Square Enix

A large number of publishers are sending letters to those they claim have illegally downloaded games, threatening legal action unless they pay fines of several hundred euros. After CD Projekt said last week it would no longer be pursuing those it claim pirated PC RPG The Witcher 2: Assassin Of Kings, Torrentfreak dug deeper and found a host of publishers were doing the same thing, and that the practice is not limited purely to new releases. More >

Square Enix's RPG sequel Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the new number one in the Japanese all-formats software chart after selling 525,000 copies in its first week on shelves. With the Xbox 360 version failing to crack the top 20, it was left to the PS3 release to unseat last week's number one, Monster Hunter Tri G, which slips to number two. More >

Kingdom Hearts 3: Dream Drop Distance is to release in 2012 exclusively on 3DS, with a storyline that will chart the beginning of the end of Kingdom Hearts' current storyline. More >

Square Enix has confirmed that no personal user data was taken in the recent attack on the Square Enix Members site. The publisher took Members - a community site for North American and Japanese users - offline last week after it spotted the attack, and later warned that the data of up to 1.8 million customers may have been compromised. More >

Square Enix has taken its free community site, Square Enix Members, offline after its security was breached by hackers. The publisher is now working to establish the scope of the attack on the Members site, which is only available in North America and Japan. It stresses that there is no risk of credit card data being compromised because none was stored on the server that was compromised. More >

More footage from the weekend's Spike VGA, this time a trailer for Square Enix's upcoming Hitman Absolution, due next year for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. Developer IO Interactive promises an experience that is "familiar and yet significantly different" from previous games in the series - the most recent of which was 2006's Blood Money - with one new feature being a multiplayer mode. More >

Square Enix is among a number of developers Google has signed up to develop console-quality games playable in its Chrome browser. VentureBeat reports that CEO Yoichi Wada was at the GooglePlex headquarters in California yesterday, and revealed that the publisher has remade its 2009 action-adventure Mini Ninjas as a "native client" game. The client is Google's open-source technology that allows for web applications that execute native code in a browser. More >

Square Enix's online PC RPG Final Fantasy XIV will require a subscription fee from January 6, more than a year after the publisher made the game free to play by way of apology for the miserable state in which the game launched. Andriasang reports that the 30 and 90-day fees of ¥980 and ¥2,640 will be reduced, to ¥680 and ¥1,740 respectively, until Square Enix has finished and launched version 2.0 of the game. More >

Japanese convenience store chain Family Mart has shipped a million Dragon Quest-licensed Slime meat buns in the space of a week. Andriasang reports that the retailer has apologised to fans who have been struggling to buy the buns, released to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Square Enix's RPG series. More >

Square Enix is developing an action-RPG for PlayStation 3 and Vita using the Unity Engine. The project, revealed in job listings spotted by Andriasang, is in development at the publisher's 1st Production Department, responsible for the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts games. More >

Ryutaro Ichimura is heading up development of an action-RPG, using Unreal Engine 3, for publisher Square Enix. Ichimura, co-producer of 2009 DS RPG Dragon Quest IX, told Famitsu magazine that the un-named project is being made for a worldwide audience; 1UP's report says that concept art shown in the magazine more closely resembled Elder Scrolls than Final Fantasy. More >

Chrono Trigger will be released on the App Store next month, publisher Square Enix has confirmed. Destructoid reports that the beloved RPG, released for the SNES in 1995, will be retooled for iPhone with new menus and touchscreen controls, but has been otherwise untouched. No price or release date was announced. More >

Square Enix has revealed plans to expand its operations in Montreal by adding 250 staff across its Deus Ex: Human Revolution studio and a new development outfit whose first project will be a fresh entry in the Hitman series. More >

Square Enix is to launch its own Android download store, the Square Enix market, in Japan. Among the games promised for the service include the original Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest Monsters Most Wanted, a port of iOS RPG Chaos Ring, and Crystal Defenders. Titles planned for the future include Itadaki Street and a port of beloved SNES RPG Chrono Trigger. More >

Square Enix has licensed Epic Games' Unreal Engine for multiple unannounced projects. Taka Kawasaki, territory manager of Epic Games Japan, which handled the deal, said: "It is a pleasure to provide Square Enix with an exceptional game engine that will help them bring thrilling new experiences to legions of fans all over the world." More >