After announcing its FY2024 financial results recently, the market shares of publisher Square Enix have dropped significantly.
During the opening of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the shares of Square Enix tumbled by nearly 16% within 30 minutes, dropping from ¥6,268 to ¥5,268.
The latest financial results stated that Square Enix’s profits were down by nearly 70% from the previous year, with “¥22,087 million ($141 million) in losses”.
It was also highlighted that there is a significant operating loss of ¥8.1 billion (approximately $51.9 million) in the HD games sub-segment, which encompasses AAA titles such as Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, FOAMSTARS, and Final Fantasy XVI, just to name a few.
According to a report by Bloomberg, Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu told analysts that the sales of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Final Fantasy XVI, and FOAMSTARS fell short of expectations in terms of revenue of profit.
As such, Square Enix expects to earn an operating income of ¥40 billion ($255 million) this financial year, instead of ¥57 billion ($364 million), which analyst estimates.
In the recent publication of Square Enix’s new medium-term business plan, the company noted that it plans to focus on multiplatform releases going forward.
It was stated in the same document that Square Enix intends to “rebuild overseas business divisions from the ground up”, which coincides with the layoffs happening in its US and European branches.