Square Enix today announced its financial results for the third quarter of the current fiscal year ending on March 31st. The company posted a consolidated net profit of 4.29 billion yen ($36.58 million USD) on sales of 68.99 billion yen ($588.18 million USD). Compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, sales were up 13.2%, while net profit was done by 67.7%. This decline in profit however was expected, given that last year's third quarter saw the release of Dragon Quest VIII in Japan. As for the top performers of the three month period from October to December 2005, Kingdom Hearts II sold 1.1 million copies in Japan, followed by Slime Morimori Dragon Quest 2 for DS (260,000 copies) and Front Mission 5 for PlayStation 2 (180,000 copies). In total, the game division recorded sales of 21.20 billion yen ($180.74 million USD) and an operating profit of 974 million yen ($8.303 million USD).

Despite the continued popularity of Final Fantasy XI, the release of Front Mission Online, and the Japanese version of EverQuest II, Square Enix's online game division saw its sales decline by 9.2% to reach 9.62 billion yen ($82.02 million USD). Operating profit dropped by 15.7% to reach 3.75 billion yen ($31.97 million USD).

The lower profit of the offline and online game divisions was upset by the success of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children which has sold more than one million copies in Japan since its September 14th, 2005 release.

Due to the acquisition of Taito, an AM division appeared for the first time in today's balance sheet. This debut could have been better, though, as the division posted an operating loss worth 234 million yen ($2.00 million USD) on sales of 20.69 billion yen ($176.39 million USD).

Square Enix has left its projections for the full fiscal year unchanged. During the January to March period, the company has already shipped Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and will release its often delayed, highly anticipated PlayStation 2 RPG Final Fantasy XII on March 16th.