Square Enix Co., Ltd.

Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd. is a video game and publishing company based in Japan 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. Square Enix was formed as the result of a merger between Square Co. and the Enix Corporation. The merger occurred in 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 new corporation. The original founder of Enix, Yasuhiro Fukushima, is currently the largest shareholder of the new 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 and Hitman which Square Enix will now publish and is also well known for the Championship Manager series of games.

Subsidiaries:

• Square Enix Montreal
• Visual Works - CG department

Controversy:

Short-Lived "Live Service" Games: Around the 2020s Square Enix started developing full-priced live service games that pushed monetization and NFTs while failing to deliver fun gameplay experiences. This earned them the moniker "EA of Japan" from consumers. Low consumer interest in these titles has led to many of them being shut-down within a year of release: Marvel's Avengers (closed 2023), Babylon's Fall (closed 2023), Bravely Default: Brilliant Lights (closed 2023), and Final Fantasy VII: The First Soldier (closed 2023).

Admin Notes:

• April 2003, Square Co. and the Enix Corporation merged to form Square Enix Co., Ltd.