Final Fantasy XII delay hits Square Enix in the wallet

Square Enix has revised its profit expectations downward after revealing that Final Fantasy XII will not ship during its current fiscal year ending March 31st, 2004. Despite the promise of a PS2 re-release of Dragon Quest V before then to buoy sales, the Japanese firm has nevertheless downgraded its net profit expectation from 10.5 billion yen (€82.15 million) to 8.1 billion (€63.38 million).

The lower figure is also influenced by the postponement to fiscal year 2004 of Dragon Quest VIII, which is currently underway at Dark Cloud 2/Dark Chronicle developer Level 5, although the company says unit sales are actually up both in Japan and overseas markets.

"We had planned to release Final Fantasy XII in the current business year," a Square Enix spokesperson told Reuters, "but after a review of our product launch plan, we decided to delay it to next business year or later." According to reports, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada commented that the game has been shifted partly due to development delays, but also to prevent it competing with other Square Enix titles.

Square Enix has previously scheduled a November 19th press conference in Japan to unveil Final Fantasy XII.