Square Enix Launches FF XII Game Software in Japan

Tokyo, March 16 (Jiji Press)–Square Enix Co. released its Final Fantasy XII video game software in Japan on Thursday.

The product, tailored for Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.’s PlayStation 2 game console, is the first FF series title hitting the market since the FF XI that was launched in May 2002.

Square Enix President Yoichi Wada told Jiji Press the same day that initial FF XII shipments totaled some two million units, larger than initial shipments for the FF X and the FF XI.

The company hopes that all the shipped products will be sold out by the end of March, he said.

Wada said the firm is highly likely to achieve its group earnings targets for fiscal 2005. For the year ending on March 31, the company projects sales at 136 billion yen, recurring profit at 28.5 billion yen and net profit at 17.5 billion yen.

Square Enix is also planning to release the FF XII in North America and then in Europe, Wada said, adding that the North American launch will come as early as in fiscal 2006.

The FF series was first launched in 1987, and global cumulative shipments have since totaled more than 65 million units.

Wada refrained from clarifying whether Square Enix will develop the next game titles of the FF series and the Dragon Quest series for SCE’s next-generation PlayStation 3 game machine, saying that the company will study the matter with various options in mind.

SCE, affiliated with electronics giant Sony Corp. , said Wednesday it will postpone the release of the PS3 to early November from this spring due to a delay in the work to finalize copyright protection technology for the Blu-ray Disc, a next-generation optical disc promoted mainly by Sony.END