Japanese publisher and RPG specialist Square Enix today announced its first-half fiscal results for the period ended September 30. Net sales dipped from 72.27 billion yen to 67.97 billion yen, but net income rose to 6.05 billion yen (around $62 million).

While other Japanese publishers such as Capcom and Sega have increasingly looked to the West to expand their business, Square Enix’s results continue to be driven by domestic sales. 82 percent of sales were from Japan, compared to 10 percent for North America, seven percent for Europe/PAL and one percent for the rest of Asia and other territories. This distribution is largely unchanged from the first half of 2007.

Driving the publisher’s bottom line was the latest in the Dragon Quest franchise, which is even more popular than Final Fantasy among Japanese gamers. Dragon Quest V for DS sold a whopping 1.15 million units. Crisis Core – Final Fantasy VII for PSP sold another 620,000 units bringing its lifetime sales to 1.92 million. Final Fantasy IV for DS sold 440,000 units (1.04 million lifetime). Dragon Quest IV on DS added another 260,000 units, bringing its lifetime total to 1.42 million. And Infinite Undiscovery on Xbox 360 also performed decently with 410,000 units sold.

For the full fiscal year ending next March, Square Enix expects net sales to climb more than 12 billion yen to 160 billion yen, with profits rising nearly 3 billion yen to 12 billion yen. Operating income, however, is expected to drop 520 million yen to 21 billion yen.

Source: GameDaily