billion yen (up 40.8% year-on-year)

Final Fantasy XIV’s Dawntrail expansion pack, launched on July 2, 2024, was the primary driver behind this growth, although other titles like Dragon Quest X Online also contributed to the sub-segment’s performance.

Overall Gaming Sales Decline

In the console gaming (HD) segment, recent releases failed to match the high sales benchmarks set by Final Fantasy XVI and the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster series from the previous year. However, despite lower net sales in this sub-segment, the company was able to reduce its operating losses, thanks to:

• Reduced development cost amortization
• Lower advertising expenses
• Strong performance from the MMO division

In the Mobile/PC games segment, there was a decrease in both net sales and profits, attributed to the underperformance of existing titles and the accounting of royalty revenues from the previous year.

Overall, the Digital Entertainment segment in H1:

• Net Sales: ¥98,151 million (down 19.6％ year-on-year)
• Operating Income: ¥16,834 million (up 8.5％ year-on-year).

Merchandising Sales Rise

The merchandising segment also showed remarkable growth:

• Net sales: 9,605 million yen (up 14.7% year-on-year)
• Operating income: 3,384 million yen (up 80.9% year-on-year)

This success was driven by strong sales of character goods from major IPs, including:

• New releases in the Final Fantasy BringArts series
• Additions to the PlayArts figure line
• Popular NieR: Automata figures

What’s Next for Square Enix?

Following a challenging previous fiscal year (April 2023 to March 2024) marked by underperforming titles like Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Foamstars, Square Enix is implementing strategic changes:

• Shifting focus to multiplatform releases
• Adopting a “quality over quantity” approach to game development
• New mid-term business plan spanning March 2025 to 2027

For more information, you can read the official Square Enix financial results reports.

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