Square Enix

Square Enix has signed a new deal with Epic Games for use of the Unreal Engine 3 and the upcoming Unreal Engine 4. This will make it possible for Square Enix to release multiple games running on this engine.

Taka Kawasaki, Epic Games Japan
Epic has a strong relationship with Square Enix, and it’s an honor to provide their creative and technical talent with the best game technology available for licensing. We look forward to supporting their developers with world-class tools for years to come.

Games that Square Enix has developed in the past with the Unreal Engine 3 are The Last Remnant back in 2008 (Xbox 360 and PC) and Demon’s Score this year (Android and iOS).

Square Enix has launched their website and announced its line-up for the Tokyo Game Show 2012 that will be taking place from 20 till 23 September. A lot of games listed are Japanese only and only three games are playable.

Video
- Bravely Default: Flying Fairy (Nintendo 3DS)
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC)
- Chosoku Henkei Gyrozetter (Arcade)
- Demons' Score (Android, iOS)
- Emperors SaGa (GREE)
- Final Fantasy III (PlayStation Portable)
- Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (PC, PlayStation 3)
- Galaxy Dungeon (GREE)
- It's a Wonderful World Solo Remix (iOS)
- Hitman Absolution (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC)
- Otome Break! (Android, iOS)
- Sleeping Dogs (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC)
- Symphonica Grand Maestro (iOS)

Playable
- Chosoku Henkei Gyrozetter (Arcade)
- Slime Mori Mori Dragon Quest 3: Daikaizoku to Shippodan (Nintendo 3DS)
- Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry no Wonderland 3D (Nintendo 3DS)

And again no Final Fantasy Versus XIII this year. On the Final Fantasy 25th Anniversary event, that took place last weekend, Shinji Hashimoto said that this year there won't be anything new regarding this game.

Square Enix has announced their line-up for this years gamescom taking place from 15 till 19 August in Cologne (Germany). This four-day-event is like the E3 in Los Angeles, only larger and is the world's largest games event.

• Final Fantasy VII (PC)
• Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (PC)
• Final Fantasy Dimensions (iOS)
• Gameglobe (Browser)
• Hitman: Absolution (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC)
• Koozac (iOS, Android)
• Mensa Academy(iOS, Android)
• Motley Blocks (iOS, Android)
• Quantum Conundrum (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Qwirkle (iOS, Android)
• Sleeping Dogs (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC)
• SolaRola(iOS, Android)
• Tomb Raider (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC)

Notice that the majority of the games are mobile games and that the 3 Final Fantasy titles are from Square Enix.

Big news on the second day of VanaFest: Hiromichi Tanaka, the current producer of Final Fantasy XI, is stepping down and will leave Square Enix mostly due to health problems.

Hiromichi Tanaka started his work at Square in 1983 and was one of the earliest members and eventually headed up  Square Enix's 3rd development division. Later he became Corporate Executive Online Business.

At Square he worked on games like Final Fantasy, II and III, Secret of Mana, Xenogears and Chrono Cross. Besides producer of Final Fantasy XI he was also producer of Final Fantasy XIV till December 2010 (which was badly received by the fans causing him to step down).

Akihiko Matsui will take over his spot as producer of Final Fantasy XI.