Square Enix Financial statement: DT 42m USD DOWN

[ZephyrMenodora]

It doesnt account for DT. It accounts for the lull period before DT. Basically it shows Endwalker's post game failures which DT aims to not repeat. Ultimately this year will be a success for them due to DT. Its the financial statement after next that we want to see because that will determine how good DT was.

Loss of revenue during content lulls is common for all expansions, even popular ones. I think I reviewed the financials in the past and XIV made more $$$ during the EW years than any expansion prior.

[kiotsukete]

As others have said, the financial statement posted by OP showing that SE’s MMO income is down covers April 2023 - March 2024 and so has nothing to do with DT. The quote mentioning DT just says that SE is expecting DT to create a “stable trend” (read: reverse the decrease) in profits.

In fact, SE’s latest quarterly financial report covering April - June 2024 reports their MMO segment posted a ¥1.5b/US $10.5m increase in sales and ¥2.2b/US $15.4m increase in profits. Presumably from DT preorders and returners resubbing in anticipation of the new expansion.

Source:
https://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/i...25q1slides.pdf

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/mmo/fi...ix-profitable/

The key financial reports to look at will be the next ones: July - September 2024 to see how well DT launch actually went, and October - December 2024 moving forward to see how sustained those sales and profits are.

Sadly, the even bigger question is how is SE spending all those profits? I would hope back into FFXIV or towards development of their next big MMO. I’m no businessman, but I would think (re)investing into what you’re good at and makes you the most profits would be a no brainer decision. But nobody really knows outside of SE.

[Uncle_Jafar]

I don't understand what they're doing. FFXIV is their golden goose and seemingly has been for a long time. I would expect them to be trying to make it the shiniest, most successful game they can in order to rake in the biggest profits they can. Instead, this golden goose is slowly being starved while resources are put into failed projects, NFTs and other stupid stuff. Why? What am I missing?

They are moving on from this game and planning to gut it for profits. It's really obvious.

[Raven2014]

They are moving on from this game and planning to gut it for profits. It's really obvious.

No, they're seriously not. With the new server infrastructure upgrade and the graphic engine upgrade they did for DT, the obvious thing is they do want to commit for another 10 years. The last time you see something like this happen in WoW was when they decided to can WoW 2 and stay with original WoW.


What most of us are discussing isn't about SE is abandoning FF14 because they're not doing that. We're frustrated at the fact that instead of using the profit to take the game to the next level, they seems to happy to just do enough to maintain the status quo, which is a problem because after 10 years it does feel the game is reaching a stagnant point if it doesn't have a major breakout soon.

[Ramiee]

Honestly thats one of the biggest problems for MMOs, WoW would be so much approachable if they just restarted the game with a WoW 2 or a WoW ARR honestly the snapshotting and 2013 awkwardness in the game is getting more noticable day by day, I hope a new FFMMO will happen eventually.

[Astronis]

No, they're seriously not. With the new server infrastructure upgrade and the graphic engine upgrade they did for DT, the obvious thing is they do want to commit for another 10 years. The last time you see something like this happen in WoW was when they decided to can WoW 2 and stay with original WoW.

While I agree it does not look to me like SE is moving on at all, it wouldn't be the first time I've seen an MMO get a bit of a graphics overhaul and whatnot only to find out not long after that it all really was done to milk the very last drop of money and good will out of a very loyal customer base. That game in particular was plagued by monetary mismanagement from the get-go, though, and never was able to make much money; FFXIV is not the kind of game that can be torched to the ground like that. If SE does do that to FFXIV, it will be self-destructive to an absurd degree. The suits at SE would get better PR setting their own office on fire while running out of the burning building holding bags of yen.

So, yeah, they're not doing that. They are very possibly not giving FFXIV as much love as it should, and very probably got some dumb ideas about what to finance next, but there is no way they're planning to torch it for insurance money.

[CaptainLagbeard]

Trying to read the document... Three main paragraphs talk about game sales

The HD Games sub-segment booked net sales of ¥99.2
billion (up ¥20.7 billion YoY) and an operating loss of ¥8.1
billion (loss widened ¥4 billion YoY). Despite the release of
“FOAMSTARS” and “FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH” in Q4,
initial sales were not as strong as expected, in addition to
which an impairment was made to the content production
account, resulting in the operating loss.

The MMO sub-segment booked net sales of ¥47.3 billion
(down ¥6.0 billion YoY) and operating income of ¥19.3 billion
(down ¥9.8 billion) amid a lull in releases ahead of the launch
of the “FINAL FANTASY XIV: Dawntrail” expansion pack

The Games for Smart Devices/PC Browser sub-segment
posted net sales of ¥101.5 billion (down ¥12.1 billion YoY)
and operating income of ¥14.2 billion (down ¥2.0 billion).
Although multiple new titles were released in FY2024/3, they
were unable to offset the decline in earnings from existing
titles that have aged.
The Digital Entertainment segment sold 26.32 million units
(up 3.88 million YoY). The increase in downloads across all
regions was especially good news, and we will continue
our efforts to strengthen digital sales of both new and
catalog titles

Everything is earning them less, and sales are down quite a bit.

And they aren't working on releasing any big sellers and some of the few they have coming are being hit with censorship which is kind of a turnoff...

[Jojoya]

I stopped once I saw it was dated May 13th.

Good job baiting people.

[Uncle_Jafar]

All I'm saying is: If FF XVI didn't exist, we ALL know this expansion would've been better. If they continue on this trend, then it's not hard to see the beginning of the end here.

[Zakuyia]

I just finished the msq and the raid series. My language is set to Japanese. Game is as great as ever.

Sure play msq in english, and like the other comment said. If this is your answer u missed the entire point of DT complaints are pretending to ignore thus you fall into group who are helping the games destruction.

To name some of issues: story / pacing / jobs / raid tunning / pictomancer / mch / bugs / DDos / graphic overhaul / broken models / pvp busted ps4 / etc. Im sure we can compile more but honestly thats just naming a few issues. 7.0 has been a mess.

ARCADIAN IS FUN THO, MUSIC IS GREAT, DIFFICULTY IS AMAZING