Square-Enix has released its second quarter financial report for 2021, and it paints a rather middling picture overall. Net revenue for the quarter YOY was up only 1.8%, with YOY declines in operating income and profits, in spite of the launch of Outriders and the NieR remaster, which were apparently unable to keep up YOY with the Final Fantasy VII Remake (and presumably, COVID lockdowns) in Q2 2020.
So what did contribute to that positive growth? Mobile sales, digital media, the company’s “amusement” facilities segment, and… MMORPGs.
“In the MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) Game sub-segment, net sales rose versus the same period of the previous fiscal year due to growth in the number of monthly paying subscribers for FINAL FANTASY XIV.”
Q2 ended in June, of course, and the perceived mass exodus from WoW to MMOs including FFXIV didn’t begin until almost July, so we might expect to see the effects of that next quarter, followed by the actual launch of Endwalker this fall.
