BODY: For the first time in four and a half years, Square Enix has strung together a quarter where both the top and bottom lines climbed at once โ and the company that fans love to worry about suddenly looks very healthy.
On August 10, Square Enix Holdings released earnings for the first quarter of its fiscal year ending March 2027. Net sales rose year-on-year, while ordinary profit surged 172% โ the kind of number that turns analyst frowns upside down. Crucially, it marks the first quarter since roughly early 2021 in which revenue and profit both increased simultaneously, ending a long stretch of mixed or declining results.
The standout driver was Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, whose newly launched Switch 2 and Xbox editions posted solid sales. After debuting as a PlayStation 5 timed exclusive in 2024, the second chapter of the FF7 remake trilogy has now widened its reach considerably. Expanding onto Nintendo's new hardware and Microsoft's ecosystem let Square Enix squeeze fresh revenue out of an already-finished, high-budget title โ exactly the multiplatform strategy management has publicly committed to.
The turnaround follows a bruising period. In 2024 the company took heavy content-abandonment losses, scrapping unreleased projects and signaling a pivot away from chasing exclusivity toward getting its biggest games onto as many platforms as possible.
The insider take
From Tokyo, this quarter reads as early validation of Square Enix's controversial "multiplatform-first" reset. For years the company leaned on Sony exclusivity deals that flattered launch optics but capped lifetime sales; the FF7 Rebirth ports are the clearest proof yet that meeting players on Switch 2 and Xbox pays off. That said, a single strong quarter โ flattered by comparison to a weak year-ago period โ isn't a full recovery. The real test is whether the upcoming FF7 trilogy finale and the company's HD-remake pipeline can sustain these margins rather than spike once and fade.
Originally reported by AUTOMATON (Japanese).