Enix / Square merger announced

[Faile]

http://www.gamesarefun.com/cgi-bin/newspro/fullnews.cgi?newsid1038287704,43308,



*

xx

[Vic Viper]

gah, faile u beat me to it..:roll:

mind if i post the article..;)

http://www.gamepro.com/gamepro/fami...ews/27256.shtml

Enix Merges With Square
25-NOV-02
Enix announced early today that, effective November 26, they will begin to merge operations with Square to form Square Enix, a brand-new company created to compete in the world gaming marketplace on the same level as America and Europe's large third parties. The two companies aim to complete the merger by April 1, 2003 and will aim to build a new firm that will produce 80 billion yen ($656 million) in sales and 15 billion yen ($123 million) in profit by fiscal 2005.
"In the ever-changing world of entertainment software, the most important issue facing companies today is how quickly they can grow as the marketplace and opportunities for business expand and diversify," said a financial statement released by Enix today. "Enix and Square's response to this issue is the merger announced today...Together, we will aim to become producer of the highest-quality digital contents in the world."

As part of the merger, shareholders in both companies will receive 0.81 shares of Enix stock for every Square stock they hold. Square, in its current company structure, will be disbanded, and (on paper, anyway) Enix will absorb Square's assets and liabilities.

Both Square and Enix are large Japanese companies faced with recent difficulties competing with EA, Activision, Infogrames and the other third-party giants that dominate the game business in America and Europe. Square returned to profit in the last half-year after taking large losses from the failed Final Fantasy movie project, but still faces deep losses in operational profit from the lack of any major hit in 2002. Enix, meanwhile, is the producers of the blockbuster Dragon Quest series in Japan but hasn't been capable of releasing any other major sellers. Together, the two companies will form a massive third party that will virtually corner the market for RPGs in Japan, a springboard they will undoubtedly use to challenge the Western market more seriously than ever before.

Square and Enix will be holding a press conference at 3:30pm Japan time (1:30am Eastern time) to make the official merger announcement. Stay tuned for more details.

[Vic Viper]

not really into rpgs much, but it seems that this is really a big news..

[Faile]

yeah ! its a bit shocking, but we'll have to see how it pans out.

big news though

[Soul Angel]

I wasn't expecting to hear anything like that :shock:
But it will be interesting on how well the merge of both of these companies will do.

[AudioBoxer]

I can see A great future coming in our way

[ssjtrunks13]

I hope it works out and they make more Final Fantasy games.

[kupoartist]

Originally posted by ssjtrunks13
I hope it works out and they make more Final Fantasy games.
I hope it works out and they finally begin to make games without a "Final Fantasy" prefix... there's far too many on the horizon

[MakgSnake]

Not into RPG games at all, but I like the sound of SquareSoft then Square Enix.

Neways... people is this a good news or a bad one?

[Faile]

its kinda good.

both are champions of their fields and this ensures that the star ocean and final fantasy games of the future will continue to be produced to a high standard. It also returns previous square staff to a situation where they could work on square games again. Also the pooling of resources may finally mean we see the FF remakes in the future.

Bit of a shock though. But hopefully its good news.

Bad news is that name, but we cannot have everything i guess.

[Daedaelus]

Wow! Enix is a great company, but very underrated.

@ MakgSnake: This is good news. Enix has got a few good RPGs and well.... you know about Square.

[Mercury Shadow]

So does this mean the old Square logo will be retired? And no longer will "squaresoft" be around, now just "Square Enix"?

And whatever happened to EA & Square's venture together? They talked about in the article how Square and Enix are trying to compete with big companies like EA, but I thought Square and EA released a few games together :confused:

[Faile]

Square and EA had a publishing deal whereby EA would publish games for Square in the western markets. I think its expired now but i'm not too sure.

[AudioBoxer]

Something kick @ss would be if Sega and Rockstar team up, how sweet would that be.

[Mercury Shadow]

I wouldn't want rockstar and sega to merge, they're two totally different companies.

[BlackThornn]

Yah, Sega and Rockstar merging is kinda ridiculous.

Anyway, this sounds to me like good news. I'm attatched to the games Square made, not exactly the logo or the name. As anything like this there's uncertainty (maybe the merger with Enix would be detremental because of changes being made to established series like Final Fantasy, you never know), but I'm optomistic about this. Plus it greatly decreases the likelyhood/danger that Microsoft or some such company would simply gobble them up.


Off Topic: *looking at AudioBoxer's sig* ..Hey.. buddy... *grins cheekily* How 'bout them 9'ers. :D

[Ninja]

square and enix, im gonna go sleep and dream of a great game with over 80 endings that is not star ocean:phew:

[AudioBoxer]

I know they are but what if? Just think about it!

[tha16thletter]

BRING BACK VALKYRIE PROFILE DAMN YOOOOOU!... then I'll be a happy camper :-p
[]D

[Mercury Shadow]

Originally posted by AudioBoxer

I know they are but what if? Just think about it!

I think the real question is, what if Hideo Kojima did the next GTA :shock:

[tha16thletter]

*drools* man if Hideo directed GTA... that would just be murderous....

on a side note, has anyone heard about Hideo coming back to do the next MG? Cuz my bro said he read somewhere that he said he would because the next chapter would be too ambitious for anyone else to head, it would just fall apart.... makes you think, or get wet, with excitement...

[]D

[BlackThornn]

Originally posted by Mercury Shadow

I think the real question is, what if Hideo Kojima did the next GTA :shock:

Then the main character would actually not exist. Or be a pawn for the government. And it wouldn't be a crime simulator, it would be a game set against "The Patriots", who are in actuality digital ghosts that will invade your PS2 and do a bunch of funky stuff like blank out the video feed despite the fact they died fifty years before the first computer was even thought of. :roll: :roll: