Square Enix has declared an extraordinary loss of $140.8m for the financial year ending in March 2024, relating to what it calls “content abandonment losses”.
In a statement released earlier today, Square Enix says it has decided to revise its approach to “the development of high-definition (HD) games”, by which it means console and PC games as opposed to mobile or browser-based titles.
This decision was made, Square Enix says, in order to be “more selective and focused in the allocation of development resources”. The studio doesn’t specify whether any in-development projects have been canceled.
The statement goes on to say that Square Enix will be “carefully reviewing its consolidated forecasts” to determine how much impact the aforementioned loss will have on the company’s overall financial statement for last year.
There’s not a lot of detail in the statement; it doesn’t say exactly how Square Enix will be changing its development pipeline, for instance, nor does it name which, if any, projects have been put on hold as a result of this loss.
However, this isn’t the first we’ve heard about Square Enix having a rough time of things in the financial department.
Back in February, for instance, the company announced results for the first nine months of 2023, which saw a relatively weak boost in sales for the company when compared to the same period a year before.
Those results will likely be especially disappointing given the release of a major title, Final Fantasy XVI, during that period, although the studio has previously stated that sales for that game are “in line with expectations”.
Recently, too, rumors swirled that Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Square Enix’s latest tentpole release, had underperformed in sales terms, although some analysts have suggested that this conclusion may have been drawn somewhat prematurely.
We’ll have to wait and see what Square Enix is planning for the future. Stay tuned for more info on this as and when we get it.
