Final Fantasy 14 remains the mainstay and reliable income earner for Square Enix despite Dawntrail's rocky post-launch reception

Final Fantasy 14 is a little problematic because it's made Square Enix. Okay, that's a bit harsh, but the financials show it year after year. In August, it was noted that the game, even before the recent Dawntrail expansion of the MMO, was carrying the weight of company, keeping it as profitable as possible.

The financial results of the past fiscal year have shown that Final Fantasy 14 and Dragon Quest 10 (to a lesser degree) are still the breadwinners. They don their little ties and suits before breaking their backs and funding the company's other ill advised projects and underperforming AAA titles (thanks to Automaton).

The report is available for you to read. It covers the first half of Square's fiscal year 2025, which will end confusingly in March 2025. But here's a summary: Net sales are down but operating incomes are up due in part to the "expansion pack release in the MMO segment".

The "HD Games", which includes the big mainline releases such as Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, saw a decline of Y=16,2 billion in net sales year-on-year, while operating income was down by Y=3.6billion. The "Games for Smart Devices/PC Browsers" sub-segment, which includes those big mainline releases like Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, was down Y=16.2 Billion in net sales year-on-year, while there was a Y=3.6 Billion loss in terms operating income.

The MMO segment, with its Y=8.5 billion net scales and a Y=3.8billion operating increase year-over-year, is next. While the HD games segment lost Square Enix about Y=1.2 billion in operating income, the MMO segment raked in around Y=13.1billion. Square's MMOs have a cost-efficiency that is better than the latest entries in Final Fantasy.

This confirms two things. If Dawntrail's mixed reviews have hurt Square's bottom-line, it is unlikely to show up in the numbers over the next six month. Second, FF14, along with other MMOs, are still funding the company's current-troubled status, which is a little of a problem to us catboys.

As I argued last month, FF14's greatest challenge going forward will be funding it properly, and picking up pace on a formula that has become stale. 's patch cadence is so predictable and reliable that it has become rote. 's performance is 's slower than its competitors. The goodwill from the truly admirable A Realm Reborn launch can't last forever. And whatever Square gives Creative Studio 3, the MMO development team, is clearly not enough. Square's other projects must figure out how they can produce their own fuel, or else they will sink the entire fleet.