Square Enix's MMORPG Net Sales "Declined Significantly" In 2016

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Square Enix released its earnings report for "the nine-month period ended December 31, 2016" yesterday and it has some interesting tidbits. Square Enix is a massive company and not all of their ventures apply to the world of MMOs, so we're going to focus on one specific part that is directly related to the world of MMOs.

In the area of massively multiplayer online role playing games, revenues from operation has been showing steady performance while net sales and operating income declined significantly compared to the same period of the prior fiscal year mainly due to the absence of expansion disk releases during the nine-month period ended December 31, 2016.

While most people generally think this applies directly to Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV, it should be noted that Square Enix also developed Dragon Quest X, which just sold out of Beta access packs in China in October, part of the nine-month period that that this financial report covers. However, the earnings report attributes the decline in net sales and operating income to a lack of expansion releases, which will undoubtedly lead to an incline when Final Fantasy XIV's Stormblood expansion is released later this year.

That being said, "content for platforms such as smart devices and PC browser" saw a significant increase in net sales and operating income, as is noted in the following quote.

Net sales and operating income, in the area of content for platforms such as smart devices and PC browser, increased significantly compared to the same period of the prior fiscal year primarily thanks to the strong performance of existing major titles of native application games on smartphones such as “FINAL FANTASY BRAVE EXVIUS,” “HOSHI NO DRAGON QUEST” and “DRAGON QUEST MONSTERS SUPER LIGHT.”

You can find the full earnings report here.