Final Fantasy 14 is still the load-bearing, reliable breadwinner for Square Enix, even with Dawntrail's bumpy post-launch reception
Final Fantasy 14 has a bit of a problem—it's made by Square Enix. Alright, maybe that's a little harsh, but it's sort of bearing out in the financials year after year. Back in August, it was observed that, even before the launch of the MMO's recent expansion, Dawntrail, the game was carrying the weight of the company on its shoulders, keeping the company as profitable as it can be.
A recent set of financial results for the past fiscal year has continued to show that, yes—even with Dawntrail's mixed, bumpy reception, Final Fantasy 14 (and Dragon Quest 10, to a lesser extent) is still the breadwinner, putting on its little tie and suit before going off to break its back and fund the company's other ill-advised projects and underperforming AAA games (thanks, Automaton).
You can read the report yourself, which goes over the first half of the fiscal year 2025 (which'll confusingly end in March 2025 for Square, but I don't make the rules) but here's the summary: While net sales are down, operating income's up, due in part to "the expansion pack release in the MMO sub-segment".
The "HD Games" sub-segment, which includes those big mainline releases like Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, was down ¥16.2 billion year-on-year in terms of net sales, while there was a ¥3.6 billion loss in terms of operating income. Meanwhile, the "Games for Smart Devices/PC Browser" sub-segment was down ¥16.2 billion in net sales, with a ¥4.9 billion loss in terms of operating income.
In saunters the MMO sub-segment, presumably wearing a glittering pair of shades and dumping a fat sack of money on the table, which had a ¥8.5 billion increase in net scales, and an operating year-on-year bump of ¥3.8 billion. The total numbers are also bonkers, too—while that HD games segment actually lost Square Enix ¥1.2 billion, the MMO one raked in ¥13.1 billion in operating income. When it comes to cost-efficiency, Square's MMOs are doing laps around the most recent entries in Final Fantasy.
This confirms a couple of things. Firstly, if Dawntrail's mixed reception has hurt Square's bottom line, any, it's not likely to show in the numbers for the next six months. Secondly, FF14—alongside other MMOs—are still bankrolling the company's currently-troubled state, which is a bit of a problem for us catboy fans.
As I argued late last month, one of FF14's biggest challenges going forward is going to be properly funding it, and picking up the pace on an otherwise stale formula. While its patch cadence has been mostly solid and reliable these past few years—it's become so reliable and predictable that it's starting to feel rote and, pound for pound, is genuinely slower than its competitors. The good will from the genuinely admirable A Realm Reborn relaunch can't last forever—and whatever Square is giving Creative Studio 3, the MMO's development team, it's clearly not enough. The company's other projects need to figure out how to produce their own gas, or they're gonna sink the whole fleet.