At the end of the day, Square Enix will always be considered one of the top gaming developers active today. The Final Fantasy franchise alone is enough to warrant their notability. Having said that, they haven't had the best year due to several poor releases and problems with Final Fantasy XIV. In discussing their financial results for the last fiscal year, Square Enix admits to the problems they've faced, leading to their net losses.

Square Enix lost 12 billion yen during the fiscal year (which ended March 31 2011), which roughly equals 148 million US dollars. Their sales dropped 35% from 2010, which they have attributed to a number of problems. The earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan were brought up, along with a few companies Square Enix acquired that aren't worth as much as they once were.

However, the key factors in the drop were weak console games and constant delays in billing for Final Fantasy XIV. Considering their top two titles of the year were Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days and Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2, it's safe to say that their console creations were pretty weak.

Final Fantasy XIV still has most of the problems that were present at its launch back in September, which were so severe that Square Enix waived the subscription fee until it's working properly. There's hope that they can recover from this setback in due time, but whether or not anyone will still be interested remains to be seen. Considering it's been over half a year since the game's launch, that doesn't seem very likely.

Still, things may be looking up for them in the coming year. A number of big name titles will be released before the next fiscal year is over, most prominent among these being Deus Ex: Human Revolution. A hotly anticipated title like that could easily help Square Enix out of their slump. There's also their reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise, along with Hitman: Absolution, Final Fantasy XIII-2, and Dragon Quest X.

Can Square Enix pull out of this slump in the coming year? Will you still be interested in Final Fantasy XIV when it's working?

Leave any thoughts you may have in the comments below.

Source: Eurogamer