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Square Enix Tidbits

Those curious as to the activities of Square Enix will be happy to know that they've been quite active in the news lately. Following is a wrap up of what's transpired in the past few days.

Of particular interest to our European readers is the announcement that Electronic Arts has agreed to publish Final Fantasy X-2 throughout that continent and all PAL territories. This means the game will be hopping the Atlantic sooner rather than later, with a slated release in early 2004. This will be the first time that Electronic Arts publishes a Final Fantasy game in Europe; that was previously the duty of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

As the Tokyo Game Show draws ever closer, RPGamers hoping that they'd be seeing their first glimpse of Final Fantasy XII shouldn't get their hopes up. Square Enix has stated that the game will neither be displayed nor shown there, but it will make its first appearance at a press conference later this fall.

Fans of the Front Mission series will be thrilled to hear that it will be receiving more attention from Square Enix than usual. Obviously, they want to strengthen this series with the release of Front Mission 4 and Front Mission 1st. However, after both those games are finished, Square Enix says they will be working on an original strategy RPG series. Three development teams within the company are working on yet-to-be unveiled games, with two of those games due to be revealed soon, and the third to be released at the end of 2004. It isn't radical to think that the original strategy RPG would be that third game.

Moving onto the corporate side of Square Enix, their latest Japanese release, Drag-on Dragoon, which will be released in North America as Drakengard, has seen stelar sales in its first week on the market. These sales have been good enough to catapult Drag-on Dragoon to #1 on the Japanese sales charts with more than 122,000 units moved.

Finally, Square Enix's Japanese stock has risen to a 15-month high. Since July, the price has risen by 23%. Investors' interest in the company have also increased due to the tease of an unnamed blockbuster title to be revealed this week at the Tokyo Game Show.


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by Michael Bischoff    
Sources: [Games Are Fun, Gamespot, IGN, Bloomberg Japan]


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