Square Enix today lowered its forecast for the fiscal year 2005/2006 which ended on March 31st. The company now projects a consolidated net profit of 10 billion yen ($84.67 million US) on sales of 125 billion yen ($1.06 billion US). These figures are 42.9% and 8.1% lower than the figures provided in previous forecasts.

While strong sales of major titles, such as Kingdom Hearts II, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy XII drove sales during the six month period from October 2005 to March 2006, these successful releases could not compensate the lack of big selling games during the first six months of the fiscal year.

While the company's flagship MMORPG Final Fantasy XI is still performing well, newly introduced MMORPGs were less well received by fans. This is the likely explanation behind Square Enix's decision to end operating EverQuest II in Japan only one year after the game's launch. While the mobile contents division reported rising sales, its operations outside Japan did not manage to generate any profit during the second half of the fiscal year. Since the returns on prior investments have been delayed, the division had to face rising costs. Subsidiary Taito also failed to post a profit.

The sole bright spot of today's announcement were the positive results of Square Enix's publishing division, due to the continued popularity of the products like the manga magazine Shounen Gangan. The continued success of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children also resulted in better than expected results for the company's other operations.