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Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.
株式会社スクウェア･エニックス・ホールディングス

Company type	Public (TYO: 9684)
Industry	Software & programming Books & magazines (Japan only)
Founded	September 22, 1975 (Enix) September 1986 (Square Co.) April 1, 2003 (as Square Enix)
Headquarters	Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Key people	Yasuhiro Fukushima, Honorary Chairman Yōichi Wada, President and CEO (Square Enix & Taito) Keiji Honda, Executive Vice President Phil Rogers, President and CEO (Square Enix Europe) Mike Fischer, President and CEO (Square Enix, Inc.)
Products	Final Fantasy Dragon Quest Front Mission Kingdom Hearts Star Ocean Tomb Raider Hitman Deus Ex Thief Legacy of Kain
Revenue	¥135 billion, $1.49 billion (Apr-Dec 2009)
Operating income	32,759,000,000 yen (2020)
Net income	¥7.8 billion, $86 million (Apr-Dec 2009)
Total assets	302,634,000,000 yen (2020)
Number of employees	3,338 (as of December 4, 2009)
Subsidiaries	Square Enix Group Taito Group Eidos Group (defunct) Square Enix Europe
Website	www.square-enix.com

Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd. (株式会社スクウェア・エニックス・ホールディングス, Kabushiki-gaisha Sukuwea Enikkusu Hōrudingusu) TYO: 9684 is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series. Its headquarters are located in the Shinjuku Bunka Quint Building in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo.

Square Enix was formed as the result of a merger between Square Co. and the Enix Corporation. The merger occurred on April 1, 2003, with Square stockholders receiving 0.89 shares of stock in the new company compared to Enix stockholders receiving a one-to-one trade. At the time, 80% of Square Enix staff were made up of former Square Co. employees. As part of the merger, many of the top officials within Square Co. assumed the leadership roles in the new corporate hierarchy, including president Yōichi Wada, who was appointed president of the corporation. The original founder of Enix, Yasuhiro Fukushima, is currently the largest shareholder of the corporation.

The company also owns Taito Corporation and Square Enix Europe (which owns fellow publisher and developer Eidos Interactive). Eidos will cease to exist as a publisher, as it has been absorbed into a new subsidiary Square Enix Europe. Square Enix will now publish all of Eidos' owned IPs and currently owns Eidos' development studios. Eidos was most well known for publishing Tomb Raider, Hitman, Deus Ex, Thief and Legacy of Kain which Square Enix will now publish and is also well known for the Championship Manager series of games.

Corporate history

This section is in list format but may read better as prose. You can help by converting this section, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (October 2009)

• April 1, 2003 - Square Enix formed in a merger between Square Co., Ltd. and the Enix Corporation.
• July 2003 - Square Enix relocated its headquarters to Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo.
• March 2004 - Square Enix acquired UIEvolution, Inc. in order to strengthen its wireless market.
• January 2005 - Square Enix founded Square Enix (China) Co., Ltd (China), expanding their interests in the People's Republic of China (The company also has a controlling interest in Community Network Software Engine of Beijing, China which focuses on network middle-ware for gaming)
• August 22, 2005 - Square Enix announced its acquisition of the gaming developer and publisher, Taito Corporation, renowned for their arcade hits, Space Invaders and the Bubble Bobble series.
• September 28, 2005 - The acquisition of Taito is completed.
• week of September 5, 2006 - Square Enix sued for breaking a contract with Soft-World International.
• December 2007 - UIEvolution splits from Square Enix to become an independent company
• August 29, 2008 - Square Enix made plans for a friendly takeover of Tecmo by purchasing shares at a 30 percent premium with a total bid of 22.3 billion yen.
• September 4, 2008 - Square Enix withdrew their offer after Tecmo rejected the proposed takeover. Pure Dreams series formed.
• February 12, 2009 - Square Enix announced a takeover deal worth £84.3 million (32p per share) for Eidos plc, the holding company for Eidos Interactive, the UK-based publisher of the Tomb Raider, Hitman, Deus Ex, Thief and Legacy of Kain franchises.
• April 22, 2009 - The acquisition of Eidos is completed.

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 Fullmetal Alchemist manga series, which has been adapted into two 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 achieved 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 begun 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.

Production teams

In 2003, Square Enix's development staff consisted of eight Square and two Enix Product Development Divisions (開発事業部, kaihatsu jigyōbu). Product Development Division 5 had offices both in Osaka and Tokyo.

As of May 2005, Product Development Division 10 was headed by Yoshinori Yamagishi. Yusuke Hirata left Square Enix in June 2005 to join Aquaplus, Yasumi Matsuno left in August 2005 due to sickness, and Koichi Ishii left in April 2007 to start his company Grezzo. At the Square Enix Party 2007 pre-conference meeting in May 2007, Hiroyuki Ito was introduced on stage as the head of Product Development Division 4. In December 2010, Hiromichi Tanaka was replaced by Naoki Yoshida as the head of Product Development Division 3.

At present, the teams in charge of the Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy, Dissidia: Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series are collectively referred to as the 1st Production Department (第1制作部, dai-ichi seisakubu), with no 2nd and 3rd Production Departments existing. The current structure of the 1st Production Department is the result of a fall 2010 merger between Product Development Division 1 and Product Development Division 5.

Based off all this information, this would be a rough idea of the current structure of the development teams:

Properties

Video games

Square Enix's main concentration is on video gaming. Of its properties, the Final Fantasy franchise is the best-selling, with a total worldwide sales of over 80 million units as of 2007. Square Enix's Dragon Quest franchise is considered one of the most popular game series in Japan and new installments regularly outsell other games at the times of their release. Of the 53 million units of games in the series sold so far, about 49.7 million have been from Japan, and about 2.4 million have been from North America. More recently, Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts series (developed in collaboration with Disney's Buena Vista Games) has become popular.

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. Square Enix has produced or is producing titles for most major consoles beginning with the Nintendo Entertainment System, though never on a Sega platform. Square Enix has historically developed exclusively for certain consoles. The company developed its flagship games almost exclusively for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, PlayStation, and PlayStation 2 in their respective eras. However, Square Enix is not developing all of its major titles for one console exclusively in the seventh generation, as they have done in the past, but instead released the next major installment in the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy XIII on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in North America and Europe, and has recently announced that Dragon Quest X will be released on the Wii. Square Enix has also developed titles for handheld game consoles, including the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. In addition, they have published games for Microsoft Windows-based personal computers, and for various models of mobile phones. Square Enix mobile phone games are available on the Vodafone network in some European countries, including Ireland, Great Britain, Spain, and France. Twenty-seven Square-Enix games were included in Famitsu magazine's 'Top 100 Games Ever', 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. Their interest in multi-platform development was made clear in 2008 when the previously PlayStation 3-exclusive game Final Fantasy XIII was announced for release on the Xbox 360.

In 2008 Square Enix and Gas Powered Games announced partnership on the game Supreme Commander 2. On July 8, 2008, Square Enix released their first game for the iPod, Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes. Also in 2008, Square Enix made a new brand for kids gaming, known as Pure Dreams. Its purpose is to create games suitable for kids. The brand is now planning more games. Pure Dreams have just completed their first two games, Snoopy DS: Let's Go Meet Snoopy and His friends (released in Japan on October 9, 2008) and Pingu's Wonderful Carnival (released in Japan on November 6, 2008). Both games are planned for a US release. Also hidden from the existence Square-Enix is currently working a hidden project. Fortress is the codename of a video game being developed as a spin-off of Square Enix's Final Fantasy series. It is envisioned as an action game set in the fictional world of Ivalice, and is intended for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows platforms. Although not yet officially announced, the project's existence was revealed after the closure of the original developer, GRIN, by former members of the development team and sources in the video game industry.

In 2009, Square Enix acquired Eidos, the company responsible for popular game series such as Tomb Raider, Hitman, Deus Ex, Thief and Legacy of Kain, as well as the publishing of the Windows versions of Final Fantasy VII and VIII. Square Enix has absorbed Eidos into a new division called Square Enix Europe. Future Eidos games will be published by Square Enix.

Online gaming

Before the merger, Enix published its first online game Cross Gate in Japan, mainland China, and Taiwan in 2001 and Square release Final Fantasy XI in Japan on May 16, 2002 for the PlayStation 2. With the huge success after Square Enix released Final Fantasy XI worldwide in March 2004, Microsoft had the game ported into the Xbox 360 two years later, 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 was developed by the Final Fantasy XI team using the company's Crystal Tools engine. It was unveiled at E3 2009 that the MMO, Final Fantasy XIV, for PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows, was released on September 30, 2010. A code to have a chance to be included in the Final Fantasy XIV beta was included with the PS3 version of Final Fantasy XIII. Also included is a code for an in-game item upon the release of Final Fantasy XIV.

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 itself 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 (originally from Enix) called Gangan Comics, which publishes content for the Japanese market only. However, in 2010, Square Enix launched a digital manga store for North American audiences via its Members services, which contains several notable series published in Gangan anthologies. Titles published by Gangan Comics include Black God, Papuwa, Pani Poni, Spiral, He is My Master, Yumekui Kenbun, Doubt, Bamboo Blade, Pandora Hearts. Black Butler, Soul Eater, Zombie Loan, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Other titles include manga adaptations of diverse Square Enix games, like Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts and Star Ocean. Some of these titles have also been adapted into anime series.

Fullmetal Alchemist so far is the most successful offspring of Square Enix's manga branch, with more than 30 million volumes sold in Japan alone. The anime series obtained great popularity 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; Tokyopop dropped Spiral, but the title was later licensed again by Hachette's Yen Press, which has licensed other Square Enix titles including Soul Eater, Bamboo Blade and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Other titles like Soul Eater, Sekirei, Bamboo Blade and Shikabane Hime also were adapted to TV and licensed to other countries, including a second Fullmetal Alchemist anime series which debuted on Japanese television in 2009 and America on Adult Swim in 2010.

Subsidiaries

• Square Enix Co., Ltd. (Japan, Headquarters) Shinjuku Bunka Quint Building in Shibuya, Tokyo.
• Square Enix, Inc.(North America) the third floor of 999 North Sepulveda Boulevard in El Segundo, California, United States.
• Square Enix Ltd. (Europe/ PAL areas) the second floor of the Castle House in Borough of Islington in London, United Kingdom.
  • Square Enix Europe
    • Beautiful Game Studios
    • Crystal Dynamics
    • Eidos Montreal
    • Eidos Shanghai
    • IO Interactive
• Square Enix (China) Co., Ltd. Room 610 of Golder Plaza, No. 10 in Haidian District, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
• Digital Entertainment Academy Co. Ltd.
• Square Enix Mobile
• Taito (Headquartered in Japan), founded in 1953, acquired on September 28, 2005.
• UIEvolution

Reviews and rating

• The company won IGN's award for Best Developer of 2006 for the PlayStation 2.
• Square Enix's North American subsidiary, Square Enix, Inc., joined The Better Business Bureau in July 2007 and was assigned a rating of "C++". The BBB rating has since been upgraded to "A+".

References

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2. "Gamasutra - News - Interview: Challenges And Opportunities Abound For New Square Enix U.S. President". Gamasutra. 2010-08-02. Retrieved 2010-08-05.
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5. Corporate Strategy meeting regarding Eidos integration
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8. "Map." Square Enix Corporation. Retrieved on January 30, 2011. "Location Shinjuku Bunka Quint Bldg. 3-22-7 Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 151-8544, Japan."
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12. Thorsen, Tor (2008-08-29). "Report: Square Enix makes $200M Tecmo bid". Gamespot. Retrieved 2008-08-29.
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15. Square Peg, European Hole Interview // None /// Eurogamer
16. Square Dance // GamesIndustry.biz
17. ^ Gamasutra - GDC 2008 Event Coverage
18. How WiiWare Changed Square Enix | Game | Life from Wired.com
19. GDC08: Square Enix unveils Crystal Tools engine - Joystiq
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21. ^ "スクウェアエニックス、合併後の事業部の様子と開発中ソフト". V Jump. Shueisha Inc. 2003-09-20.
22. "(TGS)スクエニ第1開発事業部新規タイトル発表会、詳細レポート！". Dengeki Online (in Japanese). ASCII Media Works Inc. 2003-09-26. Archived from the original on 2011-01-20. Retrieved 2011-01-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
23. Nutt, Christian (2005). "Yoshinori Yamagishi Interview (PS2)". GameSpy.com. Retrieved 2007-08-01. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
24. Winklet, Chris (2005). "Square Enix Producer Joins Aquaplus". RPGFan.com. Retrieved 2007-08-01. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
25. "Twitter / 松野泰己: @ahodeaho 公式情報以上でもなければ以下でも". Twitter.com. Retrieved 2010-07-01.
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29. ^ "「Final Fantasy XIII-2」が2011年発売予定，「Agito」は「Final Fantasy 零式」と名称変更して2011年夏発売。「Square Enix 1st Production Department Premiere」をTwitterで実況". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Aetas, Inc. 2011-01-18. Archived from the original on 2011-01-19. Retrieved 2011-01-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
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31. "Worldwide Dragon Quest Sales". Dragon Quest Dictionary~Encyclopedia. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
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35. Pigna, Kris. "Square Enix and Gas Powered Games partner for Supreme Commander 2". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2010-11-04. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
36. p. 31 and 55
37. RPGamer > Square-Enix Gives Chrono Break Trademark Some Playmates
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• Yahoo! Finance company profile
• TGS 2005: Square Enix Video Wall Presentation
• Japan Game Software Firms Square, Enix to Merge
• The Bell Tree
• Top 10 Wildest Statements by Industry Veterans

External links

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• Square Enix Global Site
• History of Enix and Square (Official Site)
• PlayOnline Square Enix's Portal for their Online titles including Final Fantasy XI & Front Mission Online
• Financial details of Square Enix's acquisition of Taito
• The official Square Enix YouTube channel
• Square Enix profile on MobyGames

v t e Square Enix
Video game development	Square Enix Europe Square Enix Collective Taito
Other industries	Gangan Comics PlayOnline Image Studio Division
Lists of video games	List of franchises Square Enix mobile Enix home computer Square Square Enix Europe Crystal Dynamics Eidos Taito
Key people	Jun Akiyama Kazuhiko Aoki Tomoya Asano Naoki Hamaguchi Hiroyuki Ito Akitoshi Kawazu Yoshinori Kitase Hiroshi Minagawa Naoshi Mizuta Tetsuya Nomura Kazuko Shibuya Masayoshi Soken Takashi Tokita Motomu Toriyama Naoki Yoshida Former Takahito Eguchi Kenichiro Fukui Nasir Gebelli Masashi Hamauzu Shinji Hashimoto Yasuyuki Honne Koichi Ishii Takeharu Ishimoto Kenji Ito Masato Kato Hiroki Kikuta Noriko Matsueda Yasumi Matsuno Yasunori Mitsuda Yuji Naka Junya Nakano Kazushige Nojima Soraya Saga Hironobu Sakaguchi Hitoshi Sakimoto Ryuji Sasai Tsuyoshi Sekito Yoko Shimomura Hajime Tabata Tetsuya Takahashi Hiromichi Tanaka Kumi Tanioka Toshiro Tsuchida Nobuo Uematsu Yoichi Wada Frequent contractors Yoshitaka Amano Yuji Horii Koichi Nakamura Keiichi Okabe Koichi Sugiyama Yoko Taro Akira Toriyama
Former assets	Defunct Beautiful Game Studios DigiCube Eidos Hungary Enix The Game Designers Studio Ion Storm Luminous Productions Quest Corporation Tokyo RPG Factory Square Sold Crystal Dynamics Eidos-Montréal IO Interactive Square Enix Montreal
Related articles	Compilation albums Companion books DS:Style Localization of Square Enix video games Luminous Engine Crystal Tools NESiCAxLive NESYS Taito Type X Zuntata
Category

• Articles needing cleanup from October 2009
• Articles with sections that need to be turned into prose from October 2009
• Companies established in 2003
• Companies based in Tokyo
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• Square Enix
• Entertainment Software Association