Enix

• 1. The Game Hobby Contest

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  Enix began not as a video game company but as a tabloid publisher. Yasuhiro Fukushima founded it on the 22nd of September 1975 under the name Eidansha Boshu Service Center, focused on real estate advertising. When an attempt to expand into a nationwide real estate chain failed, Fukushima pivoted entirely. He organized a competition called the "Enix Game Hobby Program Contest," advertising in computer and manga magazines and offering a prize of one million yen, roughly ten thousand US dollars, for a publishable game prototype.

  The contest's results determined the company's entire future. Among the winners was Yuji Horii, then a writer for Weekly Shonen Jump, who submitted a sports game called Love Match Tennis. Designer Koichi Nakamura won with a puzzle game called Door Door. A self-trained programmer named Kazuro Morita submitted Morita's Battlefield. These three winners became early collaborators whose work shaped the direction of the entire company. Morita later used his royalties to establish the developer Random House and created the Morita's Shogi series.

• 2. Dragon Quest's Unlikely Origins

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  Horii and Nakamura's collaboration deepened when they worked together on an adventure game called The Portopia Serial Murder Case in 1983, with Nakamura's company Chunsoft. During discussions about porting that game to the Famicom, the two decided to develop a role-playing video game instead. That decision, made in the context of a simple port conversation, produced Dragon Quest.

  Development began in 1985. Horii and Nakamura served as designers. Composer Koichi Sugiyama wrote the score. Dragon Ball artist Akira Toriyama joined for the art design. The game launched in 1986 for the Family Computer and, after initially slow sales, became a critical and commercial success, selling over one million copies in Japan. Chunsoft went on to develop the next five entries in the Dragon Quest series. By 1988, Enix had already begun selling Dragon Quest-themed merchandise, starting with character statues and toys, then expanding to board and card games the following year. Horii also created Armor Project, a separate company dedicated to overseeing Dragon Quest production, describing the relationship to Enix as similar to that between an editor and an artist.

• 3. A Publishing Empire Grows

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  Manga publishing became Enix's second major business line between 1988 and 1991. The company launched the Gangan Comics imprint family, beginning with Monthly Shonen Gangan in March 1991. The rationale was straightforward: relying entirely on Dragon Quest for income was a financial risk the company's leadership wanted to reduce. Several other imprints followed, including Monthly G-Fantasy and Monthly Shonen Gag-OU, each targeting different genres.

  In February 1991, Enix registered with the Japan Securities Dealers Association to offer shares for public purchase, formalizing its status as a significant company in Japanese media. By August 1999, it earned a listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's first section, reserved for the exchange's largest companies. Critic Tsuyoshi Ito later credited Gangan Comics with helping manga reach a wider cross-demographic audience by blending shonen and shojo styles. Editor Yoshihiro Hosaka credited Enix more broadly with introducing fantasy into the wider mainstream market and pioneering publisher investment in anime adaptations.

• 4. Third-Party Studios and Rivals

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  ActRaiser, published in 1990 for the Super Famicom, was Enix's first third-party console title outside the Dragon Quest line. It came from Quintet, an independent developer made up of former Nihon Falcom staff. Quintet's own staff described their company in 1997 as a "subcontractor" for Enix. The relationship lasted across all of Quintet's Super Famicom releases.

  Enix was also initially pitched on Tales of Phantasia, but passed. The game was eventually published by Namco in 1995. Former members of the Tales of Phantasia team split from Wolf Team to form tri-Ace, and tri-Ace brought Star Ocean to Enix in 1996. That relationship produced three further Star Ocean titles and the Norse mythology-inspired RPG Valkyrie Profile in 1999. Enix also published two Western titles during this period: Riven in 1998 and Tomb Raider III in 1999. Deutsche Securities analyst Takashi Oya noted that Enix, unlike Square, outsourced most game development and maintained few in-house creators.

• 5. Gangan's Crisis and Fullmetal Alchemist

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  The manga division's troubles arrived in the early 2000s. Several editors, citing dissatisfaction with Enix's focus on Dragon Quest media and the shonen demographic, a lack of creative freedom, and rising tensions with authors, decided to leave. Editor Yoshihiro Hosaka and a group of Gangan associates founded Mag Garden in 2001, launching the Monthly Comic Blade magazine as a direct market rival.

  Mag Garden's departure triggered both a mass exit of creatives and legal battles over manga copyright ownership. Those disputes were resolved in 2003 when Enix agreed to partially invest in Mag Garden. The division's difficulties were also eased by one title: Fullmetal Alchemist, which proved highly popular and stabilized the imprint's position. Enix's game side suffered separately during this period, with financial losses from the delayed releases of Dragon Quest VII in 2000 and Dragon Quest Monsters 2 in 2001.

• 6. The Square Merger

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  In 2001, Enix formally expressed interest in merging with either Square or Namco, citing the rising cost of game development. Talks with Square began but were halted when Square suffered financially after the 2001 feature film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within failed commercially. The merger discussions restarted following the commercial success of Final Fantasy X in 2001 and Kingdom Hearts in 2002.

  Square's then-CEO Yoichi Wada described the planned union as a merger of two companies "at their height." Resistance came from Square's founder Masafumi Miyamoto, who would hold significantly fewer shares under the original terms. His objection was resolved by changing the exchange ratio to one Square share for 0.85 Enix shares. On the 1st of April 2003, Square Enix was formed, with Enix as the surviving corporate entity. Square dissolved its departments and subsidiaries into the new company. Enix's final two published titles, both released in 2003, were Star Ocean: Till the End of Time and Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart.