Square and Enix Joined Forces 20 Years Ago Today

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To create Square Enix, obviously.

Square Enix, the juggernaut Japanese publisher that we all know today, was pretty much birthed on this date 20 whole years ago. As the name suggests, it was a merger between Square and Enix — two prominent gaming companies who, as our friends over at Time Extension point out, were actually rival businesses before they agreed to join hands.

Indeed, Japanese companies love a good merger — as opposed to the acquisitions that we tend to see here in the West — and at the time, the advent of Square Enix was a huge deal. Suddenly, the companies behind Final Fantasy (Square) and Dragon Quest (Enix), had joined forces to create a true powerhouse.

It's crazy to think about it now, but this merger was on shaky ground for a while. Enix was apparently showing a reluctance to seal the deal after Square had made a series of questionable business decisions — which included spending an absolute fortune on infamous CG movie flop Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

But thanks to Square's success with PS2 titles like the fantastic Final Fantasy X, Enix eventually stepped up and agreed to the merger. It was all officially announced on the 25th November, 2002.




Ever since the historic merger, Square Enix has been a mainstay games publisher — one of the biggest in the world. As a business it's certainly had its ups and downs — both commercially and creatively — but with potentially huge hits like Final Fantasy XVI on the horizon, many would argue that the company is enjoying a good run of form right now.
 

Read the full article on pushsquare.com

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