Square

Square Co., Ltd., also known under its international brand name SquareSoft, was a Japanese video game developer and publisher. It was founded in 1986 by Masafumi Miyamoto, who spun off the computer game software division of Den-Yu-Sha, a power line construction company owned by his father. Among its early employees were designers Hironobu Sakaguchi, Hiromichi Tanaka, Akitoshi Kawazu, Koichi Ishii, artist Kazuko Shibuya, programmer Nasir Gebelli, and composer Nobuo Uematsu. Initially focusing on action games, the team saw popular success with the role-playing video game Final Fantasy in 1987, which would lead to the franchise of the same name being one of its flagship franchises. Later notable staff included directors Yoshinori Kitase and Takashi Tokita, designer and writer Yasumi Matsuno, artists Tetsuya Nomura and Yusuke Naora, and composers Yoko Shimomura and Masashi Hamauzu.

Initially developing for PCs, then exclusively for Nintendo systems, Square cut ties with Nintendo in the 1990s to develop for Sony Computer Entertainment's upcoming console PlayStation. Their first major project for the console, Final Fantasy VII, was a worldwide critical and commercial success and was credited with boosting the popularity of role-playing video games and the PlayStation outside Japan. Alongside the Final Fantasy series, the company developed and published several other notable series, including SaGa, Mana, Front Mission, Chrono and Kingdom Hearts. Over the years, many staff left to found studios such as the still active Monolith Soft and Mistwalker, and the now defunct Sacnoth and AlphaDream.