Square Enix confirmed that the extraordinary loss of the last fiscal year is indeed a staggering ¥13.7 billion.
Much of this is due to titles like Hitman: Absolution, Tomb Raider and Sleeping Dogs seemingly under-performing (which subsequently lead to Yoichi Wada stepping down as CEO), with the Digital Entertainment portion of the company posting an operating income of ¥44 million. This is down by 99.7 per cent from the fiscal year before.
A recent financial report stated that, “The business environment surrounding the Group is in the midst of major changes, where devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs are spreading rapidly, while the console game markets in North America and Europe are increasingly competitive and oligopolistic.
“In light of such environmental changes, the Group is focusing all efforts on a substantial earnings improvement through driving reforms of business structure in order to establish new revenue base.”
In the fiscal year prior, Square Enix posted a profit of ¥6 billion. It is currently projecting a net profit from ¥3.5 to ¥6 billion in the fiscal year ending March 31st 2013.