Making and selling video games is a strange and fragile world. One day you are buying up a (relatively) ancient and revered piece of intellectual property, the next day your own coders make a hash of one of your own games. Both cost you money. And this is what's happened to Square Enix as news emerges that is has been forced to delay the release of Dragon Quest IX and also Final Fantasy XIII.

According Square Enix president Yoichi Wada, the Dragon Quest delay was down to "carelessness" in the debugging it has now been delayed until July. The reason for the FFXIII delay was not outlined, however, Wada did comment, "The next term's schedule has not been fixed yet. Presently, I cannot say what kind of effect we will experience from moving the Dragon Quest IX launch from March to July. I cannot say there won't be an effect. There is a possibility that Dragon Quest IX delay could effect Final Fantasy XIII."

What is certain is that, according to MCV, the company has slashed its predicted March earnings by 60% to £34.7 million.