News
Luminous Productions Merges with Square Enix
posted on by Adriana Hazra
The announcement states that the merger is "part of the Company's efforts to further bolster the competitive prowess of the Group's development studios, a goal set forth under its current medium-term business strategy." Square Enix Holdings stated that the merger between its two subsidiaries will leverage the "wealth of intellectual property" at Square Enix and the "AAA title development capabilities" at Luminous as well as its "technical expertise in areas such as game engine development."
Square Enix established the Luminous Productions studio in March 2018. Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata headed the studio, and many of the other staff members who worked on Final Fantasy XV had joined on its establishment. The studio reported an extraordinary loss for the six-month period ending on September 30, 2018, amounting to 3.733 billion yen (about US$33 million). The company had stated that the reason for the loss was the decision to focus on "large-scale, high-quality AAA game titles," which it said best leverages Luminous Production's strengths.
Tabata resigned from both Square Enix and Luminous Productions in October 2018, then established the company JP Games, Inc. Luminous Productions appointed Takeshi Aramaki as the new studio head. Aramaki formerly worked as the vice president of development at Luminous Productions. He worked as the lead programmer for Final Fantasy XV and was also involved with the development of the game's PC version.
Final Fantasy XV went on sale worldwide for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2016. The game received a Royal Edition for the PS4 and Xbox One in March 2018. The new release includes the previously released Season Pass DLC, as well as other features. The Windows Edition also launched in March 2018.
The studio launched the story-led, action/adventure game Forspoken for PlayStation 5 and PC on January 24.
