Square and Enix Finalize Details

[Big-O Mark]

Square and Enix Finalize Details

Merged company to end publishing ties with EA.

February 19, 2003

Square Co., Ltd. crossed its "Ts" and dotted its "Is" today as it completed the finer details of its previously announced merger with Enix by clarifying unanswered crucial points in its immensely significant publishing deal.
Square will merge with Enix on April 1, 2003, and the new, Tokyo, Japan-based company will be named Square Enix Co., Ltd. in Japan. The Japanese juggernaut will be led by current Square President Yoichi Wada (as president of Square Enix Co., Ltd.). In North America the company will go by Square Enix USA.

Square Enix also is scheduled to end its cross-Pacific publishing arrangement with Electronic Arts on March 31, 2003 and will begin to localize, market and publish its own games in North America under Jun Iwasaki, the newly named president and CEO of Square Enix U.S.A., Inc. North American operations will work from Los Angeles, Ca., based offices. The final fruits of the partnership between EA and Square will end this summer.

"As Square and Enix begin the worldwide implementation of the merger, our goals for the North American market will shift to include not only increasing our market share for our franchises, but also expanding the role-playing game market in North America," said Yoichi Wada. "We are currently evaluating the best strategy to accomplish these goals and look forward to growing our business as a new company. We have enjoyed a very successful partnership with Electronic Arts over the past five years and we are currently exploring opportunities for a new relationship."

Square and EA's publishing arrangement began in May 1998 in North America and Japan.

"We are looking forward to this new structure in North America," said current Enix president, Keiji Honda. "Together, Square and Enix will deliver a gaming experience that everyone will enjoy. We are committed to developing and marketing innovative, creative and original titles. We hope to accomplish our goals by providing quality role-playing games to gamers in North America."

Unfortunately, Square Enix did not announce any new games or cross-company products today. We'll have to wait for more details in the near future, most likely in May at the Electronic Entertainment Exposition.

[jester22c]

I remember reading about this merger when it was first announced but had forgotten about it till I just say the title of the thread here. I hope I can plan on seeing alot more great RPGs in the near future; and I hope they take an original format. I'm tired of the standard FF type RPG with the pokemon style battle sequences lol (yes I know FF was before pokemon but that's all I can help thinking about). We need another game as great as Chrono Trigger

[ImmortalDragonII]

bah

[fuuucckkers]

We need another game as great as Chrono Trigger

I agree. What I think is actually cool about this merger (buy out?).. is that Enix is another great RPG company that not many people knew about. They made an awesome game for the SNES called The 7th Saga.