Square Enix has recently revealed that the last financial year ended in record profits. The company's net income for the financial 2009 (April 2009 to March 2010) is of 9.51 billion yen, that is 102.7 million United States Dollars. The games that have increased the Japanese publisher's worth are Final Fantasy XIII, Dragon Quest IX and Batman: Arkham Asylum.
As expected, Final Fantasy XIII went multi-platinum and sold a record of 5.5 million units to date. The Nintendo DS smash hit Dragon Quest IX had a similar fate, selling 4.26 million units worldwide.
The acquisition of Eidos Interactive turned out to be a very good idea, as Batman: Arkham Asylum proved to be an extremely popular title in the West, selling 1.82 million units in North America and 1.39 million copies in Europe, totaling a staggering 3.24 million units sold worldwide. The Japanese did not contribute to developer Rocksteady's breakthrough title's success, Arkham Asylum barely passing the 30,000-unit threshold in sales in Japan.
This great year has been shadowed by the letting go of around 450 employees by Square Enix. Since last year's March, the number of employees of the company decreased from 3,805 to 3,338. The increased profits might be also attributed to this fact.
This year also announces itself as another good one for the Japanese gaming giant, as Avalanche Studio's Just Cause 2 has sold 1.19 million copies to date. Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, a new Tomb Raider downloadable title from Crystal Dynamics, is set to be released in the following months and may prove to be a successful endeavor. Eidos Montreal, another one of the company's subsidiaries, is hard at work developing
Deus Ex: Human Revolution. This new installment in the Deus Ex series serves as a prequel to the original game and is eagerly awaited by many fans. More details about the title will be made available at E3 2010.
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