Today Square-Enix
announced their earnings for the fiscal year ending March 31,
2006. Compared to the previous year, the company has reported a
14% increase in profits from 14.932 billion yen last year, to 17.076
billion yen this year.
Group sales also
saw improvements as they hit 124 billion yen this past year, compared to
just shy of 74 billion yen in the year previous. Square-Enix
largely attributes this increase to the company's acquisition of Taito,
and the recent success of Final Fantasy XII in Japan.
However, the
company's operating income took a 40% nosedive, from 26.4 billion yen
last year, to about 15.5 billion yen this year. The reason for
this, says Square-Enix, has to do with marketing and salary costs.
As for the
future, the company predicts a 21% increase in sales over the next year,
which would result in an additional 150 billion yen, although they also
predict net profit to drop by 11 billion yen.