Square Enix Japan Keeps Expanding Their Western Game Lineup

In addition to the many franchises (and spin-offs) Square Enix makes, they are also becoming a Western game publishing powerhouse in Japan. Square Enix has rights to most of Activision’s lineup, which includes the Call of Duty series and Diablo III.

On top of those, Square Enix released The Walking Dead for PlayStation Vita. The PlayStation 3 version was published by Cyberfront, but since the publisher ceased operations the game was up for grabs and Square Enix took it.

Square Enix just announced Tropico 5 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox 360. This is interesting because usually Russel handles Kalypso’s titles in Japan. Russel published Tropico 4 and unlike Cyberfront they’re still around bringing European games to Japan. Pickups like Tropico 5 show that Square Enix is still looking at ways to expand their Western game portfolio beyond internally developed games like Tomb Raider. It will be interesting to see if they begin to localize Western RPGs too. Right now, that market is dominated by Danganronpa developer Spike Chunsoft who have the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and some of the earlier Dragon Age games.