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(Redirected from Square Co., Ltd.)
was a Japanese video game company founded in September of 1983 by Masafumi Miyamoto and Hironobu Sakaguchi. It merged with Enix in 2003 and became part of Square Enix.
Square's first games were released for the Nintendo Family Computer (also known as the "Famicom," and known internationally as the ''Nintendo Entertainment System'') and the Famicom Disk System. Their early games were not very successful, and by 1987 the company was faced with the possibility of bankruptcy. That same year, Square employee Hironobu Sakaguchi was charged with the creation of a game that might well prove to be the company's last. The result was ''Final Fantasy'', a computer role-playing game for the Famicom.[1]
Sakaguchi, who was considering retiring after the production of the game, named it "Final Fantasy", a reference to the game being his last as well as his exit from the gaming industry. The game was successful, however, and returned the corporation to profitability. . ''Final Fantasy'' did much better than Sakaguchi and Square had hoped, and led to a North American distribution deal with Nintendo of America, who released to market ''Final Fantasy'' in the United States in 1990. Due to its success, Hironobu Sakaguchi's plans for retirement ended and he stayed at Square to develop new ''Final Fantasy'' games. It may also be possible that the reason every new ''Final Fantasy'' game has a new story, with new characters, is because the original ''Final Fantasy'' game was created with the belief that a sequel would never be created.
''Final Fantasy'' was followed by a sequel of sorts in 1988, marketed exclusively in Japan until ''Final Fantasy Origins''. North American localization was originally planned for the Famicom version of the sequel, but given the age of the game at that point, and the imminent arrival of Nintendo's Super Famicom (known internationally as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System), it was abandoned in favor of the Super Famicom ''Final Fantasy IV''.
Square has also made other widely known games such as ''Chrono Trigger'', ''Secret of Mana'', ''Seiken Densetsu 3'', ''Xenogears'', ''Brave Fencer Musashi'', ''Parasite Eve'', ''Parasite Eve 2'', ''Vagrant Story'', ''Kingdom Hearts'' (done in collaboration with Disney Interactive) and, ''.
Square was one of the many companies that had planned to develop and publish their games for the Nintendo 64, but with the cheaper costs associated with developing games on CDs for the Sony PlayStation, the games were instead made for Playstation. Final Fantasy VII was one of these games, and it sold 9.8 million copies, making it the second best selling game for the Playstation.
A merger between Square and its competitor Enix was in consideration since at least 2000; however, the financial failure of '' made Enix hesitant to join with a company that loses money,[2] and the merge was delayed until April 1, 2003, when the two companies finally merged to form Square Enix.
The 'Disk Original Group (DOG)' was a union formed of no less than seven Japanese video game companies: Square Co., Ltd., MicroCabin, Thinking Rabbit, Carry Lab, System Sacom, XTALSOFT, and HummingBirdSoft. Founded July 14, 1986, Square took the lead of this promising alliance to produce games on the Famicom Disk System. Because Square headed DOG, all DOG titles were published under the name Square. In reality, however, Square only produced a few of the eleven games published under the DOG label. In general, the games were commercial failures, leading to Square's brush with bankruptcy and the creation of ''Final Fantasy''.
'SquareSoft' is a brand name used by Square between 1992 and 2003. As such, the name is often used (incorrectly) to refer to the entire organization, but its corporate name remained ''Square Co., Ltd.'' until the Enix merger.
'Square Soft, Inc.' was established as the official North American subsidiary of Square in March 1989. It was responsible for both the production and distribution of North American localizations of Square titles during the 16-bit era, and continued to produce English language localizations of Square games in the 32-bit era. It has also been responsible for localizing a number of non-Square titles, including Capcom's ''Breath of Fire'' for the SNES and Sony's ''Wild ARMs 3'' for the PlayStation 2. It developed the game ''Secret of Evermore'' for the SNES. It is currently known as 'Square Enix, Inc.' Square Soft's original headquarters were in Redmond, WA, where it distributed its now-dead newsletter, the Ogopogo Examiner, but it was relocated to Costa Mesa, CA in August 1996, where it remained until late 2005; as of 2006, Square Enix, Inc. is now located in El Segundo, California.
'Square L.A., Inc.' was established in August 1995. It was subsequently renamed 'Square USA, Inc.'. It operates as a high-end computer-generated imagery research and development studio, and has been integral in the production of graphics for Square-produced games since the beginning of the 32-bit era. Its headquarters are in Los Angeles, CA and Honolulu, HI. Like its sister company, Square Soft, Inc., Square USA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Square Co., Ltd.
'Square Electronic Arts, L.L.C.' was a joint venture between Square and Electronic Arts (EA) established in May 1998 to distribute Square-produced game titles in North America. Its counterpart was 'Electronic Arts Square, K.K.', in Japan, which was established to distribute EA games in Asia. Both companies were folded at the end of March 2003 as a result of the merger of Square and Enix.
'Square Europe, Ltd.' was established in December 1998 to localize and market Square-developed games in Europe and Australia. Located in London, England, Square Europe was granted exclusive publishing rights in Europe and other PAL territories for all interactive entertainment titles developed by Square.
'DigiCube Co, Ltd.' was established in February 1996. It was formed to market and distribute games and related merchandising (toys, books, music, etc.) in Asia. It declared bankruptcy in October 2003.
'Square Pictures, Inc.' was established in November 1997 to develop and produce computer-generated imagery films based on Square properties. It was folded in 2003, following the box-office failure of its only feature-length production, ''. However, it did survive just long enough to create the CGI short-film, ''Final Flight of the Osiris'' for ''The Matrix'' spin-off DVD, ''Animatrix''.
'Quest' was an independent software development studio established in July 1988, best known for the ''Ogre Battle'' series. Several team members, including Yasumi Matsuno, Hiroshi Minagawa and Akihiko Yoshida, left Quest in 1997 to join Square, where they worked on several titles for the Sony PlayStation, including ''Final Fantasy Tactics'' and ''Vagrant Story''. In June 2002, Quest was purchased by Square.
'Square Visual Works Co., Ltd.' (CG Studio), 'Square Sounds Co., Ltd.' (Sound Studio), 'Squartz Co., Ltd.' (Quality Assurance) and 'Square Next Co., Ltd.' were all founded in June 1999. All were subsequently absorbed into Square Co., Ltd. in 2001 and 2002.
'Game Designers Studio' was created to develop ''Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles''.
Main articles: List of Square games
1. Final Fantasy IX Creators Unplugged
2. http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q2-2003/042503e.html
★ Square Enix Company Timeline. Accessed on May 12, 2005.
★ "Square Completes Acquisition of Quest." IGN Game Boy. June 19, 2002. Accessed on January 18, 2005.
★ Square Enix Global site
★ History of Enix and Square (official site)
★ The History of Square
was a Japanese video game company founded in September of 1983 by Masafumi Miyamoto and Hironobu Sakaguchi. It merged with Enix in 2003 and became part of Square Enix.
| Contents |
| History |
| Subsidiaries and related corporations |
| Softography |
| References |
| External links |
History
Square's first games were released for the Nintendo Family Computer (also known as the "Famicom," and known internationally as the ''Nintendo Entertainment System'') and the Famicom Disk System. Their early games were not very successful, and by 1987 the company was faced with the possibility of bankruptcy. That same year, Square employee Hironobu Sakaguchi was charged with the creation of a game that might well prove to be the company's last. The result was ''Final Fantasy'', a computer role-playing game for the Famicom.[1]
Sakaguchi, who was considering retiring after the production of the game, named it "Final Fantasy", a reference to the game being his last as well as his exit from the gaming industry. The game was successful, however, and returned the corporation to profitability. . ''Final Fantasy'' did much better than Sakaguchi and Square had hoped, and led to a North American distribution deal with Nintendo of America, who released to market ''Final Fantasy'' in the United States in 1990. Due to its success, Hironobu Sakaguchi's plans for retirement ended and he stayed at Square to develop new ''Final Fantasy'' games. It may also be possible that the reason every new ''Final Fantasy'' game has a new story, with new characters, is because the original ''Final Fantasy'' game was created with the belief that a sequel would never be created.
''Final Fantasy'' was followed by a sequel of sorts in 1988, marketed exclusively in Japan until ''Final Fantasy Origins''. North American localization was originally planned for the Famicom version of the sequel, but given the age of the game at that point, and the imminent arrival of Nintendo's Super Famicom (known internationally as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System), it was abandoned in favor of the Super Famicom ''Final Fantasy IV''.
Square has also made other widely known games such as ''Chrono Trigger'', ''Secret of Mana'', ''Seiken Densetsu 3'', ''Xenogears'', ''Brave Fencer Musashi'', ''Parasite Eve'', ''Parasite Eve 2'', ''Vagrant Story'', ''Kingdom Hearts'' (done in collaboration with Disney Interactive) and, ''.
Square was one of the many companies that had planned to develop and publish their games for the Nintendo 64, but with the cheaper costs associated with developing games on CDs for the Sony PlayStation, the games were instead made for Playstation. Final Fantasy VII was one of these games, and it sold 9.8 million copies, making it the second best selling game for the Playstation.
A merger between Square and its competitor Enix was in consideration since at least 2000; however, the financial failure of '' made Enix hesitant to join with a company that loses money,[2] and the merge was delayed until April 1, 2003, when the two companies finally merged to form Square Enix.
Subsidiaries and related corporations
Disk Original Group logo
The 'Disk Original Group (DOG)' was a union formed of no less than seven Japanese video game companies: Square Co., Ltd., MicroCabin, Thinking Rabbit, Carry Lab, System Sacom, XTALSOFT, and HummingBirdSoft. Founded July 14, 1986, Square took the lead of this promising alliance to produce games on the Famicom Disk System. Because Square headed DOG, all DOG titles were published under the name Square. In reality, however, Square only produced a few of the eleven games published under the DOG label. In general, the games were commercial failures, leading to Square's brush with bankruptcy and the creation of ''Final Fantasy''.
'SquareSoft' is a brand name used by Square between 1992 and 2003. As such, the name is often used (incorrectly) to refer to the entire organization, but its corporate name remained ''Square Co., Ltd.'' until the Enix merger.
'Square Soft, Inc.' was established as the official North American subsidiary of Square in March 1989. It was responsible for both the production and distribution of North American localizations of Square titles during the 16-bit era, and continued to produce English language localizations of Square games in the 32-bit era. It has also been responsible for localizing a number of non-Square titles, including Capcom's ''Breath of Fire'' for the SNES and Sony's ''Wild ARMs 3'' for the PlayStation 2. It developed the game ''Secret of Evermore'' for the SNES. It is currently known as 'Square Enix, Inc.' Square Soft's original headquarters were in Redmond, WA, where it distributed its now-dead newsletter, the Ogopogo Examiner, but it was relocated to Costa Mesa, CA in August 1996, where it remained until late 2005; as of 2006, Square Enix, Inc. is now located in El Segundo, California.
'Square L.A., Inc.' was established in August 1995. It was subsequently renamed 'Square USA, Inc.'. It operates as a high-end computer-generated imagery research and development studio, and has been integral in the production of graphics for Square-produced games since the beginning of the 32-bit era. Its headquarters are in Los Angeles, CA and Honolulu, HI. Like its sister company, Square Soft, Inc., Square USA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Square Co., Ltd.
'Square Electronic Arts, L.L.C.' was a joint venture between Square and Electronic Arts (EA) established in May 1998 to distribute Square-produced game titles in North America. Its counterpart was 'Electronic Arts Square, K.K.', in Japan, which was established to distribute EA games in Asia. Both companies were folded at the end of March 2003 as a result of the merger of Square and Enix.
'Square Europe, Ltd.' was established in December 1998 to localize and market Square-developed games in Europe and Australia. Located in London, England, Square Europe was granted exclusive publishing rights in Europe and other PAL territories for all interactive entertainment titles developed by Square.
'DigiCube Co, Ltd.' was established in February 1996. It was formed to market and distribute games and related merchandising (toys, books, music, etc.) in Asia. It declared bankruptcy in October 2003.
'Square Pictures, Inc.' was established in November 1997 to develop and produce computer-generated imagery films based on Square properties. It was folded in 2003, following the box-office failure of its only feature-length production, ''. However, it did survive just long enough to create the CGI short-film, ''Final Flight of the Osiris'' for ''The Matrix'' spin-off DVD, ''Animatrix''.
'Quest' was an independent software development studio established in July 1988, best known for the ''Ogre Battle'' series. Several team members, including Yasumi Matsuno, Hiroshi Minagawa and Akihiko Yoshida, left Quest in 1997 to join Square, where they worked on several titles for the Sony PlayStation, including ''Final Fantasy Tactics'' and ''Vagrant Story''. In June 2002, Quest was purchased by Square.
'Square Visual Works Co., Ltd.' (CG Studio), 'Square Sounds Co., Ltd.' (Sound Studio), 'Squartz Co., Ltd.' (Quality Assurance) and 'Square Next Co., Ltd.' were all founded in June 1999. All were subsequently absorbed into Square Co., Ltd. in 2001 and 2002.
'Game Designers Studio' was created to develop ''Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles''.
Softography
Main articles: List of Square games
References
1. Final Fantasy IX Creators Unplugged
2. http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q2-2003/042503e.html
★ Square Enix Company Timeline. Accessed on May 12, 2005.
★ "Square Completes Acquisition of Quest." IGN Game Boy. June 19, 2002. Accessed on January 18, 2005.
External links
★ Square Enix Global site
★ History of Enix and Square (official site)
★ The History of Square
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