Final Fantasy 14 helps Square Enix swing back to profit
MMO "making favourable progress".
The re-release of once embattled massively multiplayer online role-playing game Final Fantasy 14 has done the business for publisher Square Enix.
Its last financial year saw a catastrophic loss of 13.7bn yen (around £83m). At the end of the current financial year ending March 2014, it expects to see a profit of up to 6bn yen (around £36m).
In its financial report published today for the nine month period ending 31st December 2013, Square Enix said sales of console games in North America were "strong".
Sales and operation of Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, which launches in August 2013 on PC and PlayStation 3, "have been making favourable progress", the publisher added.
Other highlights include browser game Sengoku IXA and mobile social game Kaku-San-Sei Million Arthur. Arcade games Lord of Vermilion 3 and Groove Coaster have also performed well.
For the nine-month period sales were 102.5bn yen, a tiny decrease year-on-year, but those sales amounted to a healthy profit of 5.2bn yen whereas during the same period last financial year Square Enix suffered a 5.7bn yen loss.
Final Fantasy 14, which requires a £7.69 monthly subscription once the 30-day free trial runs out, launches on PlayStation 4 on 14th April. Back in November 2013 Square Enix said the game had performed better than expected, with 1.5m registered players two months after its PC and PS3 re-release.
Things looked bad for Square Enix earlier in 2013 when it announced a fundamental review of the entire company after suffering an "extraordinary loss". But it has recently announced new Sleeping Dogs and Deus Ex games are in production, along with Thief, Final Fantasy 15 and a fresh Hitman title.