Square Enix

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Final Fantasy characters in Mario Hoops

Posted by Zidane007nl on 16 July 2006, 22:49 - 0 comments

Square Enix has recently updated the Mario Hoops 3-on-3 website with Final Fantasy characters that will be in the game. Next to the standard Nintendo-characters you can soon also play with a Ninja, White Mage, Black Mage, Moogle or Sabotender (Cactuar).

Mario Hoops 3-on-3 will be a basketball game featuring Nintendo and Square Enix characters and will be released on the Nintendo DS.

» Official Japanese website

Final Fantasy XIII

Square Enix announces 3 Final Fantasy XIII games!

Posted by Zidane007nl on 9 May 2006, 01:04 - 0 comments

Earlier today Square Enix had given a pre-E3 conference and released much info about their upcoming games.

- Final Fantasy XII will be released in the USA in October 2006.
- Final Fantasy XIII has been announced for the PS3. The game was first made by the Final Fantasy X team for the PS2. But after the Final Fantasy VII tech demo on last years E3, they were so happy with the hardware and decided to make it for the PS3.
Final Fantasy Versus XIII will be made by the Kingdom Hearts team and will feature "extreme action elements." Final Fantasy XIII will also be made for the mobile phone.
- Final Fantasy V (GBA), Final Fantasy VI (GBA), Children of Mana (NDS) en Dawn of Mana (jap. 'Seiken Densetsu 4' ) (PS2) has been confirmed for release in the USA, but without a release date.
- Valkyrie Profile (PSP) will be released in the USA on July 18th, 2006.
- Valkyrie Profile 2 (PS2), Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime (NDS) and Final Fantasy III (NDS) will be released in the USA in September 2006.
- Two new games in the Crystal Chronicles series will be made. One for the NDS and the other for Nintendo Wii.
- Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors will be made for Nintendo Wii.

That's all right now. I'll update the site tomorrow with hopefully more Final Fantasy XIII screenshots and more news about this weird step Square made.

More info available at GameSpot.

» Final Fantasy XIII section

Square Enix

Square Enix registered 2 names

Posted by Zidane007nl on 8 May 2006, 21:43 - 0 comments

Square Enix has trademarked 2 names at the USPTO previous week. The first one is Ring of Fates and the other one is The Crystal Bearers, which might be the 2nd Crystal Chronicles game that will appear on the Nintendo Wii.

More info will hopefully follow after Square Enix E3 conference later this day.

Source: NeoGAF

Square Enix E3 Line-up

Posted by Zidane007nl on 25 April 2006, 00:37 - 0 comments

Square Enix has released their line-up for this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo that will be held on May 10-12.

Console
- Dawn of Mana [PS2] (trailer only)
- Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus [PS2] (playable demo and trailer)
- Final Fantasy XII [PS2] (playable demo and trailer)
- Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria [PS2] (playable demo and trailer)

Handheld
- Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime [NDS] (playable demo and trailer)
- Final Fantasy III [NDS] (playable demo and trailer)
- Final Fantasy V [GBA] (trailer only)
- Final Fantasy VI [GBA] (trailer only)
- Seiken Densetsu DS: Children of Mana [NDS] (playable demo and trailer)
- Valkyrie Profiles: Lenneth [PSP] (playable demo and trailer)

Online
- Final Fantasy XI: Treaures of Aht Urhgan (playable demo and trailer)

Mobile
- 3D Space Invaders (playable demo and trailer)
- Brave Shot 2 (playable demo and trailer)
- Chase HQ 3D (playable demo and trailer)
- Elevator Action 3D (playable demo and trailer)
- Final Fantasy (playable demo and trailer)
- Final Fantasy VII: Before Crisis (playable demo and trailer)
- Megatouch Mobile Arcade (playable demo and trailer)

Check Square Enix's E3 website for more information about the games.

» Square Enix's E3 2006 website

Square Enix talks about illegal activaties

Posted by Zidane007nl on 22 April 2006, 00:23 - 0 comments

Yesterday Square Enix release a press announcement about illegaly uploading Advent Children on the internet. Somebody was caught putting the movie online at Google Video. Google had removed the movie after Square Enix asked them and they investigated who was responsible for this and prosecuted him. On April 17th he admitted that he illegally uploaded the movie and he agreed to pay a confidential monetary sum to Square Enix for damages.

In the press announcement Yasuhiko Hasegawa (Square Enix's General Manager of Legal Affairs) said this: "In connection with the release of the movie, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, we are actively pursuing those who commit intellectual property infringement against our company. Any illegal activities, including the illegal uploading of Square Enix content to Internet sites and the unauthorized copying of Square Enix games, music, movies, images, and other intellectual property, will be prosecuted. While Square Enix appreciates the enthusiasm of its fans, and values its relationship with them, it is also obligated to protect its intellectual property rights or risk weakening or losing the very rights that enable the company to continue to provide its fans with an exciting entertainment experience."

Advent Children will be released in North America on 25th April and in Europe one day earlier.

» Square Enix Press Release

Square Enix Sees Lower Sales, Profit

Posted by Zidane007nl on 19 April 2006, 22:31 - 0 comments

Square Enix today lowered its forecast for the fiscal year 2005/2006 which ended on March 31st. The company now projects a consolidated net profit of 10 billion yen ($84.67 million US) on sales of 125 billion yen ($1.06 billion US). These figures are 42.9% and 8.1% lower than the figures provided in previous forecasts.

While strong sales of major titles, such as Kingdom Hearts II, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy XII drove sales during the six month period from October 2005 to March 2006, these successful releases could not compensate the lack of big selling games during the first six months of the fiscal year.

While the company's flagship MMORPG Final Fantasy XI is still performing well, newly introduced MMORPGs were less well received by fans. This is the likely explanation behind Square Enix's decision to end operating EverQuest II in Japan only one year after the game's launch. While the mobile contents division reported rising sales, its operations outside Japan did not manage to generate any profit during the second half of the fiscal year. Since the returns on prior investments have been delayed, the division had to face rising costs. Subsidiary Taito also failed to post a profit.

The sole bright spot of today's announcement were the positive results of Square Enix's publishing division, due to the continued popularity of the products like the manga magazine Shounen Gangan. The continued success of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children also resulted in better than expected results for the company's other operations.

Source: RPGFan

Square Enix

Dragon Quest VIII released in Europe!

Posted by Zidane007nl on 13 April 2006, 22:33 - 0 comments

Today UbiSoft released Dragon Quest VIII in Europe! Finally European gamers can play a Dragon Quest game.
I quickly bought the game myself and found something interesting in the manual. On the last page an ad is showed about Kingdom Hearts II with the text: "The Story Continues, Late 2006". So expect that the game will be released by then. I made a scan of the ad so you can view it yourself.

» KH2 Advertisement

Update: Square-Enix Europe opened a website called I Love Dragon Quest. There you meat Nobu, the world biggest Dragon Quest fan. You have to distract him from doing the longest marathon play. It's a silly game.

» I Love Dragon Quest

Tetsuya Nomura Talks

Posted by Zidane007nl on 28 March 2006, 00:03 - 0 comments

To promote the US release of Kingdom Hearts II character designer and director Tetsuya Nomura talked about the title and the future of the popular series.

First he talked about the difference between the Japanese and the North American version. The differences are minimal like one thing that is modified is the gun design of the Pirates of the Caribbean level. This is because of the ESRB rating the game has to make it guns look less like weapons. He also said that there won't be a Final Mix version of the game, due to the lack of changes.

Nomura already has some new ideas about the feature development of Kingdom Hearts. But, when the ideas will be turned into a project, fans should not expect a new numbered title or something like KH: Chain of Memories. Furthermore, Nomura also ruled out a foray into media forms other than games, such as animation. Famitsuu speculates that one possibility would be something along the lines of a gaiden.

As final thing, he promised major announcements for this year's edition for the Electronic Entertainment Expo and the Tokyo Game Show. Square Enix corporate executive director Shinji Hashimoto confirmed as much, saying his company would hold a big "surprise ceremony" at E3. Following the release of Kingdom Hearts II in North America and Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII in Japan, the development team of Nomura and Hashimoto is currently working on two confirmed projects: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII for PlayStation Portable and an untitled Final Fantasy installment for PlayStation 3.

Source: RPGFan

3rd Quarter Financial Results Square Enix

Posted by Zidane007nl on 1 February 2006, 12:48 - 0 comments

Two days ago Square Enix announced its financial results for the third quarter of the current fiscal year ending on March 31st. The company posted a consolidated net profit of 4.29 billion yen ($36.58 million USD) on sales of 68.99 billion yen ($588.18 million USD). Compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year, sales were up 13.2%, while net profit was done by 67.7%. This decline in profit however was expected, given that last year's third quarter saw the release of Dragon Quest VIII in Japan. As for the top performers of the three month period from October to December 2005, Kingdom Hearts II sold 1.1 million copies in Japan, followed by Slime Morimori Dragon Quest 2 for DS (260,000 copies) and Front Mission 5 for PlayStation 2 (180,000 copies). In total, the game division recorded sales of 21.20 billion yen ($180.74 million USD) and an operating profit of 974 million yen ($8.303 million USD).

Despite the continued popularity of Final Fantasy XI, the release of Front Mission Online, and the Japanese version of EverQuest II, Square Enix's online game division saw its sales decline by 9.2% to reach 9.62 billion yen ($82.02 million USD). Operating profit dropped by 15.7% to reach 3.75 billion yen ($31.97 million USD).

The lower profit of the offline and online game divisions was upset by the success of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children which has sold more than one million copies in Japan since its September 14th, 2005 release.

Due to the acquisition of Taito, an AM division appeared for the first time in today's balance sheet. This debut could have been better, though, as the division posted an operating loss worth 234 million yen ($2.00 million USD) on sales of 20.69 billion yen ($176.39 million USD). Square Enix has left its projections for the full fiscal year unchanged. During the January to March period, the company has already shipped Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and will release its often delayed, highly anticipated PlayStation 2 RPG Final Fantasy XII on March 16th.

Source: RPGFan

New Dirge of Cerberus details, release date

Posted by Zidane007nl on 4 November 2005, 10:03 - 0 comments

At a press conference in Tokyo today, Square Enix announced more details regarding its upcoming "gun" Action-RPG Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII. For the newest installment of the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, the company is cooperating with J-Pop star Gackt. The singer will not only peform the game's main theme Redemption and another song titled Longing, but also appear in the game, playing the role of an important character. This character however will not be a virtual alter ego created by motion capturing, but rather the real Gackt filmed by a camera. The resulting movie will then combined with traditional CG scenes.

At today's press conference, Square Enix president Youichi Wada, the producer of Dirge of Cerberus and head of Square Enix's first production team Yoshinori Kitase, corporate executive director Shinji Hashimoto, and Gackt were present. Wada explained the "polymorphic content" concept behind the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, saying the company wanted to grant the wish for a sequel voiced by many fans, by bringing the Final Fantasy VII experience to various platforms, such as cellphones, movies and game consoles. Afterwards, producer Kitase took the stage, explaining that shooting games traditionally focused on action, while the story was merely an afterthought. With Dirge of Cerberus, however, he wanted to create a new-type of gun action game combining strong action elements with a Final Fantasy-class story, movie sequences, CG scenes and interesting characters.

The costume Gackt is wearing during his in-game appearance was designed by character designer Tetsuya Nomura. The popstar will also wear it during his concert tour Gackt Live Tour 2005 Diablos - Aien no Shi. Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII will be available in Japan on January 26th for 7,800 yen ($66.79 USD).

Source: RPGFan

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