Square Enix, Taito Release Results for First Half of Fiscal Year
Source: RPGfan

11.19.05 - 1:59 AM

Square Enix today announced its financial results for the first half of the current fiscal year ending on March 31st 2006. During the first six months of the fiscal year, Square Enix reported a consolidated net loss of 3.38 billion yen ($28.47 million USD) on sales of 27.09 billion yen ($228.20 million USD). For the full fiscal year Japan's leading RPG maker projects sales of 73.86 billion yen ($622.19 million USD) and a net profit of 14.93 billion yen ($125.77 million USD).
The gaming division suffered a loss of 842 million yen ($7.09 million USD), because of a lack of hit titles and fierce competition. With Kingdom Hearts II, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy XII all hitting retail store shelves in Japan between late December and mid-March, the company's biggest titles will only be released during the second half of the fiscal year. Hence Square Enix president Youichi Wada mentioned during today's press conference in Tokyo that for the full fiscal year everything was looking fine. Wada was particularly hyped about Kingdom Hearts II, calling it the best masterpiece available for PlayStation 2.

With the imminent release of Final Fantasy XI on Microsoft's Xbox 360, Square Enix's online game division is expecting an increase in user numbers until the end of the fiscal year.

As far as overseas markets are concerned, the Square Enix president said vis-a-vis the ones a la Electronic Arts or Activision, Square Enix was simply not powerful enough. While he contended, that it will probably be impossible to sell one million copies of Dragon Quest VIII in the US, he hoped it will do well nonetheless. Meanwhile, he sees Kingdom Hearts II hitting American retail store shelves as early as March 2006.

As expected, Wada had little new or specific to say when it came to the question of game development for next generation consoles. If Square Enix just continued to use its current methods of developing games for PlayStation 2 and applied them to PlayStation 3 development, the company would face an explosion of development costs, according to Wada. Hence the issue right now was which functions offered by next generation hardware should be used. Developing games like it has been done until now, will cost time and money in the future.

As far as future merger and acquisition (M&A) activities are concerned, Wada stated bluntly that he had little interest in pursuing alliances with other game developers, since the direction the various companies in the game industry will take from now one will differ significantly. He was however interested in talking to companies that have no connection to games whatsoever.

Edit: I forgot to put "II" in the title, can ya fix that please?
Fixed for you, Leon. ~ Madame. B

March 2006... Just in time for my birthday ^_^

march... 4 months away! i hope it doesnt get delayed...

March 2006...four months for it to came out in US and waiting for it to arrive in Australia. That's like around in the middle of my first term of school at that time!

Haha, us Brits will be waiting till end Summer/early Autumn.

It better come out March 1st. If it doesn't, then no GOOD-birthday-present-that-I-want-and-waited-for-a-long-time for me. :sad:

:woot: THANK YOU SE FOR THE FABULOUS BIRTHDAY PRESENT!!!!

Amazon is listing the release date as April 2006... :unsure: Is that true? :cray:

I'm getting a Japanese PS2 for my christmas and the two Phantasy Star remakes to play on it. I might import KHII ^_^ If I do, I'll be sure to tell you all about it.

Amazon has just notified me that the ship date for KH2 has been pushed back until May 5th. Looks like it will be May, folks... :fury:

I'm trying to be surprised about the delay, but it's quite hard.

But if it means more voice training time for the English KH2 cast, then I'm all for it. Because some of them... really... really... need... it. >_<

I haven't heard the new VAs. Is it that bad, Lynn? :unsure: If so, then, the delay is fine. We need some decent VAs! :lol: I wish Maaya could do Aerith's English voice... :pout:

I felt the main KH2 cast was fine, very good even.

But the FF-KH2 voices in the new videos are... *SHUDDER* Mena spectacularly failed to impress me, except for one small part that was borderline "okay", and I thought Leon was terrible (which makes no sense since it's the same friggin' person who did his voice in KH1).

Granted, it's just my opinion, but wow... I wasn't nearly as impressed as when I watched the KH2 videos of Sora, Kairi etc.

The videos are apparently from some "beta version" of KH2, though, so I'm really hoping the voices shape up in time for the actual release. (And AC!)

[EDIT] I just checked KHU, and they seem pretty certain that the game will be released in a week. :huh:

:unsure: So, what's the deal with Amazon, then? *Wonders if she should cancel her order* :ermm:

Your serious! That so suck! And i was so looking forward to buying it this week! :angry:
Now i have to wait another 2 months! Sigh.... i was so excited i would finally get to hold that new, 50 game in my arms.... i guess not today :P

It comes out the 28, the day after my b-day. I remember things like that. I also asked the guy at Sam Goodies and EB Games about it and they both said then, so I get it Tuesday of next week!! Maybe...

The annoying thing is I can not find any information about the European release date, not too encouraging I must say. At least I hope it is released here before FFXII before the end of the year. -__-

Well, it looks like the May 5th release date that Amazon.com has listed is wrong. They have my copy of KH2 listed as "preparing for shipment". :hyper: Plus, I just saw a commercial for KH2! :dance2: It showed Cloud and Sephiroth! :dance: