Square Enix ramps up "aggressive" western growth plans

Square Enix's president and CEO John Yamamoto has told GamesIndustry.biz that the company is committed to an aggressive growth plan outside of its native Japanese market.

The publisher – best known for the epic Final Fantasy RPG series – has recently signed its first western development deal with Gas Powered Games, and is also establishing a new in-house development studio in Los Angeles.

"The strategic partnership with Gas Powered Games is one of the first steps Square Enix is taking towards its goal of increasing western development efforts aimed for global markets," said Yamamoto.

"Although we have no concrete plans to speak of at this time, we are committed to taking an aggressive approach to expansion in North America and Europe, and we are not ruling out additional partnerships or the possibility of acquisitions, should they fit into our growth model."

Although well known for a focus on the role-playing games market, the recent Gas Powered Games deal will see the company publish real-time strategy sequel Supreme Commander 2.

The publisher will remain committed to the RPG market, said Yamamoto, but the quality of a title is more important than the genre.

"As for the future, we evaluate partnerships based on the quality of the project, much more so than the genre, so it’s always possible that we’ll find a non-RPG game that we really want to collaborate on.

"That said, RPGs will remain our main focus," he admitted.

Job postings on the company's website reveal that Square Enix "is building a studio from the ground up" in Los Angeles, to work on an initial action-orientated original IP.

The studio is seeking software engineers, QA testers and marketing execs, with experience working on Wii and Xbox 360 projects.

Earlier this year at E3, Square Enix revealed plans to bring the latest Final Fantasy game to the Xbox 360, in a bid to reach a wider global audience.