Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2 was a big hit for Square Enix.

Square Enix saw a surge in earnings for the first quarter (May to June). Whiles sales were up 11% from the ¥29,399 million of last year's first quarter to ¥32,540 million, operating income shot up 814%, from ¥594 million to ¥5,434 million. In net earnings, Square Enix jumped back from a loss of ¥1,672 million to a gain of ¥1,812 million.

The reason for the surge, Square Enix said, was the release of Dragon Quest Monsters Joker 2, along with continued strength of such late Q4 international games like Final Fantasy XIII and Just Cause 2. Joker 2 was released here in April and sold 1.25 million units.

For the full year, Square Enix expects total sales of ¥160,000 million yen and operating income of ¥20,000 million. These are lower than last year's Dragon Quest IX and Final Fantasy XIII-fueled ¥192,300 million sales and ¥28,200 million earnings.

Square Enix expects total software sales units to drop from last year's high of 26.6 million to 24 million. Most of the drop off will come form Japan, which last year accounted for 44% of software sales. This year, Square Enix expects Japan to account for just 25% with Europe and North America accounting for 37.5% each.

Major upcoming titles include Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep's overseas release in September, Front Mission Evolved's worldwide release in September, Final Fantasy XIV's PC release in September and PS3 release in March, and Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded's Japanese release in October.

Access the Square Enix Holdings portal for a full look at the company's earnings.