Wark Digest #257 - Duel Keeper
Welcome back to the Wark Digest, your weekly newsletter of new developments and historical insights from the Final Fantasy universe. I’m Chris, aka Hoogathy, and this week we go over the highs and lows of Square Enix’s last fiscal year, while adventures in FFXI continue, and Dissidia Duellum puts its first collab event on the record.
This week’s newsletter is 1739 words, a 7-minute read.
Stable Ground
Get out the Monopoly tokens and green banker visor, because Square Enix has released their financial results for the fiscal year which ended March 31, 2026, and the performance of games like The Ivalice Chronicles (and a certain crossover) helped foster one of their more stabilized outlooks in recent memory.
What’s going on:
Compared to the previous fiscal year, net sales were down 8.3% but operating income was up by 34.9%
This is close to the previous year’s results: down 8.9% and up 24.6%
The company “is continuing determined efforts to strengthen the competitiveness and profitability“ in its four key business segments
As for how those four segments fared compared to last FY:
Digital Entertainment: net sales down 16.3%, operating income up 28%
HD Games fared comparably to the previous year thanks to “steady sales” of new titles like Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles and Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, plus “higher sales of catalog titles”
MMO Games saw declines, as the previous year had benefitted from the “new expansion bump” when Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail launched
“Diversification of payment methods” pulled the Smart Devices/PC Browser subsegment’s fat out of the fire and led to increased income, though net sales were down “due to weakness in existing titles”
Amusement: net sales up 1.3%, operating income up 13.1%
Publication: net sales down 3.4%, operating income down 10.3%—”due to lower sales of comic books”
Merchandising: net sales up 31.4%, operating income up 85.2%—oddly no specific reasoning was called out for this, the most remarkable gain in the report, except that it was “driven by the recognition of royalty income from key IP“, but it’s safe to assume a large part of this stems from the arrangement with Magic: The Gathering for the Final Fantasy set
For the future, Square Enix’s report acknowledges that the market is in a strange and volatile position, and promises they’re trying to “develop content” and “diversifying its earnings opportunities” to accommodate shifting consumer habits
Hence the shift to a multiplatform strategy, in other words
As the report puts it, the console game market is expected to keep growing thanks to technological advances—but “In the market for new releases, popularity tends to concentrate on a limited number of major titles, resulting in increasingly pronounced differences between successful and unsuccessful titles“
Given all this, they’ve identified three financial goals:
By the end of the current FY, “achieve stable profit generation“ from the Digital Entertainment division and a 15% consolidated operating margin
Earmarking “a maximum of ¥100 billion for total strategic investments (growth investments or shareholder returns) over a three-year period”
Achieve a Return On Equity (ROE) of at least 10%, “shifting to a management approach mindful of capital efficiency”
…or in other words, “do better and make shareholders happy”
What we thought:
As recent financial reports go, Final Fantasy’s stewards are doing okay, holding stable or even growing in most areas
May not be the resounding success you may hope to see, but it’s not bleak either, and hey, that’s something these days
For a fiscal year that didn’t see very many big, new blockbusters, the HD Games division did pretty well with a smattering of remakes and remasters like Ivalice Chronicles—without a big tentpole release, they returned a decent growth in income (and it’s understandable that sheer sales may’ve been lower as a consequence)
Calling out a “weakness in existing titles” for the mobile subsegment harkens back to last issue and the talk of Dissidia Duellum and Ever Crisis’ earnings; buried in the business-speak you can almost hear them throwing their hands up in frustration over the state of that “market”
Publication continues to struggle as of late, seemingly as the company struggles beneath changes in reader habits—physical sales are lower, while more readers are getting their manga online (or, while the report doesn’t mention this, “stealing” it digitally)
The company holds rights to a surprising array of potentially popular manga series, but sometimes doesn’t seem to know how to push it out in front of people
The goals laid out seem to be in direct response to the activist investors, with their focus on increasing ROE and earmarking funds for shareholder returns
This is a very Business document, so of course they’re embracing the Business of it all instead of making proposals for new games… but it still feels a little extra icky to be indirectly humouring their demands
The MTG crossover has made a big, big impact and proven to be a successful collab for both sides… so will they do another one down the line? This year will see a set based on The Hobbit, following the Lord of the Rings set from a few years ago…
What’s next? Next fiscal year will see the arrival of Evercold to FFXIV, which usually helps spur the MMO division higher… but what will the mobile game landscape look like? Will Duellum or Ever Crisis remain standing?
Our Adventure Never Ends
Final Fantasy XI released a short animation this morning to commemorate the game’s 24th anniversary. Animated by “long-time adventurer” Waboku, “Our Adventure Never Ends” highlights some of the memorable characters and events from the MMORPG’s epic history.
It’s a charming little video to observe the anniversary tomorrow, teasing “Major Updates Await You In Vana’diel”—we’ll have to wait and see whether that’s referring to something new in the pipeline, or just the updates over the last few years that many players might have missed. But for now, it’s a nice gesture which may build to a bigger spectacle for next year’s 25th, and a capstone to the recent release of the third Vana’diel Alliance Raid in Final Fantasy XIV.
Duel Keeper
Speaking of mobile games and “remaining standing,” Dissidia Duellum has announced its first collaboration… and it’s an unexpected choice.
What’s going on:
Beginning May 19 (UTC), the crossover will feature Final Fantasy Record Keeper via four exclusive collaboration abilities
Special tickets can be earned through login bonuses or missions, for use in the collaboration draw, as well as profile icons, wallpapers, and music
There will be no new character as part of the collab though (so sorry to Tyro, Elarra, and Dr. Mog at this time)
The event comes as a delayed update for this week, breaking the launch window-trend of having two new characters every two weeks
What we thought:
Of all the properties they could have used, Record Keeper is not the most “glamourous” pull they could’ve made
While unconventional, it does make sense, still
As discussed last issue, Record Keeper is a small but consistent presence for FF in Japan, so this could get the attention of some players in that region
Meanwhile, even though FFRK Global is gone, there are plenty of people who used to play it, and still bear some love or nostalgia for it
The current roster is small, so it’s safer to save bigger collabs (like NieR, NieR crosses over with eeeeeverything) for when there are more characters to utilize for things like alternate costumes
Also, it’s not like they can copy Ever Crisis and cross over with games like FFVI or FFXIII, since it’s already a cross-FF game—they have to think outside the main line
It also begs the question… why a collab now, two months into the game?
As much as I love FFRK, there isn’t high potential for this to reap a lot of revenue or engagement, since it’s a low-stakes event with a low-recognition property
Perhaps it’s more of a stalling technique: holding the next characters at bay just a little bit longer while not starving the player base in the meantime
What’s next? The collab has fans of other discarded mobile games, like Mobius, intrigued by the possibilities, though this shouldn’t necessarily mean that the floodgates are open for all the Ghosts of Gacha Past to come back. If anything, Mobius and Brave Exvius probably have about as much chance to return to Dissidia with legitimate characters as they do in such “collab” events.
Around the Union
Unfortunately, our production lineup has been slightly affected as Darryl suffered a shoulder injury recently, but in the meantime this week we have the supercut of “Every Major Final Fantasy Logo Explained!” The story and symbolism behind these iconic illustrations can sometimes be elusive, but we’re here to help with the full trivia masterclass!
And over at Datalog, we can now present the “The Complete History of JRPGs: 1988 Edition!” The forefathers of JRPGs began to truly take shape here with the monumental Dragon Quest III—and plus, FFU’s Complete History of Final Fantasy II is included here as well, for the full context!
And last but not least, in this week’s Kupo Chronicle Takashi Tokita tells the story of the early days at Square, to see how Final Fantasy helped foster Square’s spirit of experimentation—and compares the first era of game development to The Beatles.
Kupo Chronicle #59 - Inside The Golden Age
Welcome to the Kupo Chronicle, the premium edition of the Wark Digest newsletter, where we explore the Final Fantasy universe in long-form and drill down into unique moments of the series’ history. I’m Chris, aka Hoogathy, and in this installment we harken to one of the series’ founding members for tales of the early days of Square and the spirit of experimentation that Final Fantasy fostered.
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Until next time, kupo!
