Square Enix registers new trademarks; Front Mission lives Square Enix has registered the name Monster Battle Road with the United States patent office; a clear reference to a Dragon Quest VIII minigame of the same name. It is likely that this title will be a US port of the Japanese Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker. More interestingly, the subtitle "Scars of the War" has been published for opposition, which means as long as no one else sues for property of a common phrase, Front Mission 5 may actually get a stateside release. RPGamer
Final Fantasy III DS "e-mail" feature revealed Long rumored to take advantage of the WiFi capabilities of the DS, Final Fantasy III is now set to include an "e-mail" feature. "Players will be able to send letters to their friends who also own copies of the game, and they'll be able to reply back. Doing this will also trigger special events that take place within the game." Woopidy-fucking-doo. Club Skill
Rumor: Dragon Quest IX Coming to the Wii Go Nintendo brought up a rumor today: "The buzz going around is that in the newest issue of EGM to hit magazine stands, a staff writer by the name of Quarterman states that Dragon Quest IX will be a Wii exclusive." If this turns out to be true, Nintendo's Wii might have a bigger advantage than originally thought. What do you guys make of this? Go Nintendo
Madness continues: Final Fantasy III DS on the way Clearly not content with one demonic pact, Square Enix has joined forces with Nintendo to create a "Final Fantasy III Crystal Edition" bundle featuring a very special Nintendo DS Lite decorated with Final Fantasy III character artwork. However, this special edition DS is releasing in limited units, and only in Japan, so order yours today for a mere 22,780 yen ($198 USD). Or you will die. Final Fantasy III releases in Japan August 24th. Here's a picture
Ultimate Hits a hit Five hundred thousand. That is the number of copies that Square Enix's Ultimate Hits budget series has sold since its inception in September 2005. Since then, it has been a remarkable tool for the company to curb the high prices associated with the sales of used titles and personally pocket the popularity of their classics. To accompany this tremendous success, Square Enix will be releasing no fewer than sixteen more titles into the Ultimate Hits line on July 20, including Valkyrie Profile and Final Fantasy Tactics. Are you listening, Konami? I want my Suikoden II. Full List
FFXI succession a vicious rumor There have been some very interesting reports posted on several popular gaming websites recently that appear to detail what has been called a "Final Fantasy XI successor": a new MMORPG to inspire ridiculous Red Mage cosplay. Japanse Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) credited production to Hiromichi Tanaka, whose was responsible for the original FFXI, and declared it would release on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and upcoming Windows Vista platforms. But Nikkei, it seems, is not the ultimate source for all things Final Fantasy. Square Enix issued a press release today stating, "the Company did not make such an announcement and has not made any decisions resembling those detailed in the media report." Instead, it is, "developing an online title for next-generation platforms [...] as a completely new MMORPG". Sorry, kids. Time to put the virtual gil away. Press Release
More trademarks; place your bets Business continues and Square Enix has registered no less than three new trademarks for our speculation. "Tsukkomi stick" and "Tsukkomi Browser" have both been registered with the Japanese patent office, in addition to "Monotone", which has also received U.S. registration. The former two could be cell phone titles, but "Monotone" leaves much to the imagination. Rahul insists it is a "film noir action RPG for the Xbox 360". Honestly, anything is possible. GameFront
IGN not weeping for Dirge of Cerberus Gaming website IGN.com recently received a domesticated preview copy of Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and found that Square Enix has decided to make improvements to the title for its August U.S. launch. Will these be enough to drag the game out of its insessant poor reviews? Are we all out another coaster? The results may (slightly) shock you! Full Article
Final Fantasy on AOL Radio: It's Back After a long hiatus, Square Enix and AOL Radio have announced the return of Final Fantasy to the ears of AOL mongers everywhere. Daishiro Okada, Chief Operating Officer of Square Enix, was very excited: "We feel so fortunate to have such a loyal following and want to give a huge 'thank you' for their efforts to bring back FINAL FANTASY radio," he said on Monday. Apparently, someone had to be listening. AOL Music
Square Enix sweeps Playstation Awards Evil overlord and Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi presided over the tenth annual Playstation Awards yesterday, where Final Fantasy XII received the Double Platinum Award for breaking the two million sales mark since its release in March. Meanwhile, Kingdom Hearts II was graced with the Platinum Award and Dirge of Cerberus came away with a Gold Award alongside Namco's Tales of the Abyss and Banpresto's wonderfully named Daiji Super Robot Taisen Alpha: Shuuen no Ginga he. It looks like Squeenix is on a roll. A Picture
Quarter financial results: Squeenix in the green The results are in for the first quarter of the current fiscal year and Square Enix has turned a profit of 888 million yen ($7.60 million USD) from 37.20 billion yen ($318.21 million USD) of sales. This constitutes a tripling of sales and no less than sixteen times the same quarter's profits last year. More specifically, titles such as Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria and Dragon Quest VIII selling in Japan and Europe contributed to the 363 million yen ($3.11 million USD) profit of the Square Enix game division, while the official Final Fantasy XII strategy guide also did its part by increasing the profits of the publishing division more than one hundred percent. A new Final Fantasy XI expansion (along with original title's XBox release) helped boost online sales sixty percent. The only loser was Square Enix's subsidiary Taito, whose acquisition you may recall to have been just under a year ago; it has since suffered an operating loss of 663 million yen ($5.67 million USD). No, there is nothing clever to say. Merely weep at the loss of money.