Square (company)
| Square
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| legal form | Kabushiki kaisha (joint stock company) |
| founding | September 1986 |
| resolution | April 2003 |
| Seat | Meguro , Tokyo , Japan |
| management | Yōichi Wada , President and CEO |
| sales | ¥ 40 billion yen (2003) |
KK Square ( Japanese 株式会社 ス ク ウ ェ ア Kabushiki kaisha Sukuwea , English Square Co., Ltd. ) was a Japanese video game company founded in 1986 by Masafumi Miyamoto and Hironobu Sakaguchi .
The company is famous for developing various role-playing games , including the world-famous Final Fantasy series. Other well-known series and games are Chrono Trigger , Secret of Evermore , Kingdom Hearts , Seiken Densetsu ( Secret of Mana ), SaGa and Xenogears .
Square's first games were released for Nintendo's Famicom (known internationally as Nintendo Entertainment System ) and the Famicom Disk System, as well as some NEC PCs. The early games were not very successful and the company faced bankruptcy in 1987. In the same year, Hironobu Sakaguchi was commissioned to develop a game that could well have been the company's last. The result was Final Fantasy , a console role-playing game for the Famicom. Final Fantasy exceeded Square's expectations and saved the company from bankruptcy.
In 2002, Square merged with the equally well-known Japanese video game developer Enix ( Dragon Quest and Terranigma ) to reduce development costs and offset the losses Square suffered from the failure of Final Fantasy: The Forces Within You . The merger was completed in April 2003 and both companies merged into Square Enix . In 2003 net sales were 40 billion yen.
Branches and related companies
On July 14, 1986, the seven Japanese video game companies, Square Co., Ltd. MicroCabin , Thinking Rabbit , Carry Lab , System Sacom , XTALSOFT and HummingBirdSoft to form the Disk Original Group (DOG) . Square took the lead in this alliance whose goal was to develop games for the Famicom Disk System. Most of the games developed by DOG appeared under the name Square, although the company had only made a few of them itself. The games were by and large failures and resulted in the near bankruptcy of Square.
All Square games were released under the brand name Squaresoft between 1992 and 2003, so this name is often mistakenly equated with the company itself.
In May 1989, Square opened its official North American subsidiary, Square Soft, Inc. During the 16-bit era , she was responsible for both the production and distribution of Square's localized titles in North America and produced the English localizations of the Square games until the 32-bit era . The branch is also responsible for the localization of some non-Square titles, including Capcom's Breath of Fire for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sony's Wild ARMs 3 for the PlayStation 2 . She developed the game Secret of Evermore . Square Soft, Inc. originally had its headquarters in Redmond , Washington , USA , and moved to Costa Mesa , California in August 1996 , where it was stationed until 2005. In 2006, the branch, which was renamed after the Square Enix merger to Square Enix, Inc., moved to El Segundo , California.
In August 1995, Square LA Inc. founded and later in Square USA, Inc. renamed. This office is dedicated to research and development for computer generated graphics and has been an integral part of the production of graphics for Square games since the 32-bit era. It has its headquarters in Los Angeles , California and Honolulu .
Square Electronic Arts, LLC was a joint venture between Square and Electronic Arts founded in 1998 to distribute games developed by Square in North America. The Japanese counterpart was Electronic Arts Square, KK and took over the distribution of Electronic Arts games in Asia . Both companies were dissolved with the merger of Square and Enix in March 2003.
DigiCube Co, Ltd. was founded in February 1996. The company's job was to sell and distribute merchandising for Square products in Asia. Digicube filed for bankruptcy in October 2003.
Square Pictures, Inc. was founded in February 1996 to develop and produce computer generated films for Square. As a result of the economic failure of Final Fantasy: The Powers Inside You , the company was dissolved, but could still finish the short film The Last Flight of Osiris for the Matrix - spin-off - DVD Animatrix .
Quest was an independent software development company founded in 1998. In 1997, a number of employees left the company and successfully worked on a number of Square titles. Square bought Quest in June 2002.
In June 1999, Square Visual Works Co. , Square Sounds Co., Ltd. , Squartz Co., Ltd. and Square Next Co., Ltd. founded. All four companies were owned by Square Co., Ltd. by 2002. absorbed.
Web links
- Square Enix Official Site
- Square Co., Ltd. at MobyGames (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Square Enix: 2004 Annual Report (857 KB; PDF) . August 6, 2004