Square Enix today reported financial results for the first quarter of the current fiscal year ending on March 31st, 2007. According to the figures released today, the makers of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest posted a net profit of 888 million yen ($7.60 million USD) on sales of 37.20 billion yen ($318.21 million USD). Compared to the same three month period of the previous fiscal year, sales tripled, while profit increased by a factor of 16.

The reason for these dramatic increases can be found in the performance of Square Enix's (offline) game business. While the company did not release a blockbuster title during the April to June period in 2005, its titles performed well across Japan and Europe this year. The titles that contributed most to this year's success were Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria (400,000 copies), Dragon Quest Shounen Yangus to Fushigi no Dungeon (330,000 copies), Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Portable (110,000 copies) in Japan, and Dragon Quest VIII (400,000 copies) in Europe. Accordingly the game division posted sales of 8.55 billion yen ($73.14 million USD) and an operating profit of 363 million yen ($3.11 million USD) during the three-month period.

Following the release of the third Final Fantasy XI expansion pack and the simultaneous introduction of the game's Xbox 360 version, the online game division saw its sales rise by 60.4% to 4.75 billion yen ($40.63 million USD), while its operating profit reached 2.03 billion yen ($17.37 million USD).

Another major factor for today's strong results was the publishing division. Brisk sales of the official Final Fantasy XII strategy guide pushed its sales to 2.72 billion ($23.27 million USD). The division's operating profit meanwhile rose by 102.8% to reach 940 million yen ($8.04 million USD).

The AM division (that is, the business operating by Square Enix subsidiary Taito) continued to post red numbers, though. Sales reached 18.71 billion yen ($160.05 million USD), but at the same time an operating loss of 663 million yen ($5.67 million USD) was reported.

Square Enix has not changed its projections for the full fiscal year 2006/2007.