Square Enix is a Japanese video game company and a conglomerate, best known for many notable titles, including Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts, and Final Fantasy. Aside from publishing and developing games, they are also involved in arcades, merch, and manga publication, which is under the name Gangan Comics. As of June 2021, Final Fantasy XIV has sold over 162 million copies, Dragon Quest over 82 million, and Tomb Raider has also sold over 82 million copies.
FFXIV, Dragon Quest, and Tomb Raider sales as of June 2021.The company was formed back in 2003 as a result of merging Square and Enix, with Enix as the survivor company. During that time, around 80% of the staff was made up of former Square company, Yoichi Wada (Former Square President) was made the new President and Keiji Honda (Former Enix President) was made the Vice President. Their company was split into corporate business and video game operations, with the latter being called Square Enix Co., Ltd. Currently, the company has over 5,000 employees worldwide in all subsidiaries and main operations.
Square Enix suffered from a decline in its non-MMO game sales, but it was compensated with the success of Final Fantasy XIV. The net sales went up by 9.8% ($2.84 billion) during the FY2022, but their non-MMO sales were not doing well. In their financial report for the fiscal year that ended on 31st March 2022, the company reported that their MMO sales went super-high, especially due to the release of the FFXIV expansion pack Endwalker.
Final Fantasy XIV is an MMORPG published and developed by Square Enix back in 2010. Endwalker was their 4th expansion in the FFXIV Game and received massive success after its release in 2021.
However, other games like Outriders and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy saw a net decline in comparison to the FY2021. People Can Fly’s Outriders’ launch saw great success in the beginning, with Square Enix even being confident in the game, but it was confirmed recently that it did not do as well in 2021. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy also underperformed in its launch in October 2021.
Overall, the company’s MMO, HD game sub-segments, PC as well as Mobile games had an increased 6% net sales ($2.1 billion) and a further 16.7% growth in the operating income, which is $457 million. Another thing worth mentioning is that the company’s entertainment facilities (Arcades) are on the rise after suffering from COVID-19.
To sum it up, we can confidently say that while Square Enix saw a decline in one of its categories, it was rewarded with increased sales on MMO thanks to Final Fantasy XIV. It is quite possible that we might see them learn from this and do better with non-MMO games and see an even bigger rise in FY2023. Other than that, If you have any questions, do let us know!