Square Enix has released its financial results for the year ending March 31, 2025, with a drop in net sales attributed to the lack of comparable releases to games like last year’s Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
Nonetheless, the company saw an increase in operating income and profit. Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake also performed better than expected.
The company is continuing its three-year plan – as revealed this time last year – to optimise its development operations and put quality over quantity for its future game releases, as well as prioritising multiformat development.
The numbers
- Net sales: ¥324.5 billion ($2.22 billion, down 8.9% year-on-year)
- Digital entertainment sales: ¥206.54 billion ($1.42 billion, down 16.8% YoY)
- Operating income: ¥40.58 billion ($278.1 million, up 24.6% YoY)
- Profit attributable to owners of parent: ¥24.41 billion ($167.3 million, up 63.7%)
The highlights
HD-Games, a sub-segment of Square Enix’s business that includes its main console and PC releases, dropped in net sales this year but turned profitable due to “lower development cost amortisation, advertising expenses, content valuation losses compared with the same period of the previous year.”
As noted, too, the latest Dragon Quest release also contributed to the positive result. Other new HD-Games releases this past year included Life is Strange: Double Exposure and Visions of Mana.
The launch of Final Fantasy XIV’s Dawntrail expansion increased net sales and operating income in the company’s MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) Game sub-segment.
Net sales and operating income declined for the Games for Smart Devices/PC Browser sub-segment, though, which Square Enix attributed to “weakness in existing titles and the recognition of royalty revenue in the previous fiscal year”. This was despite the release of new game Emberstoria.
Today, the company announced the cancellation of mobile title Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link on Twitter.
HD-Games collectively made ¥33.87 million in operating income, up 33% from the previous year.
The future
Square Enix also provided an update on its three-year ‘medium-term’ business plan. “In FY2025, we fundamentally revamped our development organisation structure for domestic studios,” the report read.
“Based on the concept of integrated studio operations, we reviewed the entire process of title development progress management and changed to a system in which management and studios manage the development progress of all large-scale investment titles, promoting optimisation of the development portfolio and schedule, as well as talent mobility and development cost optimisation among in-house development personnel.”
The revised process has led to significant changes behind the scenes.
“Under the new management structure, we reviewed all projects at our domestic studios, including HDG and [Smart Devices] titles, and decided to discontinue development of some titles and invest additional funds in titles that require refinement, thereby steadily implementing a strategy of selecting and concentrating development resources.”
“We will continue to control the scale of development investment in a disciplined manner,” the company added.
The report underlined the approach of going into FY27 and beyond by putting multiple games on multiple platforms and releasing major titles on a consistent basis.
The company also called out the PC market as a highlight of the year when it came to catalogue sales, and a result of its new multiformat strategy. PC sales were responsible for more than a third of its Digital Entertainment sales in FY25, a double digit percentage increase on FY24.
Square Enix released Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on PC in January 2025 following its 2024 PC release, and also brought the Kingdom Hearts franchise to Steam for the first time in June 2024.
For FY26, Square Enix forecasts sales declining again to ¥280 billion, with operating income steady at ¥41 billion. Upcoming releases include Bravely Default Flying Fairy Remaster on Nintendo Switch 2 and Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake.