That would be totally different. That would be a console company buying a developer. This is too developers well-known for having the two most popular-console RPG series merging together.

Apples and Oranges.

I wouldn't want to see Enix bought by Sony, Nintendo or MS.

I have no problem with them merging with Square. Hopefully both companies franchises will benefit from the merger.

I wonder if they will be able to develop on whichever console they want though.

Hard to say. Square is putting out some FF games on the GC and GBA, so I'd be surprised if the Enix games were exclusive to anyone system.

They'll probably spread them across the systems, assuming there's enough of them to do so as Enix (as far as I'm aware of) doesn't put out all that many games a year (at least in the U.S.).

Enix is bigger than Square?! They're like a non-entity outside of Japan these days.

"Sir, news has just hit that Enix and Square have merged!!!!!!"


"Excellent!! Perhaps this merger will weaken their defenses, we will be able to swoop down and take control!!!"




"But sir, we've already contacted this new company. Nothing has changed, except that now their distaste for us has DOUBLED! Not to worry sir, True Fantasy Live and Sudeki are SAFE!!"


"FUKIN' A!!!!!!!!!!"

never heard of enix?!? blasphemy!!

ok ok, so they don't have the following in the US as they do in Japan and some of you aren't hardcore rpgers so i'll let you off the hook , but this news is HUGE, I've always been a huge Dragon Warrior fan. I think I was one out of 3 people on this board who actually played Dragon Warrior 7 (which is a shame because its an awesome game). Dragon Quest is like what GTA3 and Vice City were over here in terms of popularity, only bigger. It sold 2 million copies in the first 3 days of its release, and is probably in the millions now. The only thing that has come close to the popularity of DQ is Pokemon. This is the game that when it comes out, the government asks them to release it on a non-school day so students won't skip school to get it, and you hear reports of kids getting their DQ games mugged from them. They've published a lot of great times like Star Ocean and the Grandia series.

Anyway hopefully this will be a good combination of talent, i don't think we'll see anything big from this for awhile, they've been busy working on FFX-2 and Star Ocean 3, which are 2 of the most anticipated games for next year. I would suspect that they wuold develop for PS2 now since most of their games seem to be on that, especially with sony having stock in square.

I believe that Enix already launched DQ for PS2 in Japan on Oct 31, 2002. Dragon Quest Characters TORUNEKO NO DAIBOUKEN 3 -Fushigi no Dungeon- (Japan Version)

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.asp...section=games&

I wish it will be here soon.

DQ7 sold 4 million copies in Japan in 2001.

Enix of America gave all Dragon Warrior fans in North America is big middle finger, byt cancelling the release of Dragon Warrior 4 Remix, and saying they wouldn't release another Torneko game if somebody paid them to do it.

I would love to bomb thier US offices.

And 10 copies in USA. 2 of which were mine.

DW7 sold ~150000 copies the last time I checked. Pitiful compared to the JP 4 million. But still excellent number for being absent in the NA market for years. Last DW game on a home console was DW4 for NES not counting remakes and spin-offs on Gameboy.

Man never heard of Enix???
This is huge news.
I'm not surprised DW7 only sold 150000 copies over here. first off it isn't that great of a game, now if you like certain things it is great but the story was iffy, and the graphics were bad. Anyway it was released when the PS was almost done without any fanfare and it was 49.99 for a PS1 game. When the PS2 was starting to get into full swing. It was all around a bad idea by Enix.

But Enix + Square = WOW

But Square is saddled with the financial fallout of making a $150 million movie that didn't even gross a third of its budget, as well as the infrastructure for a huge MMORPG which has not been terribly successful.

Plus, Enix outsells Square in Japan.

Yeah I think Final Fantasy 11 has been doing poorly in Japan... "it's just too expensive" seems to be the main complaint.

They just hit 180,000 subscribers last week. The break even number is 200,000.

Well, let's hope they break even. How long ago did it come out? Either way you slice it, it's not quite an explosive hit.

BTW, just found DW7 (Playstation 1 of course) marked down to 19.99 at Electronic Fry's in Southern California. Snatched it up. Apparently, it's not a sale price, as they tore up the old sticker (29.99) and put a new one on.

And I had just been there on Monday and it was still 29.99... I've heard it isn't that great of a game and is really, really long, and Lord knows I have too many unfinished RPGs as it is, but I couldn't resist.

They also had all the GBC Dragon Warriors on sale a while ago: Monsters 2 (both versions), DW 1+2, and DW3, which I highly recommend to anyone wanting to check out an old-school Enix game.

I believe it was spring of this year. I think it's pretty good considering that it was their first MMORPG and is expensive to play (game+HDD+monthly fee). By the time it gets out on PCs over here they'll be making money on it.

From what I've seen the game looks like an Everquest clone. The battles are always the worst part of any Final Fantasy game and I can't imagine enjoying this game if that's all there is.

um The Final Fantasy movie did make money

137 million dollar budget

137- (61.328 M in theatres) - (79 M in rentals) - purchases= profit

It made $3 million dollars before counting in DVD and VHS sales.
Not very good but it wasn't a total bust.

That sounds like the underpants gnome's equation. Step one - steal underpants... Step 2... Step 3 - profit. What about the advertising budget? Is that included in the production budget? I think this movie is still in the red for them - maybe eventually it will break even or better, but I don't think it has yet. Once it gets on Network TV, the advertising dollars might help.

I'm still surprised they canned their studio so quickly. It seemed to me that with the hardware and technical skills they built up in making FF, that they could have pumped out a few tv series or otherwise cashed in. After all animated shows are all the rage these days and I bet square could have pumped out something that would blow them all away visually quite easily.

Chris

They canned it?? That's a really stupid move... I mean a game like Doom 3 could cost piles of money to create and even if it fails to sell for some reason or barely break even, id doesn't care cuz they'll sell the engine to other developers and stuff their pockets with money. I would think they would've found a way to make money off all that work.

Ummm, no. You aren't even counting the over 100 million dollar facility Square built in Hawaii for this project alone. So, until they start doing effects and/or cut scenes for other games, they haven't made a profit on it.

Dragon Warrior's with souped up Square FX's and cut sceens is making me get wood right now.

I believe the building costs were included in the production budget. And they didn't shut down right after the movie bombed. They were saying they were doing a couple of projects before. One of them being the Matrix short. I dont really know if there's something else.