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Major Japanese software companies Square Co. Ltd. and Enix Co. have announced today of their decision to merge Companies on April 1st of 2003. The new comapny name has been announced as "Square Enix".

Square will be desolving and merging into Enix, with Enix trading 0.81 stock to each Square stock. Enix CEO Fukushima and associates will invest approximately 30% to the new company's capital, with Square's top shareholder Masashi Miyamoto leading behind at 18 % and Square's second top shareholder SCE at 8%.

Development structures for both companies are not scheduled to be changed at the current time, and no employees are planned to be laid off due to the merge (Current number of employees: Square 891, Enix 140.). Software developments announced by both companies prior to the merge decision will be developed as scheduled.

It is still not clear what kind of new software will be produced with the merger of Square and Enix. However, No combined Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest(Warrior) title is currently planned for development since both series have distinct differences to each other.

More details on the corporate strategies for the new company will be revealed at the analysts meeting on 11/29 in Tokyo.

(Reuters, Quoted) -- "TOKYO, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Japanese game software makers Enix Corp 9684.T , known for its blockbuster "Dragon Quest" series, and Square Co Ltd 9620.T , maker of "Final Fantasy", said on Tuesday they would merge to help fight off intense competition.

Enix and Square said the deal would be worth about 89 billion yen ($727 million) based on Enix's pre-announcement share price.

The pact comes as Japanese video game software makers are facing rising development costs to create games for advanced systems such as Sony Corp's 6758.T PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Corp's MSFT.O Xbox in a heavily saturated market.

"We're going on the offensive with this merger. This will make our strengths complement each other," said Square President Yoichi Wada, who will become president of the new firm.

Wada told reporters that Square had a leading position in the online game market as well as strong name recognition in Europe and North America, while Enix had been successfully operating network games for personal computers in Asia.

The stock market gave the deal a high score, but analysts had mixed views. Enix shares, which stood at 1,821 yen by midday, shot up by their daily limit of 300 yen or 16.0 percent to 2,175 yen, while Square shares rose 6.42 percent to close at 2,005 yen.

"The merger is seen as a positive move for both companies as it will provide ample funds to cash-strapped Square while helping to smooth wide earnings swings at Enix, which depends solely on Dragon Quest sales," said Takeshi Tajima, analyst at BNP Paribas.

STABLE EARNINGS

Enix is known for stable earnings. It has never posted a loss since it became a listed company in 1991 and its cash reserves stood at 38 billion yen ($311 million) as of September.

But Takashi Oya, at Deutsche Securities, described the deal as a "virtual" merger and expressed doubts about the benefits.

"Enix outsources game development and has few in-house creators, while Square does everything by itself. The combination of the two provides no negative factors but would bring little in the way of operational synergies," he said.

Under the deal, one Square share will be exchanged for 0.81 share in Enix, which will be the surviving entity. Enix will issue 48.76 million new shares to swap for shares in Square.

Deutsche's Oya said the deal would create a company with a sizable market capitalisation, making it more attractive to investors. The combined companies have a market capitalisation of about 223 billion yen ($1.8 billion) at Mond

I'm ashamed to say i did not get a single one of these references... can someone explain them?

Gun shops: Gun shops serve the same purpose in survival horror games like Resident Evil that they do in zombie movies. They're your armory. Your stronghold. The place that gives you what you need to kick ass and fight back.

Windows: In survival horror games, especially Resident Evil, things have a habit of crashing through windows to attack you. Zombies, dogs, lizards-beasts, and even bosses all crash through windows large and small. It scared the crap out of people in the first couple of games, but after awhile it just became a really dumb survival horror cliche.

Sexy legs: In Silent Hill, there are several different creatures that roam around in the dark that have long, sexy female legs. Above the waist, they're never quite as pretty, and they're all homocidal, sadistic freaks that look like something out of an H.P. Lovecraft novel. Some examples include the "Bobblehead" (psychotic nurse with no face, here's a better picture) and the Four-Legged Mannequin.

Pretty Little Pack Mule: In Resident Evil Zero, there are two characters, one of which is a cute little medic named Rebecca from the local S.T.A.R.S. paramilitary force (the game's good guys). Because the other character is an escaped convict that does some pretty wicked damage with his pistol and she can hold more healing items than he can, most people eschew the the "manipulate two different characters independently at the same time" gameplay that the game wants to force on them and just use the convict as an attacker and Rebecca as a pack mule to hold healing items for him. This new gameplay that was invented by the fans has led to lots of jokes about pack mules and even some fan art of Rebecca drawn as a mule with a sack strapped to her back.

And don't be ashamed that you missed the references. The survival horror genre is nearly devoid of gameplay and I really have no tolerance for it. I've just read way too many gaming magazines over the years and I usually end up reading the survival horror reviews when I get bored.

I'm ashamed to say i did not get a single one of these references... can someone explain them?

Gun shops: Gun shops serve the same purpose in survival horror games like Resident Evil that they do in zombie movies. They're your armory. Your stronghold. The place that gives you what you need to kick ass and fight back.

Windows: In survival horror games, especially Resident Evil, things have a habit of crashing through windows to attack you. Zombies, dogs, lizards-beasts, and even bosses all crash through windows large and small. It scared the crap out of people in the first couple of games, but after awhile it just became a really dumb survival horror cliche.

Sexy legs: In Silent Hill, there are several different creatures that roam around in the dark that have long, sexy female legs. Above the waist, they're never quite as pretty, and they're all homocidal, sadistic freaks that look like something out of an H.P. Lovecraft novel. Some examples include the "Bobblehead" (psychotic nurse with no face, here's a better picture) and the Four-Legged Mannequin.

Pretty Little Pack Mule: In Resident Evil Zero, there are two characters, one of which is a cute little medic named Rebecca from the local S.T.A.R.S. paramilitary force (the game's good guys). Because the other character is an escaped convict that does some pretty wicked damage with his pistol and she can hold more healing items than he can, most people eschew the the "manipulate two different characters independently at the same time" gameplay that the game wants to force on them and just use the convict as an attacker and Rebecca as a pack mule to hold healing items for him. This new gameplay that was invented by the fans has led to lots of jokes about pack mules and even some fan art of Rebecca drawn as a mule with a sack strapped to her back.

And don't be ashamed that you missed the references. The survival horror genre is nearly devoid of gameplay and I really have no tolerance for it. I've just read way too many gaming magazines over the years and I usually end up reading the survival horror reviews when I get bored.

I'm ashamed to say i did not get a single one of these references... can someone explain them?

Gun shops: Gun shops serve the same purpose in survival horror games like Resident Evil that they do in zombie movies. They're your armory. Your stronghold. The place that gives you what you need to kick ass and fight back.

Windows: In survival horror games, especially Resident Evil, things have a habit of crashing through windows to attack you. Zombies, dogs, lizards-beasts, and even bosses all crash through windows large and small. It scared the crap out of people in the first couple of games, but after awhile it just became a really dumb survival horror cliche.

Sexy legs: In Silent Hill, there are several different creatures that roam around in the dark that have long, sexy female legs. Above the waist, they're never quite as pretty, and they're all homocidal, sadistic freaks that look like something out of an H.P. Lovecraft novel. Some examples include the "Bobblehead" (psychotic nurse with no face, here's a better picture) and the Four-Legged Mannequin.

Pretty Little Pack Mule: In Resident Evil Zero, there are two characters, one of which is a cute little medic named Rebecca from the local S.T.A.R.S. paramilitary force (the game's good guys). Because the other character is an escaped convict that does some pretty wicked damage with his pistol and she can hold more healing items than he can, most people eschew the the "manipulate two different characters independently at the same time" gameplay that the game wants to force on them and just use the convict as an attacker and Rebecca as a pack mule to hold healing items for him. This new gameplay that was invented by the fans has led to lots of jokes about pack mules and even some fan art of Rebecca drawn as a mule with a sack strapped to her back.

And don't be ashamed that you missed the references. The survival horror genre is nearly devoid of gameplay and I really have no tolerance for it. I've just read way too many gaming magazines over the years and I usually end up reading the survival horror reviews when I get bored.

Shut the hell up.

Now that THAT is out of my system, I will note that Dave Mirra's BMX (and its sequels) have been very popular and pretty well-liked games. I offer this so that interested people can pop on over and get an idea of how gaming sites reviewed the last Acclaim BMX title (Dave Mirra 2), of which this is the followup, in fact if not in name (It was originally going to have Dave's name on it but he pulled out, probably at the advice of his agent/PR people).

In terms of other games that Acclaim has put out that have garnered, well, "acclaim," we have Turok (at least the original), Aggressive Inline (on my to-buy list), NBA Jam (a Genesis classic), Quarterback Club (not my cup of tea but I had a lot of friends back in the day who liked it) and many other games over the years.

In short, people who bag on games before they've played them are idiots. For myself, I'm not sure if I'm going to pick up BMX XXX simply because I have little interest in the sport and don't pick up every extreme sports title (I loved SSX Tricky and Aggressive Inline has just about won me over with the testimonials and great press). You can be assured, however, that if I do get it (depending on the gameplay and reviews of such) I will pick up the uncensored version so that I can presumably enjoy a solid extreme sports game that alost happens to include hot naked chicks...it's hard to understand any [male] gamer having any trouble with the concept.

I will also offer my hearty congratulations to Acclaim for all the buzz they've been generating lately. Between the gravestone silliness, the "name your kid Turok for big prizes" crap and now the nekkid bike-riding, they are definitely kicking ass in marketing.

The X-box is nothing more than a port system. Lack of original, exclusive games that people want, coupled with it's PC-lite interface make it a handy attraction to Edios and Activision and others looking to make a quik few bucks by porting some of their PC/PS2 titles.

This is a last ditch effort to boost sales in third markets while ignoring the total lack of sales in Japan, and the poor sales here in America. After E3 when Sony announces the Playstation 2's price drop, Microsoft will either follow suit (only a few months after launch for a price drop sure would piss off a number of folks) or suffer the consiquences of being $50-$100+ above the cost of the PS2 and Nintendo's Gamecube. Wither and die, shitty port box. ;)

oops I was wrong, Sony has indeed releassed a release date for PS2 Everquest of sometime in 2003. PlanetPS2 and gamespot both have new articles on it. The game will be all new for the system. However their ethernet card is still being released in August so I conclude that FFXI will still be the first MMORPG for the system.

Before I answer the questions first this topic seems to be based upon rumors alone. Sony hasn't announced a release date for EverQuest on PS2 (eventhough it's likely that they will at some time). It's more likely that FFXI will be the first MMORPG tobe released on PS2. Also it's been confirmed that the planned relase date for the ethernet card(ie. online network) is August. PlanetPS2 has the full story.

1) How will it deal with the lack of keyboard? Communicating (and thus forming parties) will be more difficult
Answer) they'll likely sell a keyboard for it
2) Will the lack of hard drive effect anything? It seems that the game will be un-patchable and unable to work with expansion packs
Answer) You should remember that PS2 is a console not a PC. Standalone games are typically released for consoles. Thus if the first release of a game is fairly succesful a sequal can be expected. However, if Sony did want to release downloadable expansion packs their hard drive would be required. A hard drive has been announced, but no release date is planned thus far. The prob with releasing a hard drive is addons are notorious downfalls for systems (think SegaCD, 32X, etc.). Typically a small percent of gamers purchase the addons therefore for a game to rely on an addon that is not included with the system would be very risky.

I also saw this article at PlanetPS2 Why would they want it to be PC compatible? They're releasing Linux for the system in May, turning it into a computer basically. The main reason for putting in the new chips will be price of course. Then they can make more profit on the system depending upon the chips cost. Possibly a price drop in the systems near future?

that is my interest in Linux for Playstation 2. I'm a comp sci major and I mostly use linux. I have an old PC (486) that is just getting me by but I need to goto the lab whenever I need to get something done that requirs speed. Everyone tells me I should upgrade to a new PC. But, being a poor college student I don't have the money to buy one. However, I do have a Playstation 2 (of course I have the money for game systems we all have priorities ;)) I could install Linux on it an viola! a brand new programming, paper typing, E-mailing, and web surfing computer is born. =)

I saw the news at PlanetPS2 that Sony will be releasing Linux for Playstation2, that sounds like a great idea. Here's a link if you wanto know What is Linux for PS2? I can use Playstation2 Linux to replace my old PC now instead of upgrading to a new one. If I can get AbiWord to work on it and find a printer that works with it I can write all my papers on it! Imagine the look on my roomate's face when I bring my Playstation2 up with amonitor and start working on a paper. :-o

I saw this news reported at The Madman's Cafe and Magic Box, where it was described as an arcade board, based on the Game Cube architecture. I don't really know where the poster got the idea that it is "targeted towards new game consoles". The Madman's Cafe article has links to the (Japanese) press releases from Sega, Namco and Nintendo.