[Vyse]

On this day in 2002, Japanese giants Square and Enix announced plans to merge to create Square Enix, one of the biggest Japanese game companies of the modern age.

Traditionally, the two firms had been rivals; Enix's Dragon Quest and Square's Final Fantasy were two competing JRPG brands, and both sold in their millions, with new releases in both series often being so popular their respective releases would bring Japan to a standstill.

Talks of a potential merger between the two companies were bandied around at the turn of the new millennium, but the failure of Square's CGI movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within temporarily put the brakes on the deal; Enix was apparently reluctant to merge with a company that was on uneven financial footing.

However, Square's fortunes quickly improved thanks to the subsequent success of its PS2-based video games, and on November 25th, 2002, plans to merge the two were formally announced. The objective was to create a company which could compete on the global stage with western publishers, as well as decrease development costs. The merger itself would be fully completed on April 1st, 2003.

The newly merged Square Enix relocated to Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo, and former Square president Yoichi Wada became president of the new entity, with former Enix president Keiji Honda taking the role of vice president. Enix founder (and the largest shareholder in the merged company) Yasuhiro Fukushima was made its honorary chairman.

Following the merger, Square Enix embarked on a series of acquisitions, including Japanese veteran Taito and Tomb Raider publisher Eidos. Today, the company presides over some of the biggest franchises in video gaming.

https://www.timeextension.com/news/...oday-square-and-enix-officially-tied-the-knot

 

[DonDonDonPata]

Thanks for sharing the info, it's weird to me that Enix was timid about the merger because of Squaresoft's "financial troubles" because for the longest time I always considered Squaresoft the bigger/richer of the two companies. Was it because of the strength of the Dragon Quest franchise?

I know some people who grew up on SNES and/or PS1 and consider this merger to be a tragedy. I dunno, I think 00s era Squeenix onward had some good stuff.

 

[Vyse]

Thanks for sharing the info, it's weird to me that Enix was timid about the merger because of Squaresoft's "financial troubles" because for the longest time I always considered Squaresoft the bigger/richer of the two companies. Was it because of the strength of the Dragon Quest franchise?

I know some people who grew up on SNES and/or PS1 and consider this merger to be a tragedy. I dunno, I think 00s era Squeenix onward had some good stuff.

I think it was just because Squaresoft lost a lot of money with The Spirits Within movie (so much so they closed down Square Pictures), so Enix decided to hold off on merging until a year later when PS2 games like Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts were performing well in the west.

I agree, I never saw the merger as any kind of tragedy and I enjoy both Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.

 

[Bolivar]

The high point in this was buying Dragon Quest VIII and getting the demo disc for Final Fantasy XII. It got me into DQ and, although I still rank FFXII as a classic, DQVIII was probably the better game.

I don't know about the consequences of this, hard to say that things would have gone any differently for Square if it hadn't happened. Looking back at and replaying FFX, I think they were already on the trajectory of FFXIII and where we are today.

But maybe it would've been better for Enix to have remained its own company. DQVIII was a masterpiece but then we got DQIX, a portable create-your-own-character game and DQX, an online game that never left Japan. By the time they came back to a single player story on console for DQXI, it felt like they had forgotten their roots and I really did not enjoy it. If it wasn't for the Square merger, what if we just got traditional entries over the last 18 years instead of all the attempts at different subgenres chasing new platform trends?

 

[DonDonDonPata]

I think it was just because Squaresoft lost a lot of money with The Spirits Within movie, so Enix decided to hold off on merging until a year later when PS2 games like Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts were performing well in the west.

I agree, I never saw the merger as any kind of tragedy and I enjoy both Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.

DQ was -- affectionately -- Ultima for the casual Japanese and for children. Pretty sure they were giving the NES version of DQ away as a bundle with the NES for awhile (or maybe it was a mail-order thing, I forget). Squaresoft actually had some interesting worlds and solid music-design but DQ always felt like budget Ultima to me. I completed my first DQ game in my early 20s and only really began to appreciate the series as an adult.

 

[Vyse]

DQ was -- affectionately -- Ultima for the casual Japanese and for children. Pretty sure they were giving the NES version of DQ away as a bundle with the NES for awhile (or maybe it was a mail-order thing, I forget). Squaresoft actually had some interesting worlds and solid music-design but DQ always felt like budget Ultima to me. I completed my first DQ game in my early 20s and only really began to appreciate the series as an adult.

For myself, I first got into Dragon Quest with Dragon Warrior I + II on the Game Boy Color and soon after that Dragon Warrior III. Visually, Dragon Quest VII on the PS1 was often considered outdated when it released in 2001 on PS1 and I didn't play it then. But I did play Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King on the PS2 and words can't really describe how beautiful that game looked and sounded, and so familiar in gameplay too. It's one of the best things to come out of the company merger, given the publishing arm on the side of Square while Level-5 handled development with series mainstays Yuji Horii, Koichi Sugiyama, and Akira Toriyama.

 

[Zefah]

A great example of 1 + 1 = 0.8.

 

[Hinedorf]

Squaresoft is responsible for my favorite games. Enix is just a stupid word.

 

[Erdrick]

Without this merger, I'd likely never have been able to play most of the DQ games post 7. They were able to market and have some modicum of success with the DQ series outside of Japan eventually. (Thanks for publishing, Nintendo.)

That movie really screwed Square. Enix swooped in for the kill as a result.

Considering DQ is at least a presence in North America... I'd call the merger a success for my interests.

 

[Bolivar]

Without this merger, I'd likely never have been able to play most of the DQ games post 7. They were able to market and have some modicum of success with the DQ series outside of Japan eventually. (Thanks for publishing, Nintendo.)

That movie really screwed Square. Enix swooped in for the kill as a result.

Considering DQ is at least a presence in North America... I'd call the merger a success for my interests.

We might not have gotten any of the pre-DQVII games, namely their excellent re-releases, either.

 

[lock2k]

Never cared for either of them but I had a Mandela effect that the merger ocurred in the end of the 90's, not 2002. Way more recent than I remember.

 

[Zeta Dragoon]

Without this merger, I'd likely never have been able to play most of the DQ games post 7. They were able to market and have some modicum of success with the DQ series outside of Japan eventually. (Thanks for publishing, Nintendo.)

That movie really screwed Square. Enix swooped in for the kill as a result.

Considering DQ is at least a presence in North America... I'd call the merger a success for my interests.

And we have Dragon Quest XII getting a worldwide release, also DQ III HD-2D Remake is a thing. Possibility of a X offline release in the west.

Just need actual updates on them, hopefully the December event brings them.

 

[Ascend]

Jesus Christ I'm old.

 

[Dr. Farnsgoth]

20th anniversary of the death of Squaresoft

 

[GreyHorace]

People here thinking Squaresoft was the bigger company, until you realize the release of every Dragon Quest game is a national event in Japan. The Japanese Parliament had to draft a law that states that every Dragon Quest title must release on Saturday, rather than a Thursday as is the norm in Japan. This was done to prevent schoolchildren from skipping school to buy the game.

How Dragon Quest Spawned an Urban Legend - IGN

The series so huge it caused the Japanese government to pass a law about it - or did it?

www.ign.com

Yeah, pretty safe to say Enix was the bigger company in that merger.

 

[Zog]

The Japanese Parliament had to draft a law that states that every Dragon Quest title must release on Saturday, rather than a Thursday as is the norm in Japan.

This is a myth.

 

[Torrent of Pork]

Thanks for making me feel old, asshole!