140-455: Code Age ( コード・エイジ , Kōdo Eiji ) is a 2005 multimedia franchise developed and published by Square Enix . It was created by Yusuke Naora and split between three projects; the manga Code Age Archives , the mobile role-playing video game Code Age Brawls , and the PlayStation 2 action role-playing game Code Age Commanders . Code Age uses a science fiction setting on
280-575: A holding company and was renamed Square Enix Holdings. At the same time, the development and publishing businesses were transferred to a spin-off company named Square Enix, sharing the same corporate leadership and offices with the holding company. The primary offices for Square Enix and Square Enix Holdings are in the Shinjuku Eastside Square Building in Shinjuku , Tokyo. Currently, focusing in different industries,
420-603: A radio frequency link while the user is moving within a telephone service area, as opposed to a fixed-location phone ( landline phone ). The radio frequency link establishes a connection to the switching systems of a mobile phone operator , which provides access to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Modern mobile telephone services use a cellular network architecture, and therefore mobile telephones are called cellphones (or "cell phones") in North America. In addition to telephony , digital mobile phones support
560-567: A strategic alliance and cooperation with Japanese and French video game companies, Bandai Namco Entertainment and Ubisoft ; it has served as the Japanese publisher of video games and crossover productions since 2009. In March 2014, following the success of Bravely Default , Square Enix said it will "go back to their roots" and focus on creating content that will appeal to their core audience. Karl Stewart, vice president of strategic marketing at Square Enix for North America and Europe, left
700-517: A "common 3D format" that would allow the entire company to develop titles without being restricted to a specific platform: this led to the creation of a game engine named Crystal Tools , which is compatible with the PlayStation 3 , the Xbox 360 , Windows -based PCs , and to some extent the Wii . It was first shown off at a tech demo shown off at E3 2005 and was later used for Final Fantasy XIII based on
840-487: A "large company". Square was started in October 1983 by Masafumi Miyamoto as a computer game software division of Den-Yu-Sha, a power line construction company owned by his father. While at the time, game development was usually conducted —by only one programmer, Miyamoto believed that it would be more efficient to have graphic designers, programmers and professional story writers working together. In September 1986,
980-715: A 30 percent premium, but Tecmo rejected the proposed takeover. Tecmo would later merge with Koei in April 2009 to form Koei Tecmo . In April 2007, Square Enix Ltd. CEO John Yamamoto also became CEO of Square Enix, Inc. In 2008–2009, Square Enix was reportedly working with Grin on a Final Fantasy spin-off codenamed Fortress . The project was allegedly canceled by Square Enix after introducing seemingly impossible milestones and without payments made, resulting in Grin declaring bankruptcy and its co-founders blaming Square Enix for being "betrayed". In February 2009, Square Enix announced
1120-400: A basic mobile phone, which is only capable of voice calling and text messaging. Feature phones and basic mobile phones tend to use a proprietary, custom-designed software and user interface . By contrast, smartphones generally use a mobile operating system that often shares common traits across devices. The critical advantage that modern cellular networks have over predecessor systems is
1260-475: A blockchain business division. After the merger in 2003, Square Enix's development department was organized into eight Square and two Enix Product Development Divisions ( 開発事業部 , kaihatsu jigyōbu ) , each focused on different groupings of games. The divisions were spread around different offices; for example, Product Development Division 5 had offices both in Osaka and Tokyo. According to Yoichi Wada,
1400-869: A business model with frequent customer interactions, noting Kickstarter as an example. In March 2013, Square Enix India opened in Mumbai; however the office was closed in April 2014 and reopened five years later. As well as Square Enix Latin America in Mexico, which was closed in 2015. A mobile studio called Smileworks was founded in Indonesia in June 2013; however it was closed in January 2015. In 2014, Square Enix Collective launched, an indie developer service provider headed by Phil Elliot. Also in 2014, Square Enix signed
1540-484: A collaboration with Bigpoint Games to create a free-to-play Cloud gaming platform that "throws players into 'limitless game worlds' directly through their web browser". The service was launched under the name CoreOnline in August 2012. Stating "limited commercial take-up", the service was cancelled on November 29, 2013. In September 2014, a cloud gaming company called Shinra Technologies (previously Project Flare )
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#17327836380821680-409: A contrast to his work on Final Fantasy and SaGa ; a world which could play host to multiple stories. He created the concept prior to the 2003 merger of Square with Enix to become Square Enix. Following the merger, Code Age was adopted into Square Enix's plan for "polymorphic content", a marketing and sales strategy to "[provide] well-known properties on several platforms, allowing exposure of
1820-434: A customer unit could use. A cellular network mobile phone system gets its name from dividing the service area into many small cells, each with a base station with (for example) a useful range on the order of a kilometer (mile). These systems have dozens or hundreds of possible channels allocated to them. When a subscriber is using a given channel for a telephone connection, that frequency is unavailable for other customers in
1960-418: A few sets of radio channels (frequencies). Once these few channels were in use by customers, no further customers could be served until another user vacated a channel. It would be impractical to give every customer a unique channel since there would not be enough bandwidth allocated to the mobile service. As well, technical limitations such as antenna efficiency and receiver design limit the range of frequencies
2100-523: A mobile device, such as a smartphone. The term "app" is a shortening of the term "software application". A common data application on mobile phones is Short Message Service (SMS) text messaging. The first SMS message was sent from a computer to a mobile phone in 1992 in the UK while the first person-to-person SMS from phone to phone was sent in Finland in 1993. The first mobile news service, delivered via SMS,
2240-553: A new brand for younger children gaming that same year, known as Pure Dreams. Pure Dreams' first two games, Snoopy DS: Let's Go Meet Snoopy and His Friends! and Pingu's Wonderful Carnival , were released that year. After acquiring Eidos in 2009, Square Enix combined it with its European publishing wing to create Square Enix Europe , which continues to publish Eidos franchises such as Tomb Raider (88 million sales), Deus Ex (4 million), Thief and Legacy of Kain (3.5 million). Square Enix has also served as
2380-565: A new title, Creative Business Unit. Naoki Yoshida , who was previously the head of Business Division 5, became the head of Creative Business Unit III. Creative Business Unit III was renamed Creative Studio III in May 2024. The current structure for the development and production division called Creative Business Unit is as follows: In those five divisions, most of the development is done outside of Square Enix under contracted development companies, while Creative Business Unit produces and oversee
2520-401: A number of distinguishing features. The International Telecommunication Union measures those with Internet connection, which it calls Active Mobile-Broadband subscriptions (which includes tablets, etc.). In the developed world, smartphones have now overtaken the usage of earlier mobile systems. However, in the developing world, they account for around 50% of mobile telephony . Feature phone
2660-399: A press conference prior to E3 2005. Naora and the team were concerned about releasing Commanders outside Japan as it would coincide with the release window of the PlayStation 3 . He also said that further Code Age projects would depend on public reception of Commanders and Brawls . Both Commanders and Brawls were scheduled for a 2006 release in North America, but ultimately none of
2800-501: A problem due to the design of the phone, the quality of the cellular network and compression algorithms used in long-distance calls . Audio quality can be improved using a VoIP application over WiFi . Cellphones have small speakers so that the user can use a speakerphone feature and talk to a person on the phone without holding it to their ear. The small speakers can also be used to listen to digital audio files of music or speech or watch videos with an audio component, without holding
2940-476: A prolonged span of time. Each project was abbreviated using a lettering formula; "CAA" stood for Archives , "CAB" for Brawls , and "CAC" for Commanders . The series takes place inside an "intraglobular world" ( 球内世界 , kyuunai sekai ) , a fictional hollow world similar to a Dyson sphere , with people living on its internal surface; at the sphere's center is the Central Code, a structure which resets
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#17327836380823080-729: A result of the merger, Enix was the surviving company and Square Co., Ltd. was dissolved. In July of that year, the Square Enix headquarters were moved to Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo, to help combine the two companies. To strengthen its wireless market, Square Enix acquired mobile application developer UIEvolution in March 2004, which was sold in December 2007, and the company instead founded its own Square Enix MobileStudio in January 2008 to focus on mobile products. In January 2005, Square Enix founded Square Enix China, expanding their interests in
3220-446: A series that continues to the present. Buoyed by the success of their Final Fantasy franchise, Square developed notable games and franchises such as Chrono , Mana , Kingdom Hearts (in collaboration with The Walt Disney Company ), and Super Mario RPG (under the guidance of Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto ). By late 1994 they had developed a reputation as a producer of high-quality role-playing video games. Square
3360-464: A single hand, since most thumbs cannot reach the entire screen surface; they may need to be shifted around in the hand, held in one hand and manipulated by the other, or used in place with both hands. Due to design advances, some modern smartphones with large screen sizes and "edge-to-edge" designs have compact builds that improve their ergonomics, while the shift to taller aspect ratios have resulted in phones that have larger screen sizes whilst maintaining
3500-517: A single platform. There are a huge variety of apps, including video games , music products and business tools. Up until that point, smartphone application distribution depended on third-party sources providing applications for multiple platforms, such as GetJar , Handango , Handmark , and PocketGear . Following the success of the App Store, other smartphone manufacturers launched application stores, such as Google's Android Market (later renamed to
3640-429: A small microchip called a Subscriber Identity Module or SIM card , in order to function. The SIM card is approximately the size of a small postage stamp and is usually placed underneath the battery in the rear of the unit. The SIM securely stores the service-subscriber key (IMSI) and the K i used to identify and authenticate the user of the mobile phone. The SIM card allows users to change phones by simply removing
3780-527: A statement. Square Enix Europe was hit with layoffs and Life President Ian Livingstone departed from the company in September 2013. It said with the fiscal year report in March 2013, sales of Tomb Raider (2013) and Hitman: Absolution were weak, despite critical acclaim. The North American sales force was said to be ineffective and price pressure was intense. Matsuda noted the long development time of their important games and said they need to shift to
3920-507: A strong start for a new franchise; debuting at number two in the game sales charts. It sold over 61,000 copies in Japan by the end of 2005. Ultimately RPGFan attributed the localization's cancellation on both low sales and poor reception in Japan. Julian Aiden of Hardcore Gamer noted Square Enix's ambition in attempting to launch multiple linked projects in this way despite its ultimate failure. Play Magazine ' s Nick DesBarres noted that
4060-484: A takeover deal for Eidos (formerly SCi Entertainment), the holding company for Eidos Interactive . The UK-based publisher's assets include Tomb Raider , Hitman , Deus Ex , Thief , and Legacy of Kain franchises, along with subsidiary development studios Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal and IO Interactive that developed the games. The acquisition of Eidos was completed in April 2009, and in November it
4200-471: A telephone service area, which is divided up into 'cells'. Each cell uses a different set of frequencies from neighboring cells, and will typically be covered by three towers placed at different locations. The cell towers are usually interconnected to each other and the phone network and the internet by wired connections. Due to bandwidth limitations each cell will have a maximum number of cell phones it can handle at once. The cells are therefore sized depending on
4340-652: A variety of other services , such as text messaging , multimedia messaging , email , Internet access (via LTE , 5G NR or Wi-Fi ), short-range wireless communications ( infrared , Bluetooth ), satellite access ( navigation , messaging connectivity ), business applications, payments (via NFC ), multimedia playback and streaming ( radio , television ), digital photography , and video games . Mobile phones offering only basic capabilities are known as feature phones ( slang : "dumbphones" ); mobile phones that offer greatly advanced computing capabilities are referred to as smartphones . The first handheld mobile phone
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4480-469: A very thin carbon microphone". Early predecessors of cellular phones included analog radio communications from ships and trains. The race to create truly portable telephone devices began after World War II, with developments taking place in many countries. The advances in mobile telephony have been traced in successive "generations", starting with the early zeroth-generation ( 0G ) services, such as Bell System 's Mobile Telephone Service and its successor,
4620-491: Is Enix's Fullmetal Alchemist manga series, which has been adapted into two anime television series, five movies (two animated, three live-action), and several novels and video games. Other polymorphic projects include the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII , Code Age , World of Mana , Ivalice Alliance , and Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy subseries. According to Yoichi Wada , "It's very difficult to hit
4760-441: Is a role-playing video game released for mobile phones . It released five episodes between December 15, 2005 and July 3, 2006. The game follows Lost L, a survivor transformed into an incomplete Warhead and forced to consume other Warheads to survive. Gameplay has the character going through an episodic narrative and fighting in command-based battles, with multiplayer allowing different players to fight each other. Western previews of
4900-412: Is a term typically used as a retronym to describe mobile phones which are limited in capabilities in contrast to a modern smartphone . Feature phones typically provide voice calling and text messaging functionality, in addition to basic multimedia and Internet capabilities, and other services offered by the user's wireless service provider . A feature phone has additional functions over and above
5040-456: Is also in the business of merchandise , arcade facilities , and manga publication under its Gangan Comics brand. The original Square Enix Co., Ltd. was formed in April 2003 from a merger between Square and Enix , with the latter as the surviving company. Each share of Square's common stock was exchanged for 0.85 shares of Enix's common stock. At the time, 80% of Square Enix staff were made up of former Square employees. As part of
5180-513: Is being used or not) using a technique known as multilateration to calculate the differences in time for a signal to travel from the mobile phone to each of several cell towers near the owner of the phone. The movements of a mobile phone user can be tracked by their service provider and, if desired, by law enforcement agencies and their governments. Both the SIM card and the handset can be tracked. China has proposed using this technology to track
5320-408: Is believed that the development of the engine has halted permanently. Luminous Engine was originally intended for eighth-generation consoles and unveiled at E3 2012 through a tech demo titled Agni's Philosophy . The first major console title to be developed with Luminous Engine was Final Fantasy XV ; the engine's development was done in tandem with the game, and the game's development helped
5460-546: Is headed by Jon Brooke and Lee Singleton. John Heinecke was appointed as CMO for Americas and Europe in October 2018. Baba departed the studio in early 2019, and shortly after this, Studio Istolia was closed, and Project Prelude Rune cancelled following an assessment of the project, with its staff being reassigned to different projects within the company. In 2019, Square Enix opened an Indian office again, now in Bangalore , which expanded into publishing mobile games for
5600-526: Is occurring at a time when both companies are at their height." Some shareholders expressed concerns about the merger, notably Miyamoto (the founder and largest shareholder of Square), who would find himself holding a significantly smaller percentage of the combined companies. Other criticism came from Takashi Oya of Deutsche Securities, who expressed doubts about the benefits of such a merger: "Enix outsources game development and has few in-house creators, while Square does everything by itself. The combination of
5740-591: Is standalone, but also ties into the storylines of the other Code Age projects. Recurring characters across the different media include Gene, a protagonist from Commanders ; and R, who appears in Brawls and acts as a central antagonist in Archives . Code Age Archive: Saigo ni Ochite Kita Shōjo is a manga that follows Thayne and Nico, high school friends who survive the collapse of the Arks and are forced to survive
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5880-488: The Final Fantasy franchise, begun in 1987, is the best-selling, with a total worldwide sales of over 173 million units as of March 2022. The Dragon Quest franchise, begun in 1986, is also the best-selling; it is considered one of the most popular game series in Japan and new installments regularly outsell other games at the times of their release, with a total worldwide sale of over 85 million units. More recently,
6020-854: The Kingdom Hearts series (developed in collaboration with Disney beginning in 2002) has become popular, with 36 million units shipped as of March 2022. Other popular series developed by Square Enix include the SaGa series with nearly 10 million copies sold since 1989, the Mana series with over 6 million sales since 1991, and the Chrono series with over 5 million sold since 1995. In addition to their sales numbers, many Square Enix games have been highly reviewed; 27 Square Enix games were included in Famitsu magazine's 2006 "Top 100 Games Ever", with 7 in
6160-468: The 5G NR (5G New Radio) standard. 5G can be implemented in low-band, mid-band or high-band millimeter-wave, with download speeds that can achieve gigabit-per-second (Gbit/s) range, aiming for a network latency of 1 ms. This near-real-time responsiveness and improved overall data performance are crucial for applications like online gaming , augmented and virtual reality , autonomous vehicles , IoT, and critical communication services. Smartphones have
6300-537: The Code Age franchise was released outside Japan. Brawls was shut down on September 30, 2006. Square Enix confirmed the following year that the Code Age titles would not be published by them overseas. Localization staff member Christopher "Koji" Fox, who later notably worked on Final Fantasy XIV , had completed the translation of Commanders before Square Enix cancelled its localization. Code Age Commanders sold 37,000 units in its first week of release in Japan,
6440-416: The Code Age projects, in addition to creating concept artwork. The development team for Commanders featured many of the same staff as Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles . Toshiyuki Itahana created the lead character designs for Commanders and Brawls ; he also directed Commanders , with the game being his debut as a director. The music for the two game properties was composed by Kumi Tanioka . The manga
6580-596: The Improved Mobile Telephone Service . These 0G systems were not cellular , supported a few simultaneous calls, and were very expensive. The first handheld cellular mobile phone was demonstrated by John F. Mitchell and Martin Cooper of Motorola in 1973, using a handset weighing 2 kilograms (4.4 lb). The first commercial automated cellular network ( 1G ) analog was launched in Japan by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone in 1979. This
6720-888: The Philippines . A pilot project in Bali was launched in 2011 by the International Finance Corporation and an Indonesian bank, Bank Mandiri . Mobile payments were first trialled in Finland in 1998 when two Coca-Cola vending machines in Espoo were enabled to work with SMS payments. Eventually, the idea spread and in 1999, the Philippines launched the country's first commercial mobile payments systems with mobile operators Globe and Smart . Some mobile phones can make mobile payments via direct mobile billing schemes, or through contactless payments if
6860-523: The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and Dragon Quest X on the Wii . Square Enix has also developed titles for handheld game consoles , including the Game Boy Advance , Nintendo DS , PlayStation Portable , Nintendo 3DS , and PlayStation Vita . Also, they have published games for Microsoft Windows -based personal computers and various models of mobile phones and modern smartphones. Square Enix mobile phone games became available in 2004 on
7000-709: The Vodafone network in some European countries, including Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Italy. Before its launch, Michihiro Sasaki, senior vice president of Square Enix, spoke about the PlayStation 3 , saying, "We don't want the PlayStation 3 to be the overwhelming loser, so we want to support them, but we don't want them to be the overwhelming winner either, so we can't support them too much." Square Enix continued to reiterate their devotion to multi-platform publishing in 2007, promising more support for
7140-649: The WCDMA standard. This was followed by 3.5G or 3G+ enhancements based on the high-speed packet access (HSPA) family, allowing UMTS networks to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity. 3G is able to provide mobile broadband access of several Mbit/s to smartphones and mobile modems in laptop computers. This ensures it can be applied to mobile Internet access, VoIP , video calls, and sending large e-mail messages, as well as watching videos, typically in standard-definition quality. By 2009, it had become clear that, at some point, 3G networks would be overwhelmed by
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#17327836380827280-450: The internet of things (IoT), fixed wireless access , and multimedia streaming (including music, video, radio , and television ). Deployment of fifth-generation ( 5G ) cellular networks commenced worldwide in 2019. The term "5G" was originally used in research papers and projects to denote the next major phase in mobile telecommunication standards beyond the 4G / IMT-Advanced standards. The 3GPP defines 5G as any system that adheres to
7420-599: The screen . Depending on the device's type and design, the screen fills most or nearly all of the space on a device's front surface. Many smartphone displays have an aspect ratio of 16:9 , but taller aspect ratios became more common in 2017. Screen sizes are often measured in diagonal inches or millimeters ; feature phones generally have screen sizes below 90 millimetres (3.5 in). Phones with screens larger than 130 millimetres (5.2 in) are often called " phablets ." Smartphones with screens over 115 millimetres (4.5 in) in size are commonly difficult to use with only
7560-478: The Crystals , and online games for Yahoo! Japan , such as Monster x Dragon , Sengoku Ixa , Bravely Default: Praying Brage , Star Galaxy , and Crystal Conquest . In 2013, Dragon Quest X was brought to iOS and Android in Japan using NTT DoCoMo as the release platform and Ubitus for the streaming technology. In 2014, it was also brought to 3DS in Japan using Ubitus. On May 8, 2012, Square Enix announced
7700-515: The G-cluster streaming service. With the merger of Taito businesses into Square Enix, the company gained possession of Taito's arcade infrastructure and facilities and entered the arcade market in 2005. In 2010 Taito revealed NESiCAxLive , a cloud-based system of storing games and changing them through the internet instead of acquiring physical copies. This system was added to its many arcade gaming locations. The company continues to cater to
7840-595: The GSM was used by over 5 billion people in over 220 countries. The GSM (2G) has evolved into 3G, 4G and 5G. The standardization body for GSM started at the CEPT Working Group GSM (Group Special Mobile) in 1982 under the umbrella of CEPT. In 1988, ETSI was established, and all CEPT standardization activities were transferred to ETSI. Working Group GSM became Technical Committee GSM. In 1991, it became Technical Committee SMG (Special Mobile Group) when ETSI tasked
7980-493: The Google Play Store), RIM's BlackBerry App World , or Android-related app stores like Aptoide , Cafe Bazaar , F-Droid , GetJar , and Opera Mobile Store . In February 2014, 93% of mobile developers were targeting smartphones first for mobile app development. As of 2022, the top five manufacturers worldwide were Samsung (21%), Apple (16%), Xiaomi (13%), Oppo (10%), and Vivo (9%). From 1983 to 1998, Motorola
8120-601: The Indian market in 2021. In June 2020, Square Enix donated $ 2.4 million to charities around their Western studios and offices, which were partially raised from sales of its discounted Square Enix Eidos Anthology bundle. In March 2021, Forever Entertainment, a Polish studio, was reported to be working to bring several of Square Enix's properties to modern systems. A new mobile studio called Square Enix London Mobile, working on Tomb Raider Reloaded and an unannounced title based on Avatar: The Last Airbender with Navigator Games,
8260-412: The Japanese publisher for Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft games since 2009. In May 2022, Square Enix sold several assets of Square Enix Europe $ 300 million to Embracer Group, including former Eidos Interactive franchises such as Tomb Raider , Deus Ex , Thief , Legacy of Kain and more than 50 others. Square Enix owned franchises and games include: In 2004, Square Enix began to work on
8400-489: The North American and European gaming markets where console pluralism is generally more prevalent than in Japan. Their interest in multi-platform development was made evident in 2008 when the previously PlayStation 3 -exclusive game Final Fantasy XIII was announced for release on the Xbox 360 . In 2008, Square Enix released their first game for the iPod , Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes . Square Enix made
8540-573: The People's Republic of China. In September 2005, Square Enix bought the gaming developer and publisher Taito , renowned for their arcade hits such as Space Invaders and the Bubble Bobble series; Taito's home and portable console games divisions were merged into Square Enix itself by March 2010. In August 2008, Square Enix made plans for a similar expansion by way of a friendly takeover of video game developer Tecmo by purchasing shares at
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#17327836380828680-436: The PlayStation 2 and later the personal computer. With the huge success of Final Fantasy XI , the game was ported to the Xbox 360 two years later and was the first MMORPG on the console. All versions of the game used PlayOnline , a cross-platform internet gaming platform and internet service developed by Square Enix. The platform was used as the online service for many games Square Enix developed and published throughout
8820-484: The PlayStation. A merger between Square and Enix was considered since at least 2000; the financial failure in 2001 of Square's first movie, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within , made Enix reluctant to proceed while Square was losing money. With the company facing its second year of financial losses, Square approached Sony for a capital injection, and on October 8, 2001, Sony purchased an 18.6% stake in Square. Following
8960-714: The SIM card from one mobile phone and inserting it into another mobile phone or broadband telephony device, provided that this is not prevented by a SIM lock . The first SIM card was made in 1991 by Munich smart card maker Giesecke & Devrient for the Finnish wireless network operator Radiolinja . A hybrid mobile phone can hold up to four SIM cards, with a phone having a different device identifier for each SIM Card. SIM and R-UIM cards may be mixed together to allow both GSM and CDMA networks to be accessed. From 2010 onwards, such phones became popular in emerging markets, and this
9100-421: The UK, the total number of mobile phones overtook the number of houses in 1999. Today, mobile phones are globally ubiquitous, and in almost half the world's countries, over 90% of the population owns at least one. A handheld mobile radio telephone service was envisioned in the early stages of radio engineering. In 1917, Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt filed a patent for a "pocket-size folding telephone with
9240-578: The ability to transfer cash payments by secure SMS text message. Kenya's M-PESA mobile banking service, for example, allows customers of the mobile phone operator Safaricom to hold cash balances which are recorded on their SIM cards. Cash can be deposited or withdrawn from M-PESA accounts at Safaricom retail outlets located throughout the country and can be transferred electronically from person to person and used to pay bills to companies. Branchless banking has also been successful in South Africa and
9380-550: The abnormally high traffic. Capacity was further increased when phone companies implemented digital networks. With digital, one frequency can host multiple simultaneous calls. Additionally, short-range Wi-Fi infrastructure is often used by smartphones as much as possible as it offloads traffic from cell networks on to local area networks. The common components found on all mobile phones are: Low-end mobile phones are often referred to as feature phones and offer basic telephony. Handsets with more advanced computing ability through
9520-428: The arcade audience in Japan with arcade-only titles, with game producers in 2015 stating that Square Enix has a loyal fan base that values the arcade gaming experience. In November 2019, Square Enix announced a "Ninja Tower Tokyo" theme park by its newly established Live Interactive Works division. Mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over
9660-961: The benefits of different calling plans. For example, a particular plan might provide for cheaper local calls, long-distance calls, international calls, or roaming. The mobile phone has been used in a variety of diverse contexts in society. For example: In 1998, one of the first examples of distributing and selling media content through the mobile phone was the sale of ringtones by Radiolinja in Finland. Soon afterwards, other media content appeared, such as news, video games, jokes, horoscopes, TV content and advertising. Most early content for mobile phones tended to be copies of legacy media , such as banner advertisements or TV news highlight video clips. Recently, unique content for mobile phones has been emerging, from ringtones and ringback tones to mobisodes , video content that has been produced exclusively for mobile phones. In many countries, mobile phones are used to provide mobile banking services, which may include
9800-469: The call, from detecting the presence of a handset in a service area, temporary assignment of a channel to a handset making a call, interface with the land-line side of the network to connect to other subscribers, and collection of billing information for the service. The automation systems can control the "hand off" of a customer handset moving between one cell and another so that a call in progress continues without interruption, changing channels if required. In
9940-399: The clock rate (generally given in multiples of hertz ) but also the memory hierarchy also greatly affects overall performance. Because of these problems, the performance of mobile phone CPUs is often more appropriately given by scores derived from various standardized tests to measure the real effective performance in commonly used applications. One of the main characteristics of phones is
10080-407: The committee with UMTS (3G). In addition to transmitting voice over digital signals, the 2G network introduced data services for mobile, starting with SMS text messages, then expanding to Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), and mobile internet with a theoretical maximum transfer speed of 384 kbit/s (48 kB/s). In 2001, the third-generation ( 3G ) was launched in Japan by NTT DoCoMo on
10220-543: The company is divided as the following: Five Creative Business Units for game development and production in Square Enix Co., Ltd; a dedicated publishing business unit for manga and books publishing; a digital storefront business division for their e-Store and merchandise production; their media and arts business unit for music production, concert and live performance coordination, and visual contents production (live action, animation, and CG for TV, movies, and games); and
10360-403: The company that month. In 2015, Square created a new studio known as Tokyo RPG Factory to develop what was then dubbed Project Setsuna . Around 2015, Square Enix's Western divisions began "officially working across LA and London". In January 2017, Norwegian studio Artplant purchased former Eidos franchise Project I.G.I. On February 21, 2017, the formation of a new studio Studio Istolia
10500-660: The company's 43rd annual shareholders' meeting, which is planned for June 2023, and the board meeting which will follow ahead on the 20th anniversary of the merger. Kiryu succeeded on May 18 and was seen as part of the Final Fantasy XVI launch event as one of his first appearances in public. In March 2024, Square Enix announced it would be more selective with the games it develops, resulting in numerous unannounced titles being cancelled. The company lost ¥22.1 billion (approximately $ 140 million) due to "content abandonment." On October 1, 2008, Square Enix transformed into
10640-440: The company's model for development after the success of Square's Final Fantasy VII in 1997. The team size for Final Fantasy XIII peaked at 180 artists, 30 programmers, and 36 game designers, but analysis and restructuring were done to outsource large-scale development in the future. Square Enix's primary concentration is on video gaming, and it is primarily known for its role-playing video game franchises. Of its properties,
10780-487: The company's most profitable franchise. Despite the announcement that Enix's long-time competitor Square would develop exclusively for PlayStation , Enix announced in January 1997 that it would release games for both Nintendo and Sony consoles. This caused a significant rise in stock for both Enix and Sony. By November 1999, Enix was listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange 's first section, indicating it as
10920-627: The company. In the 1980s, in a partnership with developers Chunsoft , the company began publishing the Dragon Quest series of console games. Key members of the developer's staff consisted of director Koichi Nakamura , writer Yuji Horii , artist Akira Toriyama , and composer Koichi Sugiyama , among others. The first game, Dragon Warrior , in the Famicom-based RPG series, was released in 1986 and would eventually sell 1.5 million copies in Japan, establishing Dragon Quest as
11060-435: The concept of frequency reuse allowing many simultaneous telephone conversations in a given service area. This allows efficient use of the limited radio spectrum allocated to mobile services, and lets thousands of subscribers converse at the same time within a given geographic area. Former systems would cover a service area with one or two powerful base stations with a range of up to tens of kilometers' (miles), using only
11200-481: The decade. Due to the success of their MMORPG , Square Enix began a new project called Fantasy Earth: The Ring of Dominion . GamePot, a Japanese game portal, received the license to publish Fantasy Earth in Japan, and it was released in Japan as "Fantasy Earth ZERO." In 2006, however, Square Enix dropped the Fantasy Earth Zero project and sold it to GamePot. Square Enix released Concerto Gate ,
11340-421: The demo's reception. Crystal Tools was also used for Final Fantasy Versus XIII before its re-branding as Final Fantasy XV and its shift onto next-gen platforms. Refinement of the engine continued through the development of Final Fantasy XIII-2 , and it underwent a major overhaul for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII . Since that release, no new titles have been announced using Crystal Tools, and it
11480-651: The development department was reorganized away from the Product Development Division System by March 2007 into a project-based system. Until 2013, the teams in charge of the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series were still collectively referred to as the 1st Production Department ( 第1制作部 , dai-ichi seisakubu ) . The 1st Production Department was formed from the fall 2010 combination of Square Enix's Tokyo and Osaka development studios, with Shinji Hashimoto as its corporate executive. In December 2013, Square Enix's development
11620-547: The division was spun off into an independent company led by Miyamoto, officially named Square Co., Ltd. After releasing several unsuccessful games for the Famicom , Square relocated to Ueno, Tokyo in 1987 and developed a role-playing video game titled Final Fantasy , which was inspired by Enix 's success in the genre with the 1986 Dragon Quest . Final Fantasy was a success with over 400,000 copies sold, and it became Square's leading franchise, spawning dozens of games in
11760-415: The earliest mobile phone systems by contrast, all control was done manually; the customer would search for an unoccupied channel and speak to a mobile operator to request connection of a call to a landline number or another mobile. At the termination of the call the mobile operator would manually record the billing information. Mobile phones communicate with cell towers that are placed to give coverage across
11900-496: The end of 2009. In 2014, there were more than seven billion mobile phone subscribers worldwide, a number that is expected to keep growing. Mobile phones are used for a variety of purposes, such as keeping in touch with family members, for conducting business, and in order to have access to a telephone in the event of an emergency. Some people carry more than one mobile phone for different purposes, such as for business and personal use. Multiple SIM cards may be used to take advantage of
12040-531: The ergonomics associated with smaller 16:9 displays. Liquid-crystal displays are the most common; others are IPS , LED , OLED , and AMOLED displays. Some displays are integrated with pressure-sensitive digitizers, such as those developed by Wacom and Samsung , and Apple's " 3D Touch " system. In sound, smartphones and feature phones vary little. Some audio-quality enhancing features, such as Voice over LTE and HD Voice , have appeared and are often available on newer smartphones. Sound quality can remain
12180-420: The expected usage density, and may be much smaller in cities. In that case much lower transmitter powers are used to avoid broadcasting beyond the cell. In order to handle the high traffic, multiple towers can be set up in the same area (using different frequencies). This can be done permanently or temporarily such as at special events or in disasters. Cell phone companies will bring a truck with equipment to host
12320-486: The first quarter of 2016, the top smartphone developers worldwide were Samsung , Apple and Huawei ; smartphone sales represented 78 percent of total mobile phone sales. For feature phones as of 2016 , the top-selling brands were Samsung, Nokia and Alcatel . Mobile phones are considered an important human invention as they have been one of the most widely used and sold pieces of consumer technology. The growth in popularity has been rapid in some places, for example, in
12460-702: The following quarter, released in September 2022, Matsuda said they were moving away from outright owning studios due to rising costs of development, but were looking at means to invest in studios such as joint ventures or investment opportunities. In 2022, Square Enix invested in seven business strategic cooperations in the blockchain and cloud services such as Zebedee (United States), Blocklords (Estonia), Cross The Ages (France), Blacknut (France), Animoca Brands -owned The Sandbox (Australia and Hong Kong), and Ubitus (Japan). On February 28, 2023, Square Enix Holdings announced that on May 1, Luminous Productions would reorganize and merge with Square Enix internally, citing
12600-452: The game's pre-release demo gave praised to its graphics, while a Japanese review at release praised the combat while faulting frequent server connection issues during multiplayer matches. Code Age Commanders: Tsugu Mono Tsugareru Mono is an action role-playing game released for the PlayStation 2 on October 13, 2005. Taking the role of multiple characters in the aftermath of the Reborn,
12740-457: The games were an anime spin-off. While he felt pressure from Square Enix's management due to the project's ambition, he felt greater pressure finding the right staff for each project. Each of the Code Age titles was developed or overseen by "Warhead", a development body created by Naora to manage the franchise. The "Warhead" team was notable as it was led by artists rather than traditional game developers. Naora acted as producer and supervisor for
12880-599: The growth of bandwidth-intensive applications, such as streaming media . Consequently, the industry began looking to data-optimized fourth-generation ( 4G ) technologies, with the promise of speed improvements up to tenfold over existing 3G technologies. The first publicly available LTE service was launched in Scandinavia by TeliaSonera in 2009. In the 2010s, 4G technology has found diverse applications across various sectors, showcasing its versatility in delivering high-speed wireless communication, such as mobile broadband,
13020-673: The holding company Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd., while its internally domestic video game operations were formed under the subsidiary Square Enix Co., Ltd. The group operates American, Chinese and European branches, based in Los Angeles , Beijing , Paris , Hamburg and London respectively. Several of Square Enix's franchises have sold over 10 million copies worldwide after 2020, with Final Fantasy selling 173 million, Dragon Quest selling 85 million, and Kingdom Hearts shipping 36 million. In 2005, Square Enix acquired arcade corporation Taito . In 2009, Square Enix acquired Eidos plc ,
13160-632: The influence of European companies had significantly decreased due to fierce competition from American and Asian companies, to where most technical innovation had shifted. Apple and Google, both of the United States, also came to dominate mobile phone software. The world's largest individual mobile operator by number of subscribers is China Mobile , which has over 902 million mobile phone subscribers as of June 2018 . Over 50 mobile operators have over ten million subscribers each, and over 150 mobile operators had at least one million subscribers by
13300-468: The inner surface of a hollow world similar to a Dyson sphere . The narratives revolve around an apocalyptic threat to civilization, with the protagonists gaining powers from absorbing monsters dubbed the Otellos. The concept for Code Age was created in 2002, being adopted into Square Enix's "polymorphic content" strategy of producing series across multiple platforms and media. The development team behind
13440-644: The involved nature of the Code Age project and complexities of releasing all three properties at once impeded any chances of localization. Similarly, Siliconera ' s Spencer Yip negatively felt that the series's multimedia status made importing Commanders less appealing due to the missing story context. Square Enix Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd. is a Japanese multinational holding company , video game publisher and entertainment conglomerate. It releases role-playing game franchises, such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest , among numerous others. Outside of video game publishing and development, it
13580-483: The jackpot, as it were. Once we've hit it, we have to get all the juice possible out of it". Similar to Sony's Greatest Hits program, Square Enix also re-releases their best-selling games at a reduced price under a label designated "Ultimate Hits". The standard game design model Square Enix employs is to establish the plot, characters, and art of the game first. Battle systems, field maps, and cutscenes are created next. According to Taku Murata , this process became
13720-414: The local cell and in the adjacent cells. However, cells further away can re-use that channel without interference as the subscriber's handset is too far away to be detected. The transmitter power of each base station is coordinated to efficiently service its own cell, but not to interfere with the cells further away. Automation embedded in the customer's handset and in the base stations control all phases of
13860-406: The manga art, then adding in backgrounds and speech bubbles. Naora commented that particular attention was paid to the art as many of the series leads were artists themselves. Trademarks for the Code Age properties were registered in March 2004. Commanders and Archives were announced first, with the announcement of Brawls coinciding with Square Enix showing the franchise off with a trailer at
14000-417: The merger, former Square president Yoichi Wada was appointed the president of the new corporation, while former Enix president Keiji Honda was named vice president. Yasuhiro Fukushima, the largest shareholder of the combined corporation and founder of Enix, became chairman . In October 2008, Square Enix conducted a company split between its corporate business and video game operations, reorganizing itself as
14140-501: The merging of the two would "enhanced the group’s abilities to develop HD games" for the 20th anniversary. On March 3, Square Enix issued a statement announcing a proposed change to the position of its president and representative director that, if implemented, would result in Yosuke Matsuda stepping down and being succeeded by Takashi Kiryu, who is presently the company's director. The change will become effective upon approval at
14280-529: The most recent Final Fantasy VII Remake . Unity has also been used internally for titles including I Am Setsuna , Lost Sphear , and SaGa: Scarlet Grace . The Squirrel language had also been used for the WiiWare title Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King . Before the merger, Enix published its first online game Cross Gate in Japan, mainland China, and Taiwan in 2001, and Square released Final Fantasy XI in Japan in 2002 for
14420-555: The parent company of British game publisher Eidos Interactive , which was then absorbed into its European branch. Square Enix is headquartered at the Shinjuku Eastside Square Building in Shinjuku , Tokyo , along with a second office at Osaka . It has over 5,000 employees worldwide through its base operations and subsidiaries. Enix was founded on September 22, 1975, as Eidansha Boshu Service Center by Japanese architect-turned-entrepreneur Yasuhiro Fukushima. Enix focused on publishing games, often by companies who exclusively partnered with
14560-481: The past statement and said the money from the sale will be used to strengthen the company's core games business. On July 25, 2022, Square Enix launched the English version of Manga Up! . The acquisition was closed by August 26, 2022, with the assets being held under CDE Entertainment which is headed from London by Phil Rogers, former CEO of Square Enix Americas and Europe. In the company's financial statement for
14700-399: The phone and the point of sale support near field communication (NFC). Enabling contactless payments through NFC-equipped mobile phones requires the co-operation of manufacturers, network operators, and retail merchants. Mobile phones are commonly used to collect location data. While the phone is turned on, the geographical location of a mobile phone can be determined easily (whether it
14840-567: The phone close to the ear. The average phone battery lasts two–three years at best. Many of the wireless devices use a Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) battery, which charges 500–2500 times, depending on how users take care of the battery and the charging techniques used. It is only natural for these rechargeable batteries to chemically age, which is why the performance of the battery when used for a year or two will begin to deteriorate. Battery life can be extended by draining it regularly, not overcharging it, and keeping it away from heat. Mobile phones require
14980-417: The player navigates missions fighting opponents in real-time combat, evolving their character over the course of the game and using skills which are inherited by each playable character in turn. Reception to Commanders was positive overall, with many citing its gameplay as enjoyable despite a lack of depth, and praise was given to its story and art design. Naora created the concept for Code Age in 2002 as
15120-496: The products to as wide an audience as possible"; this approach included Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and the World of Mana . Naora's original concept was for the two video games Commanders and Brawls due to Square's focus on gaming, creating the manga Archives following the merger as Enix had a manga publishing division. While an anime would have been a more traditional media expansion, Naora wanted to avoid assumptions that
15260-462: The programming team optimize the engine. In addition to Luminous Engine and custom engines made for individual games and platforms before and since Square Enix often uses other companies' engines and programming languages for their video game properties. Epic Games ' Unreal Engine 3 was used for games such as The Last Remnant , and more recently, Unreal Engine 4 has been used for projects including Dragon Quest XI , Kingdom Hearts III , and
15400-450: The project went under the name "Warhead". Naora led production and created the story for the series, Toshiyuki Itahana designed the characters and directed Commanders , and Kumi Tanioka composed the music for Commanders and Brawls . The manga was created by Aya Kyu under Warhead's supervision, with Naora designing the characters. The manga Archives was serialised Monthly Shōnen Gangan from 2005 to 2006. The console game Commanders
15540-425: The remake of Live A Live , while the team was mainly present to oversee, produce, concept, while the studios do the bulk of the project under their direction. The business model of post-merger Square Enix is centered on the idea of "polymorphic content", which consists of developing franchises on multiple potential media rather than being restricted by a single gaming platform. An early example of this strategy
15680-442: The rights to Carmageddon from Square Enix. In July 2011, it was reported that Square Enix closed their Los Angeles Studio. In January 2012, Square Enix North American office could pursue smaller niche, mobile and social media games due to its existing revenue streams. In October 2012, Square Enix was perceived as a "force in mobile" games by Kotaku . The price of Final Fantasy Dimensions and Demons' Score, $ 30 and $ 44 respectively,
15820-532: The ruined world. It began serialization in Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Gangan magazine on February 12 2005, with the first issue incorporating full color panels. The final issue was published on February 10, 2006. A prequel chapter was released as a pre-order bonus for Commanders bundled with the first issue in color. The manga was released in three volumes by Square Enix on July 22 and October 12, 2005, and March 22, 2006. Code Age Brawls: Futatsu no Kodō
15960-547: The sale will further help it in investment into blockchain and other technologies, and to "assist the company in adapting to the changes underway in the global business environment by establishing a more efficient allocation of resources". Square Enix also stated that it would retain the Life Is Strange , Outriders , and Just Cause franchises. However, during the Japanese publisher's full-year financial results briefing on May 13, president Yosuke Matsuda clarified
16100-552: The second-generation ( 2G ) digital cellular technology was launched in Finland by Radiolinja on the GSM standard. This sparked competition in the sector as the new operators challenged the incumbent 1G network operators. The GSM standard is a European initiative expressed at the CEPT ("Conférence Européenne des Postes et Telecommunications", European Postal and Telecommunications conference). The Franco-German R&D cooperation demonstrated
16240-728: The sequel to Cross Gate , in 2007. A next-gen MMORPG code named Rapture was developed by the Final Fantasy XI team using the company's Crystal Tools engine. It was unveiled at E3 2009 as Final Fantasy XIV for PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows and would be released on September 30, 2010. Dragon Quest X was announced in September 2011 as an MMORPG being developed for Nintendo 's Wii and Wii U consoles, which released on August 2, 2012, and March 30, 2013, respectively. Like XIV , it used Crystal Tools. Square Enix also made browser games and Facebook games, like Legend World , Chocobo's Crystal Tower and Knights of
16380-486: The success of both Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts , the company's finances stabilized, and it recorded the highest operating margin in its history in the fiscal year 2002. It was announced on November 25, 2002, that Square and Enix's previous plans to merge were to officially proceed, intending to decrease development costs and to compete with foreign developers. As described by Square's president and CEO Yoichi Wada: "Square has also fully recovered, meaning this merger
16520-401: The technical feasibility, and in 1987, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between 13 European countries that agreed to launch a commercial service by 1991. The first version of the GSM standard had 6,000 pages. The IEEE and RSE awarded Thomas Haug and Philippe Dupuis the 2018 James Clerk Maxwell medal for their contributions to the first digital mobile telephone standard. In 2018,
16660-412: The time of the merger, 80% of Square Enix staff were made up of former Square employees. As part of the merger, former Square president Yoichi Wada was appointed the president of the new corporation, while former Enix president Keiji Honda became its vice president. The founder of Enix and the largest shareholder of the newly combined corporation, Yasuhiro Fukushima, was made its honorary chairman. As
16800-402: The time. Code Age is a multimedia franchise developed and published by Japanese company Square Enix . The franchise, created by artist Yusuke Naora , is divided between three projects; Code Age Archives , Code Age Brawls , and Code Age Commanders . While the three Code Age projects are different genres and media, all share the same science fiction -themed universe, taking place over
16940-473: The title done by those developers. All of the internal development done by Creative Business Units are for titles such as mainline Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, while their mid-size and smaller titles have the development outsourced to other companies for most of the cases such as "Team Asano" led by Tomoya Asano , a team of producers from Creative Business II who had Artdink and Netchubiyori developing Triangle Strategy or Historia developing
17080-490: The top 10 and Final Fantasy X claiming the number 1 position. The company also won IGN 's award for Best Developer of 2006 for the PlayStation 2. Square and Enix initially targeted Nintendo home consoles with their games, but Square Enix currently develops games for a wide variety of systems. In the seventh generation of video game consoles , Square Enix released new installments from its major series across all three major systems, including Final Fantasy XIII on both
17220-420: The two provides no negative factors but would bring little in the way of operational synergies." Miyamoto's concerns were eventually resolved by altering the exchange ratio of the merger so that each Square share would be exchanged for 0.85 Enix shares rather than 0.81 shares, and the merger was greenlit. The merger was set for April 1, 2003, on which date the newly merged entity Square Enix came into being. At
17360-699: The use of native software applications are known as smartphones . The first GSM phones and many feature phones had NOR flash memory, from which processor instructions could be executed directly in an execute in place architecture and allowed for short boot times. With smartphones, NAND flash memory was adopted as it has larger storage capacities and lower costs, but causes longer boot times because instructions cannot be executed from it directly, and must be copied to RAM memory first before execution. Mobile phones have central processing units (CPUs), similar to those in computers, but optimised to operate in low power environments. Mobile CPU performance depends not only on
17500-552: The world every ten thousand years by wiping out the current civilization in an event called the Reborn. In an attempt to survive the next Reborn, its residents construct Arks around the Central Code. The plan fails as the Arks are struck out of orbit, and the population is attacked by Otellos, a species that mutates people into mindless Coded. Ark survivors can absorb Coded, transforming into powerful warriors dubbed Warheads. Survivors splinter into factions, some fighting each other and others hiding underground. The narrative of each property
17640-423: Was announced on 20 October 2021. On May 1, 2022, Square Enix announced that it would sell several assets of subsidiary Square Enix Limited to Swedish games holding company Embracer Group for $ 300 million. This included studios Crystal Dynamics , Eidos-Montréal , and Square Enix Montreal , IPs Deus Ex , Legacy of Kain , Thief , and Tomb Raider and rights to "over 50 games". Square Enix stated that
17780-520: Was announced. The studio, headed by Hideo Baba , would be working on the new RPG Project Prelude Rune . In November 2017, IO Interactive conducted a management buyout from Square Enix and the Hitman IP was transferred to the studio. In September 2018, COO Mike Sherlock died, with Square Enix's executive team assuming his immediate responsibilities. In 2018, Square Enix branded their third party publishing division Square Enix External Studios , which
17920-412: Was attributed to the desire to obtain the lowest calling costs. When the removal of a SIM card is detected by the operating system, it may deny further operation until a reboot. Feature phones have basic software platforms. Smartphones have advanced software platforms. Android OS has been the best-selling OS worldwide on smartphones since 2011. A mobile app is a computer program designed to run on
18060-461: Was created; however, it was closed in January 2016. On October 9, 2014, Square Enix launched another online game service in Japan called Dive In , which allowed players to stream console games to their iOS or Android devices. The service was monetized by the amount of time the players spent playing, with each game offered for free for thirty minutes. The service was cancelled on September 13, 2015. Some Square Enix games are available in Japan on
18200-538: Was criticized. On March 26, 2013, citing sluggish sales of major Western games, Square Enix announced major restructuring, expected loss of ¥10 billion and resignation of President Yoichi Wada, whom Yosuke Matsuda replaced. Phil Rogers was elected as a new Director, among others. With the restructuring, Square Enix of America CEO Mike Fischer left the company in May, with former Square Enix Europe CEO Phil Rogers becoming CEO of Americas and Europe. Further executive changes at Square Enix Western studios were mentioned in
18340-587: Was demonstrated by Martin Cooper of Motorola in New York City on 3 April 1973, using a handset weighing c. 2 kilograms (4.4 lbs). In 1979, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) launched the world's first cellular network in Japan. In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available handheld mobile phone. From 1983 to 2014, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions grew to over seven billion; enough to provide one for every person on Earth. In
18480-555: Was followed in 1981 by the simultaneous launch of the Nordic Mobile Telephone (NMT) system in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Several other countries then followed in the early to mid-1980s. These first-generation ( 1G ) systems could support far more simultaneous calls but still used analog cellular technology. In 1983, the DynaTAC 8000x was the first commercially available handheld mobile phone. In 1991,
18620-567: Was illustrated by Aya Kyu, a then-new artist who would later create the manga adaptation of Persona 4 Arena . The narrative theme of Code Age how people react and behave when terrible events happen around them; he was inspired by a phenomenon he saw of people having detached attitudes to car accidents and natural disasters not experienced in person. The design of the lead characters focused on their hair first, and incorporated contemporary references into their clothing design. The gameplay design of Commanders , particularly its customization system,
18760-414: Was intended to appeal to a Western audience. For Brawls , the development team wanted to expand upon the multiplayer communication system used for Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII . Naora created the character designs for Archives , with CGI artwork from the other Code Age projects being incorporated into the manga. The comic was created on a PC computer, turning CGI illustrations of the characters into
18900-455: Was launched in Finland in 2000, and subsequently many organizations provided "on-demand" and "instant" news services by SMS. Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) was introduced in March 2002. The introduction of Apple's App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch in July 2008 popularized manufacturer-hosted online distribution for third-party applications (software and computer programs) focused on
19040-508: Was market leader in mobile phones. Nokia was the market leader in mobile phones from 1998 to 2012. In Q1 2012, Samsung surpassed Nokia, selling 93.5 million units as against Nokia's 82.7 million units. Samsung has retained its top position since then. Aside from Motorola, European brands such as Nokia, Siemens and Ericsson once held large sway over the global mobile phone market, and many new technologies were pioneered in Europe. By 2010,
19180-526: Was merged with Square Enix's European publishing organization, business unit Square Enix Europe . Eidos' US operations were merged with Square Enix Incorporated. In April 2010, a new Japanese label for Western games bearing CERO restrictions called Square Enix Extreme Edges was announced. In July 2010, Mike Fischer was appointed CEO of Square Enix, Inc. Square Enix founded the mobile development studio Hippos Lab in March 2011 and Square Enix Montréal in 2012. In June 2011, Stainless Games had purchased
19320-602: Was one of the many companies that had planned to develop and publish their games for the Nintendo 64 , but with the cheaper costs associated with developing games on CD-based consoles such as the Sega Saturn and the Sony PlayStation , Square decided to develop titles for the latter system. Final Fantasy VII was one of these games, and it sold 9.8 million copies, making it the second-best-selling game for
19460-406: Was planned for a Western release, but this was cancelled after the translation had been completed. The mobile entry Brawls operated for less than a year before closing down in September 2006. Reception of Commanders and Brawls was generally positive from Western critics, though Commanders met with low sales in Japan. The Code Age project was also noted for its ambitious multimedia approach at
19600-402: Was restructured into 12 Business Divisions. In 2017, Business Division 9 was merged into Business Division 8, while Business Divisions 11 and 12 merged to become the new Business Division 9, while a new Business Division 11 was created with some staff from Business Division 6. In 2019, Square Enix announced that their eleven Business Divisions would be consolidated into four units by 2020 with
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