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.
