Square Enix Profits Surge Thanks to Mobile and PC Games

[UPDATE] Square Enix of America and Europe CEO Phil Rogers has released a statement following the company's earnings report earlier today.

"We have continued the efforts to create high quality games which delight our customers. The solid starts for both Just Cause 3 and Rise of the Tomb Raider together with the number of awards and nominations we've seen for Lara Croft Go, Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward and Life is Strange, and the rest of our lineup, give us confidence that our effort is working. Receiving numerous industry awards and securing more DICE nominations than any other content creator was a great way to cap off what was a successful quarter for Square Enix."

The original story is below.

Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy, and Hitman publisher Square Enix has detailed its financial results for the nine-month period spanning April to December 2015. reporting strong growth in sales and operating profit driven by mobile and PC games.

The Tokyo-headquartered company reported ¥152 billion ($1.3 billion) in sales for the period, which represents a 28 percent increase compared to the same nine months in 2014.

Operating profit, meanwhile was ¥23 billion ($202 million) in 2015, compared to ¥14 billion ($125 million) in 2014. This is an increase of 60 percent over the previous year.

In its statement, Square Enix said Just Cause 3 and Rise of the Tomb Raider, both which were released in the holiday period of 2015, made a "solid start," but did not specify sales figures. Revenue generated from MMOs including Final Fantasy XIV and Dragon Quest X "are sustaining their strong performance," Square Enix said, while some premium expansions have helped.

Games for platforms such as PC and mobile continued to show strong performance. The launches of Mobius Final Fantasy, Hoshi no Dragon Quest, and Final Fantasy Brave Exvius were described as "successful."

Square Enix's amusement and arcade business have been showing "steady performance through efficient store management efforts." Sales of Dissidia Final Fantasy machines were said to have "gained favourable results."

Discussing the industry as a whole, Square Enix said the business environment is "in the midst of major change, where smart devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs are spreading rapidly."

Although console markets in North America and Europe are growing, it continued, the markets are becoming "oligopolistic", in that they are dominated by a handful of large companies. As a result, Square Enix is focusing on establishing a "solid revenue foundation through the introduction of flexible content" that can accommodate the changes.

The company's next big release is Hitman, which launches across PS4, PC, and Xbox One in March 2016. The game was originally slated to launch in late 2015 but was delayed so that developer IO Interactive could add more content.

On January 14, however, Square Enix and developer Io Interactive announced Hitman will be "fully episodic" instead of being a full game at launch, as previously indicated.

Although Final Fantasy XV doesn't have a release date has said it will reveal the date in LA on March 30 at 7PM PT (4PM ET). It will make the announcement during a live event that willl take place at the Shrine Auditorium.