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Square Enix Company, Limited (株式会社スクウェア･エニックス Kabushiki Kaisha Sukuwea Enikkusu^?) TYO: 9684 is a Japanese video game company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series (published as Dragon Warrior in North America from 1989 until 2005), and the Kingdom Hearts series. Square Enix was formed as the result of a merger between rivals Square Co. and the Enix Corporation. On April 1, 2003, Enix legally absorbed Square, with Square stockholders receiving 0.85 shares of stock in the new company compared to Enix stockholders receiving a one-to-one trade. Despite this, many top officials within Square assumed leadership roles in the new corporate hierarchy, including Square president Yōichi Wada, who was appointed president of the new corporation. Square Enix is also one of the major pop culture icons in Japan.

Corporate developments

Square Enix has regional operations, including Square Enix, Inc. (for all of North America) and Square Enix Ltd. (for Europe and other areas that use the PAL-television standard). In July 2003, Square Enix relocated their headquarters to Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo. In March 2004, Square Enix acquired UIEvolution, Inc. in order to strengthen its wireless market. On August 22, 2005, Square Enix announced its acquisition of the amusement gaming developer and publisher, Taito Corporation, renowned for their arcade hits, Space Invaders and the Bubble Bobble series. By September 28, 2005, Square Enix had wholly acquired Taito. In January 2005, the company expanded operations to Beijing, China by establishing Square Enix (China) Co., Ltd as a wholly owned subsidiary. The company also has a controlling interest in Community Network Software Engine of Beijing, China which focuses on network middle-ware for gaming.

Square Enix's internal studios in Osaka/Tokyo, Japan and Beijing, China. UIEvolution in Bellevue, Washington.

Production teams

As of September 2003, Square Enix' production staff were divided in eight different Square teams and two Enix teams:

As of May 2005, Production Team 10 was headed by Yoshinori Yamagishi. Yusuke Hirata left Square Enix in June 2005 to join Aquaplus, while Yasumi Matsuno left in August 2005 for speculated reasons.

Business model

The business model of Square Enix is centered on the idea of "polymorphic content", which consists in developing franchises on all potential hardware or media rather than being restricted by a single gaming platform. An early example of this strategy is Enix's Full Metal Alchemist manga series, which has been adapted into an anime TV series, a movie and several novels and video games. Other polymorphic projects include Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Code Age, World of Mana, Ivalice Alliance and Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII. According to Yoichi Wada, "it's very difficult to hit the jackpot, as it were. Once we've hit it, we have to get all the juice possible out of it".

The standard game design model of Square Enix is to establish the plot, characters and art of the game first. Battle systems, field maps and cutscenes are created next. A typical game of the company involves a team of at most 200 people. Square Enix doesn't usually use other companies' engines, preferring to code from scratch. According to Taku Murata, Square Enix has settled into this game making model since Square's Final Fantasy VII in 1997 and did not try other approaches since, as Enix did not have any internal development studio. Similar to Sony's Greatest Hits program, Square Enix sometimes re-releases games under the Ultimate Hits label, a designation given to games that have achieve a certain level of sales, at a reduced retail price.

In 2004, Square Enix began to work on a "common 3D format" which would allow the entire company to develop titles without being restricted to a specific platform: this led to the creation of a game engine, named Crystal Tools, which is compatible with the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360, Windows-based PCs and to some extent the Wii. Nevertheless, Square Enix has also began considering other companies' engines and programming languages, licencing Epic Games' Unreal engine in 2007 for use in The Last Remnant, and using the Squirrel language for the WiiWare title Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King.

Properties

Video games

By far, Square Enix's video gaming properties are its most valued assets. Square Enix's Dragon Quest franchise is considered the second most popular game series in Japan after Pokémon, and each new installment of the series routinely reaches the top of Japanese sales records, selling over 41 million units so far, with about 39 million from Japan. Overall, the Final Fantasy franchise can be considered the company's most important asset, with total worldwide sales of over 80 million units as of 2007. More recently, Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts series (developed in collaboration with Disney's Buena Vista Games) has become massively popular worldwide, adding another valuable asset to the company.

In early 2003, Square Enix's U.S. subsidiary registered the Dragon Quest trademark, retiring the Dragon Warrior moniker, which was necessitated in 1989 due a trademark conflict with the now defunct TSR, Inc. In May 2004 Square Enix announced an agreement with Sony Online Entertainment for the Japanese publishing rights to EverQuest II. As of 2006, Square Enix has produced titles for the Sony PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and Microsoft Xbox 360 video game consoles, as well as for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable handheld game consoles. The company has announced titles for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii consoles, as well as for the Nintendo DS. In addition, they have published games for Microsoft Windows-based personal computers, and for various models of mobile phone. Square Enix mobile phone games are available on the Vodafone network in some European countries, including Ireland, Great Britain, Spain, and France. Twenty five of Square Enix's video games were included in Famitsu magazine's top 100 games, seven being in the top ten list, with Final Fantasy X claiming the number one position.

Before its launch, Michihiro Sasaki, senior vice president of Square Enix, spoke about the PlayStation 3, saying "We don't want the PlayStation 3 to be the overwhelming loser, so we want to support them, but we don't want them to be the overwhelming winner either, so we can't support them too much." Square Enix continued to reiterate their devotion to multi-platform publishing in 2007, promising more support for the North American and European gaming markets where console pluralism is generally more prevalent than in Japan.

Online gaming

In 2001, Enix published its first online game Crossgate in Japan, mainland China, and Taiwan.

Final Fantasy XI was first released before the merger by Square in Japan on May 16, 2002, for the PlayStation 2. In March 2004, Square Enix released the game worldwide. With the huge success from Final Fantasy XI, Microsoft had the game ported into the Xbox 360 in April 2006, making it the first Final Fantasy game ever to be on the Xbox console. Due to the success of their MMORPG, Square Enix began a new project called Fantasy Earth: The Ring of Dominion. GamePot, a Japanese game portal, got the license to publish Fantasy Earth in Japan and it was released in Japan as "Fantasy Earth ZERO." In November 2006, however, Square Enix dropped the Fantasy Earth Zero project, giving acquisition to GamePot.

A next-gen MMORPG code named Rapture is currently in development by the Final Fantasy XI team using the company's Crystal Tools engine.

Other media

The company has made two forays into the film industry. The first, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001), was produced by Square subsidiary Square Pictures prior to the merger (Square Pictures is now a consolidated subsidiary of Square Enix). Its box-office failure caused Enix to delay the merger, which was already considered before the creation of the film, for fear of associating with a company that loses money. In 2005, Square Enix released Final Fantasy VII Advent Children, a CGI-animation movie based on the PlayStation game Final Fantasy VII, set two years after the events of the game.

The company also has a manga publishing division in Japan (from Enix) called Gangan Comics. It publishes manga for the Japanese market only. Titles published by Gangan Comics include Papuwa, Pani Poni, Spiral, Soul Eater and Fullmetal Alchemist. Also contains manga adaptations of diverse Square Enix games, like Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts and Star Ocean. Some of these titles were also adapted into anime series.

Fullmetal Alchemist so far is the most successful offspring of Square Enix's manga branch. The anime series obtained great popularity in Japan and even spawned a movie sequel. Both series and movie are licensed to many locations worldwide (in North America by FUNimation Entertainment). The same occurs with its manga series, licensed in North America by Viz Media. Kingdom Hearts and Spiral were licensed in North America by Tokyopop, however, due to unknown reasons, Tokyopop dropped Spiral, and the title is now pending release by Hachette's Yen Press.

Public opinion

References

^ Financial Results for Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2006.
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^ Nutt, Christian (2005). Yoshinori Yamagishi Interview (PS2). GameSpy.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-01.
^ Winklet, Chris (2005). Square Enix Producer Joins Aquaplus. RPGFan.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-01.
^ Parish, Jeremy (2006). Retronauts: Volume 4 – Yasumi Matsuno. GameSetWatch.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-01.
^ Square Peg, European Hole Interview // None /// Eurogamer
^ Square Dance // GamesIndustry.biz
^ ^a ^b Gamasutra - GDC 2008 Event Coverage
^ How WiiWare Changed Square Enix | Game | Life from Wired.com
^ GDC08: Square Enix unveils Crystal Tools engine - Joystiq
^ Tomer (2007). Square Enix Acquires Unreal Engine 3 License. Forever Fantasy. Retrieved on 2007-01-25.
^ Square Enix Company Information. (2007). Retrieved on 2007-12-19.
^ Wollenschlaeger, Alex. Japan Picks the Best Games Ever. Kikizo.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-01.
^ Sinclair, Brian (2006). Square Enix wants a three-way race. GameSpot.com. Retrieved on 2007-08-01.
^ Berti, Matt (2007). Square Enix to devote more attention to U.S., European markets. SquareHaven.com. Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
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^ RPGamer > Square-Enix Gives Chrono Break Trademark Some Playmates
^ IGN presents Best of 2006. IGN.com (2006). Retrieved on 2007-08-01.
^ Company Report – Square Enix, Inc.. The Better Business Bureau. Retrieved on 2007-07-09.

Square Enix