[IGN] SE Fails to Hit Target, Wada Steps Down

[Moltove]

Not to be a Debbie Downer by posting these, but SE is where we're all investing in right now, so I thought to share the word of what's up.

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Square Enix Games Sell Strong But Fail to Hit Targets

American sales have also been revealed to be weaker than those in Europe.

by Luke Karmali

March 26, 2013

 

Square Enix has revealed that despite selling well, Tomb Raider, Hitman: Absolution and Sleeping Dogs all failed to hit the company's internal sales expectations.

As part of its latest financial report, it was revealed that Tomb Raider has managed to ship 3.4 million copies, while Hitman: Absolution sold 3.6 million units and Sleeping Dogs has sold 1.75 million.

 

The above numbers, which only include retail sales of the game as opposed to digital downloads, means that each of the titles has failed to move as many copies as the company was predicting. As Steam sales weren't included though and given the fact that the company has had a number of digital sales on its titles recently, the actual number of games shipped may be considerably higher.

 

How many of each game Square Enix was expecting to sell isn't mentioned in the report, though last September it was revealed the company was hoping to move 14.9 million discs in the six months ending March 2013. Seeing as only 8.75 million retail games have been sold, this could largely explain the company's financial forecast revision from this morning, which reveals it now expects to make an "extraordinary loss".

 

What's more interesting though is the fact that the company is claiming "ineffective" sales in North America are largely responsible, as the continent shipped just two thirds of the number of discs sold in Europe.

 

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Square Enix President Yoichi Wada Steps Down

It comes as part of the company's financial forecast revisions, which now predict "extraordinary loss".

by Luke Karmal

 

March 26, 2013

 The president and representative director of Square Enix, Yoichi Wada, is stepping down from his position following the company revising its financial forecast.

Wada's resignation is expected to come into effect from June, at which point Yosuke Matsuda, who joined the company in 2001, will replace him.

 

The move comes as part of a financial revision for the company, in which it's revealed that Square Enix now "expects to incur extraordinary loss in the settlement of the accounts for its fiscal year ending March 31, 2013."

 

While the company had been predicting net income losses of ¥3.5 billion, this has now been revised to ¥13 billion following a decline in Western retail and digital sales.

The report explains the revision comes, "due to slow sales of major console game titles in North American and European markets. The Company is also experiencing sluggish performance of its arcade machine business.

 

"In addition to these factors, the Company expects to incur extraordinary loss about loss from restructuring in the settlement of the account for its fiscal year ending March 31, 2013."

 

Wada joined Square in April 2000 and rose to the rank of CEO in December of that year. When Square merged with Enix, he took up the title of president and representative director of the new company and oversaw the acquisitions of both Taito and Eidos Interactive.

 

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Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

[Aysun]

Make Yoshi CEO. Man knows how to get shit together.

 

Eh. This is how business works. I'm sure once they count their Steam sales it won't be as terrible.