Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of computer graphics to create or contribute to images in art, printed media, video games, television programs, commercials and simulators. The visual scenes may be dynamic or static and may be two-dimensional, though the term "CGI" is most used to refer to 3D computer graphics used for creating scenes or special effects in films and television. Additionally, the use of 2D CGI is mistakenly referred to as "traditional animation", most in the case when dedicated animation software such as Adobe Flash or Toon Boom is not used or the CGI is hand drawn using a tablet and mouse; the term'CGI animation' refers to dynamic CGI rendered as a movie. The term virtual world refers to interactive environments. Computer graphics software is used to make computer-generated imagery for etc.. Availability of CGI software and increased computer speeds have allowed individual artists and small companies to produce professional-grade films and fine art from their home computers.
This has brought about an Internet subculture with its own set of global celebrities, clichés, technical vocabulary. The evolution of CGI led to the emergence of virtual cinematography in the 1990s where runs of the simulated camera are not constrained by the laws of physics. Not only do animated images form part of computer-generated imagery, natural looking landscapes are generated via computer algorithms. A simple way to generate fractal surfaces is to use an extension of the triangular mesh method, relying on the construction of some special case of a de Rham curve, e.g. midpoint displacement. For instance, the algorithm may start with a large triangle recursively zoom in by dividing it into four smaller Sierpinski triangles interpolate the height of each point from its nearest neighbors; the creation of a Brownian surface may be achieved not only by adding noise as new nodes are created but by adding additional noise at multiple levels of the mesh. Thus a topographical map with varying levels of height can be created using straightforward fractal algorithms.
Some typical, easy-to-program fractals used in CGI are the plasma fractal and the more dramatic fault fractal. A large number of specific techniques have been researched and developed to produce focused computer-generated effects — e.g. the use of specific models to represent the chemical weathering of stones to model erosion and produce an "aged appearance" for a given stone-based surface. Modern architects use services from computer graphic firms to create 3-dimensional models for both customers and builders; these computer generated. Architectural animation can be used to see the possible relationship a building will have in relation to the environment and its surrounding buildings; the rendering of architectural spaces without the use of paper and pencil tools is now a accepted practice with a number of computer-assisted architectural design systems. Architectural modeling tools allow an architect to visualize a space and perform "walk-throughs" in an interactive manner, thus providing "interactive environments" both at the urban and building levels.
Specific applications in architecture not only include the specification of building structures and walk-throughs but the effects of light and how sunlight will affect a specific design at different times of the day. Architectural modeling tools have now become internet-based. However, the quality of internet-based systems still lags behind that of sophisticated in-house modeling systems. In some applications, computer-generated images are used to "reverse engineer" historical buildings. For instance, a computer-generated reconstruction of the monastery at Georgenthal in Germany was derived from the ruins of the monastery, yet provides the viewer with a "look and feel" of what the building would have looked like in its day. Computer generated. However, organizations such as the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute have developed anatomically correct computer-based models. Computer generated anatomical models can be used both for operational purposes. To date, a large body of artist produced medical images continue to be used by medical students, such as images by Frank H. Netter, e.g. Cardiac images.
However, a number of online anatomical models are becoming available. A single patient X-ray is not a computer generated image if digitized. However, in applications which involve CT scans a three-dimensional model is automatically produced from a large number of single slice x-rays, producing "computer generated image". Applications involving magnetic resonance imaging bring together a number of "snapshots" to produce a composite, internal image. In modern medical applications, patient-specific models are constructed in'computer assisted surgery'. For instance, in total knee replacement, the construction of a detailed patient-specific model can be used to plan the surgery; these three-dimensional models are extracted from multiple CT scans of the appropriate parts of the patient's own anatomy. Such models can be used for planning aortic valve implantations, one of the common procedures for treating heart disease. Given that the shape and position of the coronary openings can vary from patient to patient, the extraction of a model that resembles a patient's valve anatomy can be beneficial in planning the procedure.
Models of cloth fall
Toei Animation
Toei Animation Co. Ltd. is a Japanese animation studio owned by Toei Company. The studio was founded by animators Kenzō Masaoka and Zenjirō Yamamoto in 1948 as Japan Animated Films. In 1956, Toei purchased the studio and it was renamed Toei Doga Co. Ltd. doing business as Toei Animation Co. Ltd. outside Japan. In 1998, the Japanese name was renamed to Toei Animation, it has created a number of TV series and movies and adapted Japanese comics as animated series, many popular worldwide. Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Leiji Matsumoto and Yoichi Kotabe have worked with the company. Toei is a shareholder in the Japanese anime satellite television network Animax with other anime studios and production companies, such as Sunrise, TMS Entertainment and Nihon Ad Systems Inc; the company is headquartered in the Ohizumi Studio in Tokyo. Their mascot is the cat Pero, from the company's 1969 film adaptation of Puss in Boots. Toei Animation produced anime versions of works by manga artists, including Go Nagai, Eiichiro Oda, Shotaro Ishinomori, Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro, Takehiko Inoue, Mitsuteru Yokoyama, Masami Kurumada, Akira Toriyama, Leiji Matsumoto, Naoko Takeuchi.
The studio helped propel the popularity of the Magical Super Robot genres of anime. Although the Toei Company allows Toei Animation to handle its animation, they hire other companies to provide animation. Toei Animation's anime which have won the Animage Anime Grand Prix award are Galaxy Express 999 in 1981, Saint Seiya in 1987 and Sailor Moon in 1992. In addition to producing anime for release in Japan, Toei Animation began providing animation for American films and television series during the 1960s and during the 1980s. TAVAC Toei's recording facility that specializes in Japanese audio and sound effects, Japanese dubbing. Toei Animation Music Publishing The company's music department that maintains links with the music publishers connected with TV stations, manufacturing corporations, productions. Toei Animation Phils. Inc; the company's division. Does licensing of its Toei-produced properties and dubbing for Filipino markets. Toei Animation Inc. and Toei Doga US Services, Inc. Toei's division located in Los Angeles, responsible for the program licensing of Toei-produced series to North America, Latin America, South Africa and New Zealand.
Toei Animation Europe S. A. S. Toei's French division based in Paris, France, it engages in the production and licensing of animation products in Europe. Toei Animation Enterprises Limited Established in Hong Kong as a joint venture with Animation International Limited in 1997, it is a wholly owned subsidiary since 2009. Toei Animation Co. Animated productions by foreign studios dubbed in Japanese by Toei are The Mystery of the Third Planet. Toei has been commissioned to provide animation by Japanese and American studios such as Sunbow, Hanna-Barbera, DiC, Rankin/Bass and World Event Productions. Topcraft/Studio Ghibli, SynergySP, Studio Junio & Hal Film Maker/Yumeta Company, animation studios founded by former Toei animators Mushi Production, an animation studio founded by Osamu Tezuka and former Toei animators Shin-Ei Animation, formally A Production, an animation studio founded by former Toei animator Daikichirō Kusube Yamamura Animation, an animation studio founded by former Toei animator Kōji Yamamura Doga Kobo, an animation studio formed by former Toei animator, Hideo Furusawa Official website Toei Animation Inc.
Official website Toei Animation Europe Official website Toei Animation at Anime News Network's encyclopedia Toei Animation at IMDb
Sony Interactive Entertainment
Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC is a multinational video game and digital entertainment company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the central hub for the American businesses under the Japanese conglomerate Sony Corporation. The company was founded in Tokyo and established on November 16, 1993, as Sony Computer Entertainment, to handle Sony's venture into video game development through its PlayStation brand. Since the successful launch of the original PlayStation console in 1994, the company has been developing the PlayStation lineup of home video game consoles and accessories. Expanding into North America and other countries, the company became Sony's main resource for research and development in video games and interactive entertainment. In April 2016, SCE and Sony Network Entertainment International was restructured and reorganized into Sony Interactive Entertainment, carrying over the operations and primary objectives from both companies; the same year, SIE moved its headquarters from Tokyo to California.
Sony Interactive Entertainment handles the research and development and sales of both hardware and software for the PlayStation video game systems. SIE is a developer and publisher of video game titles, operates several subsidiaries in Sony's largest markets: North America and Asia. By August 2018, the company had sold more than 525 million PlayStation consoles worldwide. Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. was jointly established by Sony and its subsidiary Sony Music Entertainment Japan in 1993 to handle the company's ventures into the video game industry. The original PlayStation console was released on December 1994, in Japan; the company's North American operations, Sony Computer Entertainment of America, were established in May 1995 as a division of Sony Electronic Publishing. Located in Foster City, the North American office was headed by Steve Race. In the months prior to the release of the PlayStation in Western markets, the operations were restructured: All video game marketing from Sony Imagesoft was folded into SCEA in July 1995, with most affected employees transferred from Santa Monica to Foster City.
On August 7, 1995, Race unexpectedly resigned and was named CEO of Spectrum HoloByte three days later. He was replaced by Sony Electronics veteran Martin Homlish; this proved to be the beginning of a run of exceptional managerial turnover, with SCEA going through four presidents in a single year. The PS console was released in the United States on September 9, 1995; as part of a worldwide restructuring at the beginning of 1997, SCEA and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe were both re-established as wholly owned subsidiaries of SCEI. The launch of the second PS console, the PlayStation 2 was released in Japan on March 4, 2000, the U. S. on October 26, 2000. On July 1, 2002, chairman of SCEI, Shigeo Maruyama, was replaced by Tamotsu Iba as chairman. Jack Tretton and Phil Harrison were promoted to senior vice presidents of SCE; the PlayStation Portable was SCEI's first foray into the small handheld console market. Its development was first announced during SCE's E3 conference in 2003, it was unveiled during their E3 conference on May 11, 2004.
The system was released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, in Europe and Australia on September 1, 2005. On September 14, 2005, SCEI formed Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios, a single internal entity to oversee all wholly owned development studios within SCEI, it became responsible for the creative and strategic direction of development and production of all computer entertainment software by all SCEI-owned studios—all software is produced for the PS family of consoles. Shuhei Yoshida was named as President of SCE WWS on May 16, 2008, replacing Kazuo Hirai, serving interim after Harrison left the company in early 2008. On December 8, 2005, video game developer Guerrilla Games, developers of the Killzone series, was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment as part of its SCE WWS. On January 24, 2006, video game developer Zipper Interactive, developers of the Socom series, was acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment as part of its SCE WWS. In March 2006, Sony announced the online network for its forthcoming PlayStation 3 system at the 2006 PlayStation Business Briefing meeting in Tokyo, tentatively named "PlayStation Network Platform" and called just PlayStation Network.
Sony stated that the service would always be connected and include multiplayer support. The launch date for the PS3 was announced by Hirai at the pre-Electronic Entertainment Expo conference held at the Sony Pictures Studios in Los Angeles, California, on May 8, 2006; the PS3 was released in Japan on November 11, 2006, the U. S. date was November 17, 2006. The PSN was launched in November 2006. On November 30, 2006, president of SCEI, Ken Kutaragi, was appointed as chairman of SCEI, while Hirai president of SCEA, was promoted to president of SCEI. On April 26, 2007, Ken Kutaragi resigned from his position as chairman of SCEI and group CEO, passing on his duties to the appointed president of SCE, Hirai. On September 20, 2007, video game developers Evolution Studios and Bigbig Studios, creators of the MotorStorm series, were acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment as part of its SCE WWS. On April 15, 2009, David Reeves, president and CEO of SCE Europe, announced his forthcoming resignation from his post.
He had joined the company in 1995 and was appointed as chairman of SCEE in 2003, president in 2005. His role of president and CEO of SCEE would be taken over by Andrew House, who joined Sony Corporation in 1990; the PSP Go was released on October 1
Square (company)
Square Co. Ltd. was a Japanese video game company founded in September 1986 by Masafumi Miyamoto. It merged with Enix in 2003 to form Square Enix; the company used SquareSoft as a brand name to refer to their games, the term is used to refer to the company itself. In addition, "Square Soft, Inc" was the name of the company's American arm before the merger, after which it was renamed to "Square Enix, Inc". Square originated in October 1983 as a computer game software division of Den-Yu-Sha, a power line construction company owned by the father of Masafumi Miyamoto, the eventual founder of Square Co Ltd in 1986. While at the time game development was conducted by only one programmer, Masafumi Miyamoto believed that it would be more efficient to have graphic designers and professional story writers working together on common projects. Square's first two titles were The Death Trap and its sequel Will: The Death Trap II, both designed by part-time employee Hironobu Sakaguchi and released on the NEC PC-8801.
Despite an initial reluctance to develop for video game consoles, Square entered the Nintendo Famicom market in December 1985 with the porting of Thexder. In September 1986, Square spun off from Den-Yu-Sha and became an independent company named Square Co. Ltd. Sakaguchi became a full-time employee as the Director of Planning and Development of the company. 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, inspired by Enix's success with the genre, Dragon Quest. With 400,000 copies sold, Final Fantasy spawned multiple sequels over the years and became Square's main franchise. Square has made other known games such as Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Secret of Mana, Legend of Mana, Brave Fencer Musashi, Parasite Eve, Parasite Eve 2, Saga Frontier, Romancing Saga, Vagrant Story, Kingdom Hearts, Super Mario RPG. By late 1994 they had developed a reputation as a producer of high quality role-playing video games.
Square 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, it sold 9.8 million copies, making it the second best selling game for the PlayStation. On February 8, 2001, due to its first quarterly loss since going public, "the company implemented a restructuring plan for its Japanese corporate staff. Three key figures have been moved around in the company ranks, resigning from their current positions in order to take responsibility for the losses, have been reassigned to different positions. Hironobu Sakaguchi, the father of the Final Fantasy series, will no longer be vice president, will instead be known as an "executive producer." Additionally, company president Tomoyuki Takeshi will become a contractual consultant for the company, with director Masahi Hiramatsu now taking the role of executive consultant.".
A merger between Square and its competitor Enix was in consideration since at least 2000. With the company in its second year of financial loss, Square approached Sony for a capital injection and on October, 8th 2001, Sony Corp purchased 18.6% stake in Square to bandage their loss. In an interview with GIA.com in 2001, when asked "Are you worried that Square will become too dependent on the Final Fantasy name?" Hironobu Sakaguchi responded that "Avoiding, one of Square's goals for a long time. It is our aim to develop a few more major franchises for the company. On May 28, 2002 it was detailed that in Wada's restructuring of the company, that "while Square formally took a development style where teams were formed and dispersed per project, developers will now be fixed into divisions. Source codes and resources will be shared for efficiency, employees will receive varying bonuses depending on the profit of their division. By settling developers into groups, Square aims for the developers to re-use the titles they have developed, making game development more cost efficient.
Development costs- 2-3 Billion yen, are expected to fall to 1 Billion yen." In addition, the company revealed plans to release two Final Fantasy X spinoffs that would become Final Fantasy X-2. Following the success of both Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts, the company recovered its stability and recorded the highest operating margin in its history in fiscal year 2002, it was announced on November 25, 2002 that Square and Enix's previous plans to merge were to proceed. As described by Yoichi Wada "Square has fully recovered, meaning this merger is occurring at a time when both companies are at their height." Despite this, some shareholders had doubts about the merger, notably Square's original founder and largest shareholder, Masafumi Miyamoto, who would find himself holding less if the two RPG behemoths were to go ahead with the deal. Other criticism came from Takashi Oya of Deutsche Securities who expressed doubts about the benefits of such a merger. "Enix outsources game
Video game genre
A video game genre is a classification assigned to a video game based on its gameplay interaction rather than visual or narrative differences. A video game genre is defined by a set of gameplay challenges and are classified independently of their setting or game-world content, unlike other works of fiction such as films or books. For example, a shooter game is still a shooter game, regardless of when it takes place; as with nearly all varieties of genre classification, the matter of any individual video game's specific genre is open to personal interpretation. Moreover, each individual game may belong to several genres at once; the first attempt to classify different genres of video games was made by Chris Crawford in his book The Art of Computer Game Design in 1984. In this book, Crawford focused on the player's experience and activities required for gameplay. Here, he stated that "the state of computer game design is changing quickly. We would therefore expect the taxonomy presented to become obsolete or inadequate in a short time."
Since among other genres, the platformer and 3D shooter genres, which hardly existed at the time, have gained a lot of popularity. As hardware capabilities have increased, new genres have become possible, with examples being increased memory, the move from 2D to 3D, new peripherals and location. Though genres were just interesting for game studies in the 1980s, the business of video games expanded in the 1990s and both smaller and independent publishers had little chance of surviving; because of this, games settled more into set genres that larger publishers and retailers could use for marketing. Due to "direct and active participation" of the player, video game genres differ from literary and film genres. Though one could state that Space Invaders is a science-fiction video game, such a classification "ignores the differences and similarities which are to be found in the player's experience of the game." In contrast to the visual aesthetics of games, which can vary it is argued that it is interactivity characteristics that are common to all games.
Descriptive names of genres take into account the goals of the game, the protagonist and the perspective offered to the player. For example, a first-person shooter is a game, played from a first-person perspective and involves the practice of shooting; the term "subgenre" may be used to refer to a category within a genre to further specify the genre of the game under discussion. Whereas "shooter game" is a genre name, "first-person shooter" and "third-person shooter" are common subgenres of the shooter genre. Other examples of such prefixes are real-time, turn based, side-scrolling; the target audience, underlying theme or purpose of a game are sometimes used as a genre identifier, such as with "games for girls," games for cats,"Christian game" and "Serious game" respectively. However, because these terms do not indicate anything about the gameplay of a video game, these are not considered genres. Video game genres vary in specificity, with popular video game reviews using genre names varying from "action" to "baseball."
In this practice, basic themes and more fundamental characteristics are used alongside each other. A game may combine aspects of multiple genres in such a way that it becomes hard to classify under existing genres. For example, because Grand Theft Auto III combined shooting and roleplaying in an unusual way, it was hard to classify using existing terms. Since the term Grand Theft Auto clone has been used to describe games mechanically similar to Grand Theft Auto III; the term roguelike has been developed for games that share similarities with Rogue. Elements of the role-playing genre, which focuses on storytelling and character growth, have been implemented in many different genres of video games; this is because the addition of a story and character enhancement to an action, strategy or puzzle video game does not take away from its core gameplay, but adds an incentive other than survival to the experience. According to some analysts, the count of each broad genre in the best selling physical games worldwide is broken down as follows.
The most popular genres are Shooter, Role-playing and Sports, with Platformer and Racing having both declined in the last decade. Puzzle games have declined when measured by sales, however, on mobile, where the majority of games are free-to-play, this genre remains the most popular worldwide. List of video game genres
Final Fantasy V
Final Fantasy V is a medieval-fantasy role-playing video game developed and published by Square in 1992 as a part of the Final Fantasy series. The game first appeared only in Japan on Nintendo's Super Famicom, it has been ported with minor differences to Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. An original video animation produced in 1994 called Final Fantasy: Legend of the Crystals serves as a sequel to the events depicted in the game, it was released for the PlayStation Network on April 2011, in Japan. An enhanced port of the game, with new high-resolution graphics and a touch-based interface, was released for iPhone and iPad on March 28, 2013, for Android on September 25, 2013; the game begins. There, he encounters several characters, one of whom reveals the danger facing the four Crystals that control the world's elements; these Crystals act as a seal on an evil sorcerer. Bartz and his party must keep the Crystals from being exploited by Exdeath's influence and prevent his resurgence. Final Fantasy V has been praised for the freedom of customization that the player has over the characters, achieved through the expanded Job System.
Despite being released only in Japan, the Super Famicom version sold more than two million copies. The PlayStation version has earned "selling more than 350,000 copies. Final Fantasy V includes many standard role-playing elements as well as renovated features introduced in earlier Final Fantasy games. Players navigate from a top-down perspective; the player can traverse the overworld by foot, hydra-guided ship, wind drake, or airship, depending on the situation. Most towns contain scattered inns for resting, shops for purchasing equipment, people from whom the player can gain information; the player may embark on several side quests that become available as the story progresses. Characters grow in strength by gaining experience points from random encounters with monsters on the overworld or in a dungeon. Experience culminates in a "level up", in which character attributes such as hit points and magic power increase. A menu-based management system allows the player to equip and change each character's selected job outside of battle as well as to save the game's progress.
Final Fantasy V is the second Final Fantasy game to use the Active Time Battle system, in which time flows continuously for both the player and enemies during combat. This system was first established in Final Fantasy IV, but in that game, there was no way to visibly anticipate which character's turn would come up next. In Final Fantasy V, the player can see which playable character's turn is next in battle, in the form of a time gauge—or "ATB Bar"—which fills according to a character's speed; when the selected character's turn arrives, the player can execute one of several commands, such as attacking the enemy with an equipped weapon, using a special ability or item, or changing the character's row position. The ATB mechanic with a gauge, as seen in Final Fantasy V, would be used in the four following main titles in the series and remains a staple mechanic of the franchise; the main feature of the gameplay of Final Fantasy V is the Job System. Players can select jobs for their characters to master, allowing each character to gain special abilities and master all 22 jobs.
Each character begins with only the "Freelancer" class. This system is an improved version of the one in Final Fantasy III; the game introduces several classes to the series, including the Blue Mage, Time Mage, Mime. Each of these classes has been featured in numerous Final Fantasy installments since. Once the player gains access to the job system, characters begin to earn a separate form of experience—Ability Points—in conjunction with regular experience points. Characters gain job levels after accumulating AP. AP and job levels do not transfer from class to class; as job levels increase, new skills become available for the character to use in a new form of customization. For example, a character with the Knight job who has earned job levels as a Black Mage may set Black Magic as a secondary command, enabling both Black Mage and Knight abilities in battle; the nature of these abilities varies. This system allows for deeper customization of characters; the backstory of Final Fantasy V is revealed in phases through cutscenes and interactions with non-playable characters.
One millennium before the events of the main story, a powerful mage named Enuo imperiled the world using the power of an evil entity called the "Void". The people retaliated by using twelve legendary weapons to vanquish Enuo; the people split the world's four elemental Crystals into two sets creating two worlds. The Void became sealed in a dimensional cleft between the two worlds. Nearly a thousand years passed without incident, both worlds prospered due to the powers of their Crystals of Wind, Water and Earth. New kingdoms and towns flo
Square Enix
Square Enix Holdings Co. Ltd. is a Japanese video game developer and distribution company known for its Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts role-playing video game franchises, among numerous others. Several of them have sold over 10 million copies worldwide, with the Final Fantasy franchise alone selling over 115 million; the Square Enix headquarters are in the Shinjuku Eastside Square Building in Tokyo. The company employs over 4300 employees worldwide; the original Square Enix Co. Ltd. was formed as the result of a merger between Enix Corporation and Square Co. Ltd. in April 2003, with Enix 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 the merger, former Square president Yoichi Wada was appointed president of the new corporation, while former Enix president Keiji Honda was named its vice president, the founder of Enix, Yasuhiro Fukushima, the largest shareholder of the combined corporation, became its honorary chairman.
In October 2008, Square Enix conducted a company split between its corporate business and video game operations. Square Enix re-branded itself as Square Enix Holdings Co. Ltd. a holding company, while its internally domestic video game operations were formed as a new subsidiary called Square Enix Co. Ltd. During the 2014 fiscal year, the company made over ¥150 billion in revenue. In addition to its flagship subsidiary, Square Enix Holdings owns the arcade gaming corporation Taito, known for games such as Space Invaders, Bubble Bobble, Darius. Square Enix owned British game publisher Eidos Interactive, absorbed into Square Enix Europe in order to publish Eidos Interactive titles such as Tomb Raider, Deus Ex and Hitman under the Square Enix brand. Enix was founded on September 22, 1975, as Eidansha Boshu Service Center by Japanese architect-turned-entrepreneur Yasuhiro Fukushima. Enix focused on publishing games by companies who partnered with the company, is most famous for publishing the Dragon Quest series of console games developed by Chunsoft.
Key members of the developer's staff consisted of director Koichi Nakamura, writer Yuuji Horii, artist Akira Toriyama, composer Koichi Sugiyama, among others. The first game in the Famicom-based RPG series was released in 1986, would sell 1.5 million copies in Japan, establishing Dragon Quest as the company's most profitable franchise. Despite the announcement that Enix's long-time competitor Square would develop for Sony 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 Sony. By November 1999, Enix was listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange's 1st section, indicating it as 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 conducted by only one programmer, Miyamoto believed that it would be more efficient to have graphic designers and professional story writers working together on common projects.
In September 1986, the division was spun off into an independent company led by Miyamoto 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, inspired by Enix's success in the genre with the 1986 Dragon Quest. Final Fantasy was a success with over 400,000 copies sold, it became Square's main franchise, spawning dozens of games in a series that continues to the present. Buoyed by the success of their Final Fantasy franchise, Square developed many other known games such as Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Secret of Mana, Legend of Mana, Brave Fencer Musashi, Parasite Eve, Saga Frontier, Romancing Saga, Vagrant Story, Kingdom Hearts, Super Mario RPG. By late 1994 they had developed a reputation as a producer of high quality role-playing video games. Square 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, it sold 9.8 million copies, making it the second-best-selling game for the PlayStation. A merger between Square and Enix was in consideration since at least 2000. With the company facing its second year of financial losses, Square approached Sony for a capital injection and on October 8, 2001, Sony Corp purchased 18.6% stake in Square. Following the success of both Final Fantasy X and Kingdom Hearts, the company's finances stabilized, it recorded the highest operating margin in its history in fiscal year 2002, it was announced on November 25, 2002, that Square and Enix's previous plans to merge were to proceed, with the goal to mutually decrease development costs and to compete with foreign developers. As described by Yoichi Wada, Square's president and CEO: "Square has fully recovered, meaning this merger is occurring at a time when both companies are at their height."Some shareholders expressed concerns about the merger, notably Square's original founder and largest shareholder Miyamoto, who would find himself holding a signific
