Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd.

Who owns Square Enix?
Square Enix Holdings is publicly owned, with shares listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange under ticker 9684. No single party controls it; founder Yasuhiro Fukushima is the largest individual shareholder but does not run the company.

Is Square Enix a public company?
Yes. Square Enix Holdings trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market under the code 9684, and its shares are available to public investors.

When did Square and Enix merge?
The two companies merged on April 1, 2003, forming Square Enix. The merger combined Square's Final Fantasy with Enix's Dragon Quest into a single publisher.

Who is the president of Square Enix?
Takashi Kiryu has served as president and representative director since June 2023, succeeding Yosuke Matsuda.

What is Square Enix's annual revenue?
For the fiscal year ended March 2026, the company reported net sales of 297.7 billion yen and operating income of 54.7 billion yen.

Does Square Enix own Tomb Raider?
No. Square Enix sold its western studios, including the Tomb Raider rights held through Crystal Dynamics, to Embracer Group in 2022.

The holding company was created on April 1, 2003, when Square Co. and Enix Corporation merged to end a rivalry that had defined Japanese role-playing games for two decades. Square brought Final Fantasy, and Enix brought Dragon Quest; the combination created Japan's largest RPG publisher overnight.

Enix was the older of the two. Yasuhiro Fukushima founded its predecessor in 1975 and turned it into a game publisher in the 1980s, launching Dragon Quest in 1986 with designer Yuji Horii and manga artist Akira Toriyama. Square, founded in 1986 by Masafumi Miyamoto, survived on the strength of Hironobu Sakaguchi's Final Fantasy, which became a global franchise on the PlayStation.

The merged company spent its first decade expanding. It acquired the arcade operator Taito in 2005, gaining Space Invaders and a network of Japanese game centers, and bought British publisher Eidos Interactive in 2009 for about 84 million pounds, adding Tomb Raider, Hitman, Deus Ex, and the studios behind them.

The 2010s brought both success and strain. Final Fantasy XIV, relaunched in 2013 after a failed debut, became one of the world's most successful subscription MMOs and a reliable revenue engine. Big-budget titles such as Final Fantasy XV performed unevenly, and the western publishing operation produced mixed results.

A strategic reset followed under President Takashi Kiryu, who took over in June 2023. The company sold its western studios to Embracer Group in 2022 for $300 million, refocusing on Japanese development. It released Final Fantasy XVI in 2023, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth in 2024, and a run of HD-2D remakes including Dragon Quest III in late 2024 and Dragon Quest I & II in 2025. A medium-term business plan covering fiscal 2025 through 2027 emphasizes fewer, larger releases and stronger back catalog monetization.

The company reports environmental and social measures through its annual reporting, including efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of its Tokyo operations and its amusement facilities. These are self-reported rather than certified to a third-party standard.

Its social initiatives are concentrated in the game industry, including support for accessibility in its titles and participation in industry programs. It does not hold third-party certifications such as B Corp status.

Square Enix drew sustained criticism in the early 2020s for its embrace of NFTs and blockchain gaming, a strategy championed by former President Matsuda that fans and parts of the industry rejected. The company has since de-emphasized that direction under Kiryu.

The 2022 sale of its western studios to Embracer for $300 million was later criticized when Embracer's financial troubles left some of those assets in uncertainty. The company has also faced recurring complaints about the condition of certain remastered releases and about its pricing and monetization on mobile titles.

The failure and costly relaunch of the original Final Fantasy XIV in 2010 remains a cautionary case in the industry, though its recovery is now cited as a model of rebuilding a flagship product.