Square Enix
More info
- Released
- 2003
- Type
- Game publisher and developer
The Japanese games company born when the two great rivals of the role-playing genre joined forces.
Square made Final Fantasy (1987) and Enix made Dragon Quest (1986), the two series that defined the Japanese RPG. The rivalry was real, but after Square's expensive film flop The Spirits Within (2001), the 2003 merger was in practice a rescue. Series lore holds that Final Fantasy got its name because it might be Square's last game; Hironobu Sakaguchi has been less than consistent on the point.
The company bought arcade pioneer Taito in 2005 and Britain's Eidos in 2009, with Tomb Raider and Deus Ex along for the ride. In 2022 Square Enix sold its Western studios to Embracer for 300 million dollars and retreated to its Japanese franchises.