Gaming is fun, and it is an activity that is slowly being embraced in the social sectors. In the past, gaming was treated as an activity of the idle and crooks in society. It was for people who wanted to make money easily through gambling and betting. However, with the fast growth in technology, things have highly changed.
Many companies are setting up gaming apps and companies due to the high demand for mobile games. Gaming is no longer an affair of the lazy people in the society. Today it is the best and most comfortable way of spending your free time. There are many companies that have ventured into the gaming industry, and Square Enix is one of them.
Square Enix Holding Co., Ltd is a video game publisher, developer, and distribution company based in Japan. The gaming company is known for games like Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and Kingdom Hearts role-playing video game. The company is also known for franchises, among many others. Several of these games have recorded over 10 million copies in sales worldwide. The Final Fantasy franchise has sold 144 million while the Dragon Quest franchise has recorded over 78 million sales, among many others.
Inception
Enix was founded on 22nd September 1975 by a Japanese architect-turned-entrepreneur known as Yasuhiro Fukushima. Enix was initially known as Eldansha Boshu Service Center. Enix’s focus was on publishing games by companies that partnered exclusively with the company.
The company is, therefore, most famous for its work in publishing the Dragon Quest series of the console games that were developed by Chunsoft. The initial developer’s staff members consisted of writer Yuuji Horii, director Koichi Nakamura, composer Koichi Sugiyama, and artist Akira Toriyama among others.
Famicom-based RPG series released their first game in 1986, and eventually, they were able to sell over 1.5 million copies in Japan. This made Dragon Quest the company’s most profitable franchise. At that time, Enix’s long-time competitor was Square. After Square announced that they would exclusively develop for PlayStation, Enix announced that it was going to release games for both Sony and Nintendo Consoles in January 1997.
This worked positively for both Enix and Sony as their stock rose significantly. By November 1999, the value of Enix had gone up significantly that Tokyo Stock Exchange-listed it in its 1st section. It was therefore indicated as a “large company.”
Evolution
Square was founded in October 1983, and the founder was known as Masafumi Miyamoto. The company was a computer gaming software for the division of Den-Yu-sha. Den-Yu-Sha, however, was a power line construction company that belonged to his father. At that time, only one programmer conducted game development. Miyamoto, therefore, believed professional story writers, programmers, and graphic designers would make gaming more efficient if they worked together as a team.
Square and Enix considered merging since 2000. However, after Square released their first movie titled Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within in 2001 became a financial failure made Enix a bit reluctant to continue with the deal. Square, however, rushed and approached Sony Corp as a way of dealing with financial instability. Luckily Sony Corp came to its rescue and purchased an 18.6% stake in the company. The success of Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy X Square stabilized financially.
2002 became the best year in the history of Square, and this was convincing enough for Enix to form the merge. Their official merge was announced on 25th November 2002, and this was meant to decrease development costs mutually and to help them compete with foreign developers. It was reported that there was no better time for the merger to take effect as both countries were at their top financially.
The move was, however, not embraced by some shareholders, one of them being Miyamoto, who was the founder and largest shareholder of Square. He unfortunately, he had to hold a smaller percentage of shares after the merger. Another person who criticized the move was Takashi Oya of Deutsche Securities, who wasn’t very sure of the benefits the merger would bring. According to Takashi, the merger wouldn’t bring any negative effects, but at the same time, there were no positive benefits that the company would gain.
However, Miyamoto’s concerns were solved after he was given a higher share percentage. This, therefore, led to a mutual agreement between the two companies. Yoichi Wada was appointed the president, founder of Enix was the honorary chairman as he was the largest shareholder, and Enix, former President Keiji Honda, was set as the vice president. As the result of the merger, Square Co, Ltd was dissolved while Enix was left as the surviving company. The headquarters of Square Enix was moved to Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo, to make it easier to run the company.
Awards and achievements
After the merger of the two companies, they recorded much profit, and they were able to acquire several other companies. They have also been able to create several subsidiary companies. Some of these companies include; UIEvolution in March 2004, Square Enix MobileStudio in 2008 January (this was created to focus on mobile products). They were also able to found Square Enix China, which led to the expansion of their services to the People’s Republic of China. These are just a few of their achievements. The company has achieved a lot over the years and is still very successful to date.
Net worth of Square Enix in 2024
Square Enix is one of the most successful gaming companies we have in the world. Looking at their annual net income, there is no doubt that the merge of the two companies was the best thing they could have done. The net worth of Square Enix is above $2 billion as of April 2024.
Square Enix is a company that has been built on commitment and passion in the gaming industry. It was also lucky to be led by visionary leaders who have seen it achieve a lot over the years. The gamers have great expectations that there is more this company will bring them in the coming years.