Square Enix
| Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Public |
| Founded | September 22, 1975 as Enix April 1, 2003 renamed as Square Enix |
| Years Active | 2003 - present |
| Key People | Yasuhiro Fukushima, Honorary Chairman Yōichi Wada, President and CEO Keiji Honda, Executive Vice President |
| Offices | Tokyo, Japan |
| Website | www.square-enix.com |
SQUARE ENIX is a Japanese corporation specializing in the development and publishing of video games, especially role-playing games. Square Enix was formed on April 1, 2003, when Enix merged with former rival Square following the latter's financial bankruptcy in light of the box office disappointment of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Intellectual properties owned by the company includes the Dragon Quest series and the Final Fantasy series of role-playing games, among several others.
Square Enix is one of the largest multimedia companies in the world, publishing manga through Gangan comics with international hits such as Soul Eater, extensive merchandising products such as the Dragon Quest Sofubi Monsters, and a series of films based on the Final Fantasy series. While the the separation of the various franchises has been maintained since the merger of the preceding companies small cameos do occur such as Golems appearing in the MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV during a cross-promotion of the game and Dragon Quest X, as well as the cross-over board game series Fortune Street featuring characters and locales from both series.
Dragon Quest Games developed by Square Enix
As Enix was originally a publishing company rather than a software development house, Dragon Quest games were traditionally outsourced by intellectual property owner Armor Project to development studios such as Chunsoft, Heartbeat, and TOSE. This would continue to be the operating procedure for Square Enix through the release of Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies, which was handled by Level-5. After this, development was switched to an in-house model for Dragon Quest X and Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age to utilize the extensive production talent cultivated within the company.
Game Series produced by Square Enix
- Dragon Quest
- Final Fantasy
- Mana
- Kingdom Hearts
- Star Ocean
- Valkyrie Profile
- Radiata Stories
- Grandia
- Drakengard
- Itadaki Street
- Chrono Trigger
- Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (co-owned by Nintendo)
- Super Smash Bros.
- Cloud Strife and the area Midgar were incorporated in the 4th installment of Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series (for the 3DS and Wii U).
- Cloud Strife and Midgar returned in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate which also saw the SSB debut of Heroes of Dragon Quest as playable characters with Yggdrasil's Altar being their home stage. Sephiroth and Northern Cave were also added as DLC, along with Sora and Hollow Bastion.
See Also
- Square Enix, Inc., North American localization subsidiary
- Square Enix Europe, Ltd., European and PAL localization subsidiary
- Square Enix (China) Co., Ltd., Chinese localization subsidiary
- Dragon Quest at Home, the arts and crafts section of the website
