Everything about Square Enix totally explained
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've 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 didn't try other approaches since, as
Enix didn't 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 . 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've 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 . 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, (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
Black God,
Papuwa,
Pani Poni,,
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
- The company won IGN's award for Best Developer of 2006 for the PlayStation 2.
- The Better Business Bureau has assigned the company's North American subsidiary, Square Enix, Inc., a rating of "B".
Further Information
Get more info on 'Square Enix'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://square_enix.totallyexplained.com">Square Enix Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
