Square Enix blames competitive console market for multi-million yen losses

Square Enix experienced significant losses during this fiscal quarter, blaming the "increasingly competitive and oligopolistic" console market throughout North America and Europe as a primary reason behind its multi-million yen dive.

Today the publisher released its financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013, confirming a net loss of 13,714 million yen. Square Enix acknowledged its restructuring efforts — which recently resulted in large-scale layoffs and the departure of CEO Yoichi Wada — had a hand in these recent losses.

"In response to the latest environmental changes in the game industry, the Group has implemented various strategic initiatives such as a change in its development policy, organizational reforms and redesign of some business models. . As a result of such initiatives, the Group posts the extraordinary losses...," reads a statement from its latest financial results.

The publisher previously stated a number of its recent releases greatly underperformed, affecting the outcome of this quarter's financial results. Sleeping Dogs managed sales of 1.75 million worldwide, Tomb Raider sold 3.4 million copies, and Hitman: Absolution sold 3.6 million units.

Comparatively, the publisher's smartphone and browser titles met with success among Japanese and Korean gamers. Casual and social games such as Sengoku Ixa, Kaku-San Sei Million Arthur and Final Fantasy Brigade contributed profits. Its MMO Dragons Quest 10 also saw "steady performance," this quarter, said the publisher.

However, the company's Digital Entertainment arm, an area that covers all games, saw a 99.7 percent decrease in operating income to 44 million yen. In comparison, during the same quarter last year, Square Enix saw operating income of 89 million yen.