the studio closes its doors, but does not di

The critical and commercial failure of Forspoken got the better of the Luminous Productions studio, which will therefore close its doors. An announcement made by Square Enix in a terse (and fairly expeditious) press release posted on its official website. We learn, however, that this closure takes the form of an absortion on the part of Square Enix, which is justified by wishing to strengthen its internal teams. A facade message that obviously hides a much more dramatic reality, the studio having been in turmoil since the departure of its founder Hajime Tabata in 2018 after disputes with Square Enix over the development of Forspoken. The man had indeed resigned from his post, leaving with some of the talents, thus leaving the Forspoken game handicapped from his thinking heads.

SQUARE ENIX HOLDINGS CO., LTD. (headquarters in Shinjuku, Tokyo; Chairman and Representative Director Yosuke Matsuda; hereinafter the “Company”) announces that it will merge its wholly owned subsidiary Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. with its wholly owned subsidiary SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. from Monday, May 1, 2023.

This merger is part of the Company’s efforts to further strengthen the competitive advantages of the Group’s development studios, an objective defined in the context of its current medium-term commercial strategy. SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. has developed many AAA high-definition (HD) games and has a wealth of intellectual property (IP) and content. Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. is equipped with not only AAA title development capabilities, but also technical expertise in areas such as game engine development. The merger of the two entities will further strengthen the Group’s ability to develop HD games.

The management of Luminous Productions is also in line with the comments made by Square Enix, confirming that the team will not be dissolved within Square Enix, but that it will continue to create new games within the internal department. .