November 29, 2002 - Earlier this week, Square and Enix announced a surprise merger that, when it officially takes place in April of 2003, will see games from the two companies published under the currently tentative name of "Square Enix." Few details were revealed at that time with the two promising further details at a future press conference.

That press conference kicked off today at 6:00PM local time at a fancy hotel in Tokyo and began with a lengthy financial report from the two companies. The financial stuff, to be honest, was a bit on the boring side, but a few big details did surface during the lengthy speeches given by the Square/Enix executives and the Q&A; sessions that followed it. Here are some highlights:

  • Square commented that it's not thinking just yet about an FFX-3 (that's not Final Fantasy XIII, but another direct sequel to Final Fantasy X. This seems to be contradict earlier promises of two side stories to FFX.

  • In response to a question about Final Fantasy XIII, Square responded that the company's top developers are hard at work on Final Fantasy XII right now. Furthermore, it was mentioned that it hasn't been decided if the game would actually have the "XIII" title, suggesting that Square may be looking into a different approach for naming games in the series.

  • In response to a question regarding Kingdom Hearts 2, Square responded that they're interested in making a sequel in accordance with user wishes. However, it's in the hands of Disney. The first title is expected to cross the 3,000,000 mark on a worldwide basis.
  • Enix came up with a few excuses for the delay of Star Ocean 3 to next March, but stated that it expects the game to sell 810,000 units at that time.

  • Final Fantasy XI for the PS2 is in the hands of at least 184,000 gamers throughout Japan, with the recent PC version having shipped 100,000 to 110,000 units. The game has 50,000 active members with 12,000 to 13,000 gamers playing daily. Although these numbers fall short of the break-even goal of 200,000 players, Square stressed that the original number was calculated with just the basic user fees in mind while players are using other services and paying more money as a result.

    No mention was made of GameCube development or Dragon Quest 8. Separate from the press conference, this latter title was officially announced for the PS2 via press release from Enix and developer Level 5 on Friday night and will be featured in the upcoming issue of of Japan's Shounen Jump magazine, set to hit shelves on Monday.


    These guys proved to be quite good at Japanese.
    During the latter half of the conference, the two companies clarified some details on the merger. Primarily, this clarification consisted of a recap of the original announcement followed by some very heavy financial questions that are so beyond the scope of IGN that our servers would explode if we tried to communicate the information to you.

    A few interesting points were brought up during the latter half of the conference, though. The companies revealed that their plan is indeed to become the world's biggest publisher. Currently, they rank around the six or seven region when compared with other companies. By March of 2004, they plan on topping America's largest publisher, Electronic Arts. By March of 2005 they plan on becoming the number one publisher in the world. From then on, they expect to expand even further.

    The companies shared a chart revealing that between the two of them, there are nearly 20 titles that have gone double platinum on a worldwide basis. FFVII tops the list, followed by FFVIII and FFX. For comparison, big names such as Biohazard, Metal Gear Solid, and GTA3 were mentioned (the speaker laughed a bit at the content of GTA3).


    The multiplatinum games: from top to bottom,
    FF, FF, FF, FF, DQ, DQ, FF, DQ, DQ, Chrono Trigger,
    DQ, FF, DQ, DQ, Kingdom Hearts, FF, FF
    A few points were mentioned regarding the synergy between the two companies. It was mentioned that Square has expertise in overseas development, with the localization of software being given as an example. With regards to Online games, it was mentioned that Enix is stronger in the Asian market and tends to do more light stuff. Square, on the other hand, is stronger in Japan, with Final Fantasy XI having reached 210,000 units sold. Square also expects to strengthen its expertise in the Online American market next year, suggesting that FFXI may at last see a stateside release.


    The conference took place at a fancy hotel.
    More people came after this pic was taken.
    Aside from this, nothing much of merit came out of this press conference. But, we suppose news of the world's two biggest RPG makers merging is enough for one week.

    -- Anoop Gantayat, Contributor