Tag: Square Enix
News Square Enix Bestows New Name on Creative Business Unit 3
Please be excited
Square Enix is undergoing a restructuring process, and layoffs are already underway in the US and Europe as the firm "aggressively" prepares for a multiplatform push. Perhaps in response to feedback, the Japanese publisher has taken the opportunity to rename one of its premier development studios, the Naoki Yoshida-led division...
News Square Enix Layoffs Underway in US and Europe as Restructure Begins
The hits just keep on coming
With the industry in a crisis and Square Enix's marquee titles Final Fantasy XVI and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth failing to meet sales expectations, the storied publisher/developer is restructuring to " aggressively" pursue a multiplatform strategy. Sadly, this will necessitat
News Final Fantasy 16, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Fail to Meet Expectations on PS5
Foamstars also not setting the world alight
Square Enix announced earlier this week that it will aggressively pursue a more multiformat-focused strategy, after its big PS5 console exclusives failed to meet expectations. According to Bloomberg journalist Takashi Mochizuki, sales of Final Fantasy 16 did open in line with the company’s targets –...
News Square Enix to 'Aggressively' Pursue Multiplatform Strategy from Now On
Say goodbye to those PS5 exclusives
Square Enix has confirmed in a new medium-term business plan that it intends to "aggressively" pursue a multiplatform strategy across PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, and PC platforms. Instead of allowing select AAA games from its biggest series to be locked onto one system, the company will look to "build an...
News Visions of Mana Release Date Likely Incoming as Action RPG Gets Age Rated
A clearer vision
First announced in December of last year, Visions of Mana has been stuck with a vague 'summer' release window for months — but now, it seems highly likely that a confirmed date is heading our way in the near future. The action RPG has just been age rated by the ESRB in North America, which is usually a surefire sign that news is...
News Future Funk Season Adds New Maps and Events to Foamstars Later This Month on PS5, PS4
Yes, it's still alive
Square Enix's colourful multiplayer game, Foamstars, is reportedly quite a flop, but the show isn't over yet. The publisher has just announced the next themed season, this time named Future Funk, and it adds some more content to the sudsy shooter. The headline attraction this time around is the addition of three new maps...
News Final Fantasy 14 Servers Suffer Sustained DDoS Attacks, Square Enix Investigating
Login, connection issues persist
Square Enix's ever-popular MMO, Final Fantasy XIV, is currently experiencing a sustained DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) assault. The publisher/developer has warned its millions of invested players to expect login and connection issues until they are successfully repelled. In a blog post, Squeenix revealed that...
Poll What Do You Think of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Ending?
Materia desires
Spoiler Warning: Naturally, this article contains major story spoilers for both the original Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. It's been over two months since the release of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, and so we think it's about time to try and discuss the game's ending. With Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Square Enix made it clear...
Feature Final Fantasy 16 Expansion Pass Review: Is It Worth Buying?
Final Fantasy 16's DLC offering reviewed
Final Fantasy 16 released on the 22nd June 2023, offering up an action-heavy RPG that greatly deviates from the more traditional blueprints of past Final Fantasy titles. Initially, Square Enix had no plans to expand the game with DLC, but several months after its launch, in September 2023, the publisher...
News Final Fantasy 16 New Game+ Glitch to Be Fixed in PS5 Patch Next Week
Trophy fixes included too
Square Enix has revealed the bugs stopping Final Fantasy XVI players from starting New Game+ and unlocking specific Trophies will be fixed in a PS5 patch slated to arrive at the end of next week. When beginning a second playthrough and deciding to skip the prologue, some users are not seeing essential party members spawn,...
News Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Sales Remain Muted in the USA, Compared to Past Games
Reportedly well behind Remake
There's been a lot of discussion surrounding the commercial success of Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. The PS5 exclusive launched on the 29th February, but despite garnering near universal acclaim from critics, questions were quickly raised regarding sales numbers, with Square Enix yet to provide any official statistics (which...
Revised approach to HD game development formed
Square Enix appears to have cancelled or at least rescoped the size of multiple unannounced games as a result of an internal review into its development process, with a "content disposal" loss totalling 22.1 billion yen, or $141 million. As a result of the investigation, the publisher shall "revise the...
Rumour Kingdom Hearts 4 Slated for 2025 Release
So says DanielRPK
Kingdom Hearts IV will grace PS5 boxes next year, according to the increasingly reliable online tipster Daniel Richtman (DanielRPK). The TV and film leaker posted to his Patreon that he's heard about a 2025 release date for Kingdom Hearts IV, just days after his claim Sonic Frontiers 2 is in development was backed up by another...
News Final Fantasy 16 New Game+ Bug Preventing Progress, Square Enix Offers Temporary Fix
Just when you thought it was safe to start over
Square Enix has warned Final Fantasy XVI players that it's aware of a potentially progress-impeding bug, specifically affecting players trying to boot up a New Game+ run. The good news is that the developer is prioritising a fix and will push out a patch once a resolution is found. On
News Naoki Yoshida Says Final Fantasy 14 Update Will Fix Dawntrail's Dead, 'Lifeless Eyes'
Like mirrors to the soul
Last week, Square Enix unveiled the official PC benchmark and accompanying trailer for the upcoming Final Fantasy XIV expansion, Dawntrail. The trailer gave fans glimpses of new in-game areas, enemies, and combat upgrades. While that all went over rather well, the game's decade-old character creation engine is drawing ire...
Review Final Fantasy XVI: The Rising Tide (PS5) - A Fantastic Sendoff for Square's Action RPG
Gonna need a bigger boat
The Rising Tide is the second and final expansion for Final Fantasy 16, adding another worthwhile chapter to the tale of Clive Rosfield. Only accessible near the very end of the base game, this DLC is designed to be something of a sendoff for the action RPG, providing a new storyline that brings additional weight to the...
Poll Are You Playing Final Fantasy 16: The Rising Tide?
Making waves
The second and final expansion for Final Fantasy 16, titled The Rising Tide, is out now on PS5 — and if you can believe it, we're fast approaching the base game's first anniversary. But such a realisation has made us wonder... Are you returning to Final Fantasy 16 in order to play through this new DLC? Or could it be that the...
Patch notes are huge
Update: Final Fantasy 16 update 1.31 is available to download now on PS5, ahead of The Rising Tide's release on the 18th April. It weighs in at 2.8GB, and you can read the full patch notes below, in the original article. Original Story: Square Enix has published the patch notes for Final Fantasy 16's next update, which is set...
News Stellar Blade Is a Better Game Than NieR: Automata, Yoko Taro Reckons
Praise from both game directors
Stellar Blade developer Shift Up quite clearly took a lot of inspiration from PS4 great NieR: Automata during the making of its soon-to-be-released PS5 exclusive, but in the case of Automata director Yoko Taro, he thinks that the student has already become the master. In an interview with IGN Japan (via Eurogamer),...
High tide
Final Fantasy 16 was one of our favourite games of 2023, and so we wanted to find out more about The Rising Tide — the title's second and final expansion — ahead of its release on the 18th April. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to land an interview with Takeo Kujiraoka — the veteran Square Enix dev who's actually the director of...
News Final Fantasy 16: The Rising Tide DLC Is Designed to Be More Challenging
Forged in flames
The Rising Tide, the second and final expansion for Final Fantasy 16, is set to feature some of the game's most challenging combat scenarios. That's according to DLC director (and a lead combat designer for the base game) Takeo Kujiraoka, who, in an interview with
News Final Fantasy 16 Successfully Expanded the Series to New, Younger Players, Says Square Enix
Hot topic
Final Fantasy is a long running series at this point — it's easily one of the most storied franchises in gaming. But when you're up to the sixteenth mainline entry, you must start wondering whether fresh installments still have the power to pull new players in. Indeed, audience growth will be an important metric for the suits upstairs at...
News Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Rage-Inducing Retry Wording Has Been Quietly Re-Worked
It's at least slightly clearer now
For all the positive things players have to say about Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, one aspect of the game which we've seen nothing but ire directed towards is its confusingly worded retry screen, which players will be hit with in the event of a Game Over. Thankfully, this issue has been quietly addressed in the game's...
News Despite Hype, Analyst Says Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth 'Underperforming'
"It's selling about half of what Remake sold in the same timeframe"
Square Enix is a famously hard master to please, and eagle-eyed fans interested in industry analytics will have noted that despite launching over a month ago on 29th February, exclusively on PS5, hard sales figures for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth are yet to be released. Considering it...
News PS5, PS4 RPG Visions of Mana Aims Straight for Your Nostalgia in Touching Japanese Trailer
The adventure continues
Square Enix has released a new Japan-only trailer for upcoming action RPG Visions of Mana — and it's specifically designed to play on the nostalgia of longtime Mana fans. The video depicts the life of a man who's grown up with the franchise, from grabbing his first Mana title as a kid, to watching the games evolve over the...
News Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 Expected to Release Around 2027, Says Square Enix
Reunion
It's fairly common knowledge that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth enjoyed a relatively smooth development cycle, owing to the fact that Final Fantasy 7 Remake's team was largely kept intact, and the first game had obviously laid the foundations in terms of visuals and gameplay systems. It took Square Enix around three years to craft Rebirth, and it...
News Stellar Blade's Demo Had Way More Daily Active Players Than Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's
Nearly double at its peak
A recent analysis has revealed an interesting statistic about a pair of playable demos on PS5. According to Ampere, Stellar Blade's demo, at its peak, had almost twice the number of daily active players compared to the peak for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's demo. Apparently, the Korean action RPG's best day saw the demo accrue...
News £850 Final Fantasy Music Box Might Be the Most Extravagant Gaming Merch Ever
Rebirth soundtrack also out now
Square Enix recently announced the excellent soundtrack for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is now available on digital platforms. A physical CD set is also up for pre-order on the publisher's web store, including all 175 tracks from the recent RPG. That's all good, but it's the other musical merch Square Enix is pushing...
News Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Has Sold Around 2 Million Copies, PS5 Player Data Suggests
Supposedly behind Remake and 16
Unless a game is breaking records, it's quite rare that we get direct sales data from publishers — and Square Enix in particular is somewhat notorious for this. As such, interested parties usually have little choice but to try and determine commercial success through other means. One way to do this is to look at...
News Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Patch 1.030 Is the Platinum Trophy Fixer, Plus More
4.919GB download available now
Delivering on its promise to fix the glitch blocking the Platinum Trophy in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth from being unlocked, Square Enix has issued a PS5 update that fixes the Can't Stop Won't Stop side quest. Reports from users confirm the fix has been correctly applied, making the Platinum Trophy available once more...
News PSN Data Says Foamstars' Future Is Bleak, Just Two Months After Release
Wish upon a Foamstar
Released on the 6th February — and available day one through PS Plus Essential — Foamstars has, reportedly, seen its player numbers completely fall off a cliff over the last couple of months. As researched by TrueTrophies, using PSN gameplay data, the stylised PS5 and PS4 shooter has now lost around 95% of its player count...
News It's 'Probably About Time' for a New Final Fantasy Tactics, Says Yoshi-P
We agree
It's fair to say fans of Final Fantasy Tactics are keen to see a new entry in the series. Demand for the strategic spin-off to return has only become louder with time, especially after the infamous Nvidia leak, which has named many games long before their official announcement — including a Tactics remaster. While hopes of a new game were...
Random Kingdom Hearts XIII Cheers for Sweet Revenge Emo Cover Album Will Have You in Tears
Hel-ena of a concept
Kingdom Hearts fans who want to prove to their now-elderly parents that the emo movement of the late 90s and early 2000s wasn't just a phase can now do just that. XIII Cheers for Sweet Revenge: Kingdom Hearts Goes Emo, a remix album of 15 songs from across the series blended with "sounds reminiscent of My Chemical Romance”, is...
News Dragon Quest 12 Still MIA as Series Producer Is Reassigned at Square Enix
The clock strikes 12
So, what's happening with Dragon Quest 12? The next, long-awaited instalment in the classic RPG franchise was announced back in 2021, but we've seen absolutely nothing of the title since (and even back then, all we got was a logo). With that in mind, it's a little concerning that Square Enix is now replacing series producer Yu...
News Foamstars Introduces Chloe Noir in Upcoming Season 3 Update on PS5, PS4
Mysterious Swing
Foamstars! Remember that? Well, it's still going, and Square Enix is gearing up for the game's third seasonal update. Titled Mysterious Swing, the new season debuts on 12th April, and you can see some of the new additions in the above trailer. Top billing goes to the latest new playable character, Chloe Noir. She's all about...
News FF7 Rebirth's Platinum Trophy Bug to Be Fixed in Next PS5 Patch
Can't Stop, Won't Stop players for much longer
Square Enix has confirmed a glitch in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth blocking players from unlocking the Platinum Trophy will be addressed in the RPG's next update. Currently, a side quest called Can't Stop Won't Stop isn't registering high scores in the G-Bike arcade minigame, which is required to unlock...
News Digital Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Owners Unable to Unlock Platinum Trophy
Kweh?
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth players who picked up the game digitally and are currently working towards unlocking the game's Platinum Trophy might want to rein in their chocobos, as the game's most recent patch introduced an issue preventing it from popping. According to Kotaku, an issue introduced in the recent 1.020 patch broke one of the...
News Nobuo Uematsu Tentatively Commits to Scoring Final Fantasy 7 Remake Trilogy's Next Theme
"It'd be my honour"
Legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu will compose the central theme for the as-yet-unnamed third game in Square Enix's Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy, tentatively committing to the job after being put on the spot by Rebirth director Tetsuya Nomura. In a conversation posted to the Square Enix Music Channel (thanks, VGC),
News PS5, PS4 Action RPG Visions of Mana Still Looks Great in New Gameplay Trailer
Combat and character classes
We're still waiting on a release date, but Visions of Mana still looks really promising in its latest gameplay trailer. It's a pretty short video — clocking in at just over a minute — but there's quite a lot of stuff on show. It's got a bit of traversal, some combo-based combat, and confirms that your party members...
News Documentary Details the Creation of PS5's Critically Acclaimed Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth
The making of a modern classic
Square Enix has started a documentary series which delves into the creation of the critically acclaimed Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. This first episode, Shaping the World, discusses how the developer reimagined the original game’s sprawling PS1 map into an enormous PS5 sandbox. It features anecdotes from directors Naoki...
News Huge Star Ocean: The Second Story R Update Makes This Fantastic Remake Even Better
Reach for the stars
Square Enix has dropped a substantial new update for Star Ocean: The Second Story R, which released for PS5 and PS4 last year. Already an incredibly well-made remake of a classic RPG, this patch adds some welcome features, such as a new difficulty level, new endgame bosses, new options for starting New Game+, and more. Here are...
News Nothing Stops the Final Fantasy Train! FF14: Dawntrail Deploys 2nd July on PS5, PS4
Dusk till dawn
It’s been a huge 12 months for Final Fantasy, and Square Enix is seemingly just getting warmed up. Following on from the reveal of Final Fantasy 16 add-on The Rising Tide earlier this weekend, the publisher has now confirmed MMO expansion Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail will deploy on 2nd July. This all follows the release of Final...
News Next Final Fantasy 16 Patch Makes Side Quests Quicker, Adds Ability Loadouts, and More
Some nice improvements
Ahead of (or maybe alongside, we're not sure) the release of its second expansion, Final Fantasy 16 will be getting a free update that includes some rather positive-sounding changes. Patch 1.30 was detailed during the developer's PAX East panel, so we've gone ahead and sorted the additions and improvements as bullet points:...
News Final Fantasy 16: The Rising Tide Expansion Releases on PS5 in April
High tide
The second expansion for Final Fantasy 16, titled The Rising Tide, now has an official launch date. It arrives on the 18th April, and costs $19.99 if you're buying it by itself. The Expansion Pass, priced at $24.99, gets you this second DLC and the previously released Echoes of the Fallen. Expectations for The Rising Tide are fairly high...
News Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's PS5 Graphics Enhanced, Here Are the Patch Notes
Materia girl
A new PS5 patch is available now for Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth which makes further improvements to the title’s presentation. Despite being critically acclaimed, many have been disappointed with the quality of the sequel’s visuals – especially in Performance Mode, which targets 60 frames-per-second. In addition to improving the...
News Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's Acclaimed CCG Queen's Blood Could Get Expanded
Considering further expansions as a possibility
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that no great RPG can be complete without a quality collectible card game, and Square Enix brought the heat with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and its exceptional Queen’s Blood. The mode has proven a welcome distraction for adventurers working their way through the...
News Timed PS5 Exclusive Final Fantasy 16 Is Almost Ready for Primetime on PC
"The PC specifications are looking to be high"
Square Enix is putting the PC version of Final Fantasy 16 through its paces, as it completes the final stages of optimisation for the platform. Obviously, the game launched last year as a timed PS5 exclusive to much critical acclaim, but a port to PC was always on the cards, and it sounds like the team...
Poll What Review Score Would You Give Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth?
Buster groove
The second game in Square Enix's new Final Fantasy 7 trilogy, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has been out for just over a week on PS5 — and we want to know what you make of this highly praised sequel. At the time of writing, Rebirth is one of the highest rated Final Fantasy titles ever released (according to critics), so we're super...
News Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's 'Creepy' Moogles Are Giving Players the Ick
Square Enix wades into the discourse
A series constant, Final Fantasy's Moogle is a familiar sight to many, and along with the Chocobo, serves as a mascot of sorts for the franchise. But the busted-looking Moogle we got in the recently released Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has been rejected by a particular segment of the community, who are convinced...
Clouding over
Update: The author of the original article from The Washington Post has clarified that the entire Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy is not confirmed to be completely exclusive to PlayStation. Said article was amended after we had reported on it. So, er... That's the end of that, we suppose. Original Story: The Final Fantasy 7 Remake...