Square Enix Goes West, Shops For European Developer

European fans of Square Enix' have all the reason in the world to be happy, because their favorite Japanese publisher is finally taking major steps to expand into Europe. Which means that more of their games will be released on the old continent next year, and they are also shopping around for an experienced European developer, which will be creating more "Western" games for the European and American markets.

In an interview with MCV from a few days ago, Square Enix president and CEO John Yamamoto said that his company is betting on Europe becoming a bigger market than Japan, at least as long as they would provide more support (i.e. games) over on this part of the world. And that's exactly what they plan on doing.

"We have many more titles that we have never released in Europe, and every producer in Square Enix is keen to release all of these titles into the European market", he told MCV. "We have been making titles exclusively for one format for a long time but now we have titles for all formats."

Aside from the sure-winner Final Fantasy XII, set to debut in Europe in early 2007, Yamamoto promised that Square Enix will release over a dozen titles next year, many of which have so far far been exclusive to Japan. QJ.net also compiled a list of Japan-only titles, which includes games such as Final Fantasy II, III, IV, V and Final Fantasy VII International, the Romancing SaGa and Front Mission series, Seiken Densetsu 3, Bahamut Lagoon, plus many more. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII on PSP and (hopefully) Dragon Quest Swords on Wii are also expected to be released in 2007.

The news follows shortly after Square Enix raised its fiscal forecasts one week ago, due in part to higher than expected licensing income for the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children CG movie in Western territories. If it's good news for Square, it'll be good news for us next year!

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)