No way! Development cancelled? Fans are dreading “Dracula Day,” with Square Enix’s profits down sharply and an extraordinary loss of 22.1 billion yen.

On May 13, Square Enix (hereinafter referred to as “Square Enix”), the company behind such classic game titles as “Dragon Quest” (hereinafter referred to as “Dragon Quest”) and “Final Fantasy” (hereinafter referred to as “FF”), announced its consolidated financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012, revealing a 69.7% decrease in net income from the previous year. The company also announced that it will start the “new fiscal year” from this fiscal year.

The company also announced its new medium-term management plan for the period from the current fiscal year through the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015, which calls for “three years of restructuring for further growth,” including optimization of the development system for the digital entertainment business, and a “shift from quantity to quality to deliver ‘solid fun. However, due to the significant decrease in profit, Tokyo Metropolitan Government announced on January 14, 2012, that the company would make a “change from quantity to quality” in its digital entertainment business. However, the company’s share price plunged on the Tokyo market on March 14 in response to the significant decrease in profit, and at one point the stock was halted at its current price.

The “flag” had already been raised half a month earlier: on April 30, SQUANI announced that it would post an extraordinary loss of approximately 22.1 billion yen for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012. This extraordinary loss was the main reason for the large decrease in profit in the financial results.

The reason for the extraordinary loss was that the company had halted the development of several games in order to “select and concentrate development resources in light of changes in the business environment,” and posted the production costs incurred so far as a loss. Although the title and number of games that were discontinued were not announced in the announcement, the huge production cost of approximately 22.1 billion yen led to a number of concerned comments on social networking sites, such as “Dracula is discontinued? However, the huge production cost of the game, about 22.1 billion yen, caused a string of concerned voices on social networking sites.

The longest release span of the “Dragon Quest” series was five years, from “X” to “11” and so on. But since July 2005, when 11 was released, nearly seven years have already passed. The first one was released in 1986, and it was called “Dracula Day” in 2009. The composer, Kosuke Sugiyama, is the composer of the current work.

This work is said to be the last work that composer Koichi Sugiyama and manga artist Akira Toriyama were involved in, and many fans are looking forward to it.

Furthermore, in mid-April, it was reported that the producer in charge of the Dracula series was transferred due to delays in the development of the next installment, which seems to have stirred up even more anxiety among fans.

(Entertainment magazine writer) Since major announcements regarding the series have been made on “Dracula Day” for the past several years, fans are anxiously awaiting what will be announced this year.

According to Fumio Kurokawa, a media contents researcher, the sequence of events leading from the posting of the extraordinary loss to the announcement of the new medium-term management plan can be traced back to the appointment of Takashi Kiryu as the new president of the company last June.

In his address to shareholders when Mr. Kiryu took office, he talked about reviewing the resources we currently have and building a new structure. This new medium-term management plan also sets forth ‘from quantity to quality (from branch titles to essence). Former President Matsuda was in office for 10 years, so I believe that the extraordinary loss of 22.1 billion yen is the result of a “grand liquidation” of the legacy left by his predecessors.

So, what was the title that was discontinued? And will “Dracula Ⅻ” be properly released?

We believe that the development of “NieR: Automata,” an action RPG game that has been selling well over the past few years, as well as “FF” related titles and “Dracula” spin-off titles, may have been cancelled. It usually takes 3 to 5 years and 3 to 4 billion yen to develop a single title. 22.1 billion yen is a lot of money, so it would not be surprising if at least 4 to 5 titles were halted. It would not be surprising if they stopped development of at least 4 to 5 titles. Or, we might even stop the development of a title halfway through and start over again.

FF XIV,” which was launched in 2010, was criticized for its poor quality from the time of beta testing. So the newly appointed producer was put in charge and everything was redesigned. Since the service had already started, there was an example of completely reworking and re-launching the service while continuing the service. But as a result, “FF XIV” picked up and became the backbone that supported the sales of Square Enix.

Since Square has done such things in the past, there is a possibility that this time, too, they will stop the entire project after making it to the halfway point and start over anew.

So, what kind of big announcement is expected on “Dracula Day” on May 27?

I hope that good news will arrive for Dracula fans.

We are looking forward to receiving good news for Dracula fans. Please send your information to the following information form or to the official X.

Information form: https://friday.kodansha.co.jp/tips

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