{"id":1658955,"date":"2026-08-10T14:39:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T14:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/x24BXskpR4y6muw4vYgBcB"},"modified":"2026-08-10T14:39:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T14:39:29","slug":"square-enixs-88-profit-bump-financial-report-gives-me-hope-for-ff14-suggesting-the-mmos-finally-not-having-to-carry-the-company-for-once","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/square-enixs-88-profit-bump-financial-report-gives-me-hope-for-ff14-suggesting-the-mmos-finally-not-having-to-carry-the-company-for-once\/","title":{"rendered":"Square Enix’s 88% profit-bump financial report gives me hope for FF14, suggesting the MMO’s finally not having to carry the company for once"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Given the current state of the industry elsewhere\u2014it’s, uh, dire<\/a>\u2014I’m pleased to report that Square Enix, creator of the Final Fantasy series among other games, is doing pretty alright, all things considered. The news comes as a result of a financial results report, shared here by Gamebiz.jp<\/a> (and translated by Automaton<\/a>). <\/p>\n

In the fiscal year ending 2027, ol’ Square saw a major 88.6% operating profit increase year-on-year, mostly thanks to its videogame business\u2014which itself saw its operating profit increase by 91.8% and its revenue by 51.8%. That’s mainly due to Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth, which is finally meeting some expectations<\/a>, one would surmise. <\/p>\n

What’s interesting to me is the footnote that Final Fantasy 14<\/a>\u2014a game whose popularity had been struggling with the somewhat-stagnant formula of Dawntrail, with an unofficial (but consistent and long-standing) census reporting a significant downturn<\/a> back in June 2025\u2014 experienced an uptick in players in that same census earlier this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As a player of the game myself, I’m willing to call the shots on a few reasons why this is happening\u2014first up, the actual content that Creative Studio 3’s putting out has been markedly improved, with lessons learnt from the disaster of Forked Tower<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The developer has shifted from an outdated casual\/hardcore divide to a more modern, scaling approach to difficulty\u2014with the deep dungeon Pilgrim’s Traverse having a scalable endgame fight, the expansion’s one (and only) variant dungeon having a midcore “advanced” version, and the North Horn’s version of the Forked Tower being more accessible, with an extreme version to boot.<\/p>\n

Basically, Square’s using more of the buffalo, which leads to far fewer perceived dips in patch cadence, even if the amount of stuff to do is still the same by volume. Then there’s the Evercold announcements<\/a>\u2014revamped “evolved” jobs, a similarly midcore difficulty for its raid series, a complete rethinking of the tomestone system for a more seasonal structure. <\/p>\n

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