Published , by TJ Denzer
Published , by TJ Denzer
With many different companies reporting the close and results of the most recent fiscal quarter, tech and video game companies are included among that reporting. Square Enix has its hands in an absolutely massive amount of gaming and entertainment as a publisher and developer. Its Q1 2022 earnings results saw it come up against some very tough 2021 comparisons, but it was its MMOs that pushed it to a win and slight increase in year-over-year revenue.
Square Enix released its Q1 2022 earnings results on its Investor Relations website on August 5, 2021. This was a tough quarter for Square Enix in comparison to 2020. In this same time period last year, Square Enix launched the highly succesful Final Fantasy 7 Remake. Though Square Enix did release some titles, it had nothing in particular it could hang its hat on with as much praise as FF7R. Even so, it was Square Enix’s ongoing MMO efforts that pushed it through a quarter with no releases to put against Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s sheer success. Final Fantasy 14 and Dragon Quest 10 subscriptions played a major part in Square Enix’s overall revenue this recent quarter.
Final Fantasy 14 in particular has a few factors bolstering its success. The first is the huge amount of newly released and upcoming content for the game. The Viera (bunny people in the game) that were once all-female now have a male option, the game just came out of beta on PS5, and it has a major expansion on the way later this year with Endwalker. Activision Blizzard has also been forced into a corner with extremely troubling allegations and a lawsuit against it, pushing quite a few players to stop playing World of Warcraft and make their way over to the other big MMORPG on the block, which is currently Final Fantasy 14. The effects aren’t visible in Square Enix’s Q1, but this factor could make itself known in both Activision Blizzard and Square Enix’s next quarter.
Either way, the success of Square Enix’s MMO efforts bolstered its sales enough to compete with last year’s big Final Fantasy 7 Remake quarter and Final Fantasy 14 and Dragon Quest 10 show no signs of slowing down. For more reporting on quarterly earnings results, be sure to stay tuned right here at Shacknews.