At a press conference in Tokyo today, Square Enix president Youichi Wada presented his company's balance sheet for the first half of the current fiscal year to the public. For the first six months of the current fiscal year, the company reported a net profit of 3.133 billion yen ($30.06 million US) on sales of 24.395 billion yen ($234.10 million US). For the full fiscal year ending on March 31st 2005, Square Enix estimates sales of 73 billion yen ($700.51 million US) and a net profit of 13.5 billion yen ($129.55 million US), increases by 16% and 39% compared to the previous fiscal year, respectively.

The game division has sold a total of 3.37 million copies worldwide before September 30th. The majority of these copies, 1.34 million, were purchased by Japanese costumers. A total of 1.48 million and 510,000 copies were sold in North America and Europe, respectively, while the Asia Pacific region (excluding Japan) reported sales of 40,000 copies.

Due to next week's release of Dragon Quest VIII: Sora to Umi to Daichi to Norowareshi Himegimi for PlayStation 2 in Japan, Square Enix estimates software sales to increase significantly during the second half of the fiscal year. Broken down by regions, sales estimates show the following picture: Japan: 6.6 million copies, North America: 2.6 million copies, Europe: 1.10 million copies, Asia Pacific (excluding Japan): 100,000 copies for a worldwide total of 10.40 million copies. During the previous fiscal year, sales had reached a worldwide total of 13.62 million copies.

For its online business, Square Enix projects a rise of 57% in sales during the current fiscal year, due to the continued popularity of Final Fantasy XI as well as the launches of the Japanese version of Sony Online Entertainment's EverQuest II, Front Mission Online and Fantasy Earth: Ring of Dominion. President Wada explained the target number for registered Final Fantasy XI users before March 31st 2005 has been set at 550,000.

The mobile contents division is estimating an even larger sales increase by 81% on a year to year basis. Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII has been a major hit, and with Front Mission Mobile and a remake of Final Fantasy II, two more cell phone-based games are in the pipeline.

The release dates for Square Enix's next major titles following Dragon Quest VIII, Final Fantasy XII and Kingdom Hearts II have not been specified. The former is still listed for a Japanese spring 2005 release, while the sequel to the popular action RPG will be available sometime next year.

• Official Square Enix Website