Companies

Square Enix

Square Enix is a developer and publisher.

Square Enix Webpage, Facebook

Most Popular Games Developed by Square Enix

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

February 29, 2024

RPG

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Final Fantasy VII Remake

Final Fantasy VII Remake

April 10, 2020

RPG

Final Fantasy VII Remake
Final Fantasy XII

Final Fantasy XII

October 31, 2006

RPG

Final Fantasy XII
Tactics Ogre: Reborn

Tactics Ogre: Reborn

November 11, 2022

RPG

Tactics Ogre: Reborn
Final Fantasy XV

Final Fantasy XV

November 29, 2016

RPG

Final Fantasy XV
Final Fantasy X HD

Final Fantasy X HD

December 26, 2013

RPG

Final Fantasy X HD

Square Enix is one of the largest developers and publishers in the video game industry. The company was founded in 2003 as a result of the merger between Square and Enix. Although its headquarters are in Tokyo, the company also has branches in Europe, the United States, Canada, and China. Games bearing the Square Enix logo are available on nearly every platform - from PCs and consoles to mobile devices.

Square Enix as a game developer

Square Enix develops games internally and also brings together studios from around the world - including both teams it founded itself and others that began as independent developers before later being acquired by the Japanese publisher.

Over the years, several development studios have also operated under the Square Enix umbrella, including Eidos Hungary (formerly Mithis Entertainment), which closed in 2003; UIEvolution, dissolved four years later; Smileworks, which developed mobile games until 2015; Beautiful Game Studios, known for the Championship Manager series; and IO Interactive, which regained its independence in 2017. In addition, in 2022, the studios Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montréal, and Square Enix Montréal were sold to the Swedish company Embracer Group.

Square Enix as a game publisher

Square Enix bases its publishing activities primarily on its self-developed games. However, the Japanese giant’s catalog also includes titles developed by external studios, such as the Life is Strange series, Nier: Automata, the Just Cause series, and Batman: Arkham Asylum. In addition, in 2013, the company launched the Square Enix Collective program, designed to help independent developers publish their games. Thanks to this initiative, titles such as Children of Zodiarcs, Deadbeat Heroes, Tokyo Dark, Black The Fall, and The Turing Test have been released.

The story of Square and Enix, and their merger

Square

Square’s story began in 1983, when the Japanese power line manufacturer Den-Yu Sha established a new division dedicated to developing video games. Unlike most studios of the time, Square chose not to rely on a single developer to handle everything. Instead, its games were created by separate teams, each responsible for different aspects like graphics, programming, and storytelling - a structure that reflected the vision of the company’s head, Masafumi Miyamoto. The first titles from the newly founded company arrived quickly - in 1984, The Death Trap and its sequel, Will: The Death Trap II, debuted on NEC PC-8801 computers. Interestingly, both were created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, who would later gain fame as the creator of the legendary Final Fantasy series. Just a year later, Square made its debut on the Nintendo Entertainment System with a port of Thexder.

In 1986, Square underwent its first major change: it split from its parent company and became fully independent. It was also at this time that Hironobu Sakaguchi became a full-time employee. However, 1986 wasn’t a great year for Square - its releases flopped, giving rise to the legend that Sakaguchi’s next project got its name because it was essentially a “to be or not to be” moment for the company. Final Fantasy from 1987 was a jRPG inspired by Enix's bestselling Dragon Quest. The game was a huge success, reaching 400,000 players, which let Square look to the future with confidence and start planning not just to grow, but also to go head-to-head with its main rival, Enix.

Not wanting to depend only on the newly created Final Fantasy brand, Square developed other games in the following years, including the renowned Chrono Trigger and the popular Secret of Mana and Front Mission. While many of these titles became cult classics, none reached the same level of popularity as Sakaguchi’s flagship series. Nonetheless, this approach helped the company cement its reputation as a creator of high-quality JRPGs.

By 1994, Square’s flagship Final Fantasy series had already reached its sixth installment, with each game launching on Nintendo consoles. In the years that followed, the Japanese company shifted its focus to developing games for platforms with CD drives rather than the cartridge-based systems it had used before. This shift wasn’t just about storage capacity but also because producing them was cheaper than cartridges. One of the first games to take advantage of this was Final Fantasy VII in 1997. Initially planned for the Nintendo 64, it eventually landed on the PlayStation and left an unforgettable mark on gaming history. With nearly ten million copies sold, it became the second best-selling title for Sony’s first console.

In the years that followed, the company continued along its established path - expanding its best-selling series and other popular franchises (for example, Chrono Trigger was followed by Chrono Cross) while also launching entirely new ones, like Xenogears and Parasite Eve. However, in early 2001, the company reported losses, prompting a major restructuring that saw Sakaguchi - who had recently been promoted from vice president - demoted to executive producer.

Although discussions about a potential merger with its rival Enix had been ongoing since 2000, it was the financial flop of the film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within that finally pushed the company to make the move. Before the merger, Square took other steps to stabilize its finances: in 2001, it sold an 18.6% stake to Sony and later released Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts, both of which were well received by players. The merger with Enix officially began only after Square managed to stabilize its finances and was completed on April 1, 2003.

Enix

Enix was originally founded in 1975 as Eidansha Boshu Service Center, and it wasn’t until 1982 that it took the name Enix Corporation and entered the video game market - before that, the company focused on publishing tabloids and similar ventures. Enix’s first game was Love Match Tennis, followed by Door Door, which was developed by Koichi Nakamura - he would later become one of the company’s key programmers. Unlike Square, which focused on internal development, Enix relied on external teams - one of the most notable being Chunsoft, who in 1986 released Dragon Quest, a huge hit that sold 1.5 million copies in Japan alone.

The game launched a best-selling series, but like Square, Enix didn’t plan to rely on just one franchise for its business. That’s why, over the next few years, Enix released not only the next installments of Dragon Quest, but also other popular titles, including the Star Ocean and Grandia series. It’s worth noting that, unlike its competitor, Square didn’t focus only on CD-based games - they also developed titles for the Nintendo 64, which used cartridge-based media.

In 1999, the company suffered losses because the release of Dragon Quest VII was delayed, and the situation worsened when the Japanese launch of Dragon Quest Monsters II was also postponed. In 2002, the company revealed its plans to merge with Square, a move that was completed the following year.

The merger and the creation of Square Enix

Some shareholders opposed the Square–Enix merger, mainly because of their different approaches to game development - Square leaned on its internal teams, while Enix relied heavily on outsourcing. When Square Enix was founded on April 1, 2003, 80% of its staff were former Square employees. The merger also moved the company’s headquarters to the Shibuya district in Tokyo.

Square Enix, which owns popular franchises like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Star Ocean, and Front Mission, continued to expand in the following years by creating new teams and acquiring external studios. In 2004, Square Enix decided to enter the mobile games market, forming the UIEvolution team. However, it lasted only three years and was replaced in 2008 by Square Enix MobileStudio. In January 2005, Square Enix opened a branch in China, and in September of the same year, Taito - the studio behind classics like Space Invaders and Bubble Bobble - joined the company. In August 2008, Square Enix even attempted a friendly takeover of Tecmo, but the move was opposed by the company, which eventually merged with Koei.

The history of Eidos Interactive and the acquisition by Square Enix

Eidos Interactive is the biggest studio that Square Enix ever acquired. The company was originally founded as Antocrown in 1984, but just two months later, it was renamed Domark. The first game released under its logo was Eureka! by Ian Livingstone, who worked at the studio until 2013. Among the games Domark had published by 1996, the Championship Manager series stands out in particular.

In 1996, Domark was acquired by Eidos Public Limited Company, along with Simis and Big Red Software; these companies were soon merged to form Eidos Interactive. The next big move was acquiring CentreGold, which brought Silicon Dreams Studio and Core Design under Eidos’ wing; the latter team was working on Tomb Raider, set to release a few months later. The game was a massive hit, spawning a franchise that became the cornerstone of Eidos Interactive’s operations for years. Over time, the series’ popularity started to fade, and coupled with disappointing sales of its other titles, Eidos Interactive’s financial situation worsened year after year.

In March 2005, Eidos Interactive got takeover offers from Elevation Partners (founded by John Riccitiello, then president of Electronic Arts) and SCi; the second bid was accepted, triggering a major restructuring. In February 2007, the Eidos Montreal studio was founded and given responsibility for managing the Deus Ex franchise. Even though Eidos Interactive continued releasing games from popular franchises in the following years, the company still faced ongoing financial troubles. In 2009, Square Enix acquired Eidos Interactive and merged it with its European operations, creating what is now known as Square Enix Europe. With this acquisition, Square Enix’s portfolio expanded to include major franchises such as Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy of Kain, Tomb Raider, and Hitman, along with their development studios: Eidos Montreal, Crystal Dynamics, and IO Interactive.

The shared history of Square Enix and Eidos

In the years that followed, most of these franchises continued, except for Legacy of Kain, which got a multiplayer spin-off called Nosgoth in 2015. However, due to poor reception, it never progressed beyond beta and was shut down in May 2016.

After acquiring Eidos, Square Enix didn’t just work on the newly acquired franchises - they also invested heavily in their own series, mainly developing the Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Dragon Quest brands. Additionally, in 2011, Square Enix launched a new mobile-focused studio, Hippos Lab, followed in 2013 by the Indonesian studio Smileworks - which shut down in January 2015. Meanwhile, in 2012, Square Enix Montreal was founded, and in 2015, Tokyo RPG Factory started up, focusing on creating classic jRPGs. Then, in February 2017, Studio Istolia, led by Hideo Baba, made its debut in the gaming scene. The team’s project, initially called Prelude Rune, was eventually canceled in early 2019. The studio was disbanded, its members reassigned to other projects, and Hideo Baba, the head of the team, left the company.

In February 2017, it was announced that Square Enix had halted investments in IO Interactive and was planning to sell the studio. This decision led to layoffs at the studio just a few days later. However, less than a month later, Hakan Abrak, head of IO Interactive, announced that negotiations with Square Enix had succeeded: the studio would be bought out by its own management, keeping the rights to the Hitman and Freedom Fighters series.

A bit earlier, in January 2017, Square Enix revealed that Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal were teaming up to work on a game featuring the Avengers superheroes. However, the first details about this mysterious project only came at E3 2019, when its title - Marvel's Avengers - was revealed along with the debut trailer. Before this title even launched, the Japanese giant had already released two other major games and announced a third - smaller, but still significant. First things first,

in January 2019, the long-awaited third major installment of the Kingdom Hearts series finally arrived - fans had been waiting for it since 2006. In June, Square Enix announced Outriders, a shooter developed by the Polish studio People Can Fly. The collaboration went so well that, by Fall 2020, it was announced that Square Enix would be publishing another, still unannounced game from the same Polish studio. April 2020 saw the release of Final Fantasy VII Remake. This remake stood out from the original not just with updated graphics and mechanics - it was also split into multiple parts, each designed to not only recreate but also expand on key sections of the iconic original.

Marvel's Avengers launched on September 4, 2020, and received generally positive reviews. By the end of September, it became clear that the game hadn’t performed as well on Steam as the developers and publisher had likely expected. In November, Square Enix released its financial report, which confirmed that the game had been a commercial flop. Shortly after, the publisher acknowledged the game's poor performance but reassured fans that it had no intention of abandoning its development plans.

In the years that followed, Square Enix’s portfolio grew to include both games from long-established iconic series and entirely new titles, including those developed by external studios. The list of these established series includes titles such as NieR Replicant ver.1.???2247448713???9, NieR Re[in]carnation, Bravely Default II, Life is Strange: True Colors, the mobile game Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier released in 2021, as well as Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, Star Ocean: The Divine Force, Tactics Ogre: Reborn, Dragon Quest Treasures, and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion, which released in 2022. Among the newer releases, standout projects included Outriders by the Polish studio People Can Fly, Circuit Superstars, the Voice of Cards series, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, The DioField Chronicle, Triangle Strategy, and Harvestella.

That doesn’t mean, however, that Square Enix has fully bounced back after the flop of Marvel’s Avengers. One of the more notable missteps was Babylon’s Fall, a collaboration with PlatinumGames. The game launched in March 2022 and quickly proved to be a complete flop. This was reflected in its dismal reception: industry reviews on Metacritic scored it between 41 and 46/100, depending on the platform, and on Steam, the peak number of concurrent players barely reached 650 shortly after launch. Although the developers had promised updates, in September 2022 it was announced that the game—already being given away for free by some stores - would be shut down on February 27, 2023, when its servers were scheduled to go offline.

The end of the shared history of Square Enix and Eidos

Shortly after Babylon's Fall launched, in May 2022, it was announced that Square Enix had sold the development studios it had acquired from Eidos Interactive. The Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal studios found a new owner in the Embracer Group, which also acquired the Square Enix Montreal team at the same time. Along with those studios, the Embracer Group now owns major franchises like Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, and Legacy of Kain. The deal, valued at $300 million, was finalized in the summer of 2022. Unfortunately, not all developers were thrilled about moving under the new ownership. On November 1, 2022, renowned industry journalist Jason Schreier reported that Square Enix Montreal had been shut down - interestingly, this came less than a month after the studio had been renamed Onoma.

The ongoing story of Square Enix

In the months that followed, Square Enix shifted its focus to developing games through its internal studios and strengthening its own franchises. Additionally, the Japanese giant has shown growing interest in blockchain-based services, investing in strategic partnerships with companies worldwide.

The next Square Enix release after Babylon's Fall that struggled commercially was Forspoken, which launched in January 2023. This open-world action-adventure game struggled on both fronts: critically, it received average scores of around 63–64/100 on Metacritic, and commercially, Square Enix admitted in March that its sales had been disappointing. As a result of this failure, the studio behind the game, Luminous Productions, was fully absorbed into Square Enix, losing its status as an independent entity operating under the company's umbrella. Additionally, Yosuke Matsuda stepped down as president of Square Enix and was succeeded by Takeshi Kiryu. Meanwhile, in February 2023, Ryota Aomi, the producer of the Dragon Quest series who had been with it for 16 years, departed from Square Enix.

In the following months, Square Enix focused mainly on developing the Final Fantasy series. In June 2023, Final Fantasy XVI launched on PlayStation 5, and in September, a franchise spin-off, Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis, was released on mobile devices (followed by a PC release in December). In February 2024, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth premiered, marking the second installment of the Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy.

In the meantime, the company was preparing further extensive changes. In January 2024, Square Enix announced that it had absorbed the Tokyo RPG Factory studio. Then, in April, the company revealed changes to its executive team, with Naoki Hamaguchi and Tomoya Asano among the new appointees. Additionally, in May 2024, the Japanese publisher announced that it plans to prioritize the quality of its games over quantity, while also focusing on making its projects available across multiple platforms.

In September 2024, Final Fantasy XVI was released for PC. In January 2025, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth followed suit. In December 2024, Ryosuke Yoshida, the director of Visions of Mana, joined Square Enix.

On June 1, 2025, Tatsuya Kando departed from Square Enix. Over his 29-year tenure, he became especially recognized as the director of The World Ends with You series. Additionally, he served as an animation supervisor on Kingdom Hearts and several Final Fantasy titles. Officially, the reason for this state of affairs was his "personal matters". Additionally, in June 2025, it was announced that Final Fantasy VII Remake would be coming to Xbox Series X/S, alongside the release of Final Fantasy XVI on the same consoles.

Games in Development

List of all games in development by Square Enix.

Developed Games

List of all released games developed by Square Enix.

Most Popular Games Published by Square Enix

Tomb Raider

Action - March 5, 2013

PC Windows
Tomb Raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider

Action - November 10, 2015

Xbox
Rise of the Tomb Raider

Hitman

Action - March 11, 2016

PC Windows
Hitman

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Action - September 14, 2018

PC Windows
Shadow of the Tomb Raider

NieR: Automata

RPG - February 23, 2017

GameCube
NieR: Automata

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

RPG - February 29, 2024

PlayStation 2
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

Upcoming Games

List of all upcoming games that will be published by Square Enix.

Released Games

List of all released games published by Square Enix.

Square Enix News

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New on Steam. We've been waiting 13 years for this sci-fi horror game

New on Steam. We've been waiting 13 years for this sci-fi horror game

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31 staff laid off as Just Cause developer Avalanche closes Liverpool studio. More changes may follow

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November 20, 2025

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PS Plus Extra and Premium lose 9 games in December, including iconic GTA and controversial Battlefield

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We learned the list of titles that will leave PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium in December. The list of 9 games includes GTA 3, Battlefield 2042 and Sonic Frontiers.

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November 19, 2025

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9 games added, 6 are out. Cult game is returning to PS Plus Extra and Premium
In less than two weeks, Xbox Game Pass drops three big RPGs and a strategy hit. This is your last chance to play them

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In less than two weeks, Xbox Game Pass drops three big RPGs and a strategy hit. This is your last chance to play them
Two days, five new games in the offer. Xbox Game Pass goes all out

Two days, five new games in the offer. Xbox Game Pass goes all out

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November 12, 2025

Two days, five new games in the offer. Xbox Game Pass goes all out
Everything announced during the PlayStation State of Play Japan

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PlayStation's first-ever State of Play Japan featured 26 games, including some exciting DLC announcements for some of the year's biggest games.

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November 11, 2025

Everything announced during the PlayStation State of Play Japan
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PlayStation has announced a State of Play presentation for tomorrow. It's best not to get your expectations too high, but there are a handful of possibilities.

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November 10, 2025

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Life is Strange devs team up with Netflix on „Major IP” game. Fans hope it's Stranger Things

Life is Strange devs team up with Netflix on „Major IP” game. Fans hope it's Stranger Things

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October 29, 2025

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