Among its early employees were designers Hironobu Sakaguchi, Hiromichi Tanaka, Akitoshi Kawazu, Koichi Ishii, artist Kazuko Shibuya, programmer Nasir Gebelli, and composer Nobuo Uematsu.

Later notable staff included directors Yoshinori Kitase and Takashi Tokita, designer and writer Yasumi Matsuno, artists Tetsuya Nomura and Yusuke Naora, and composers Yoko Shimomura and Masashi Hamauzu.

Their first major project for the console, Final Fantasy VII, was a worldwide critical and commercial success and was credited with boosting the popularity of role-playing video games and the PlayStation outside Japan.

Square was initially established in September 1983 as a software subsidiary of Den-Yu-Sha, an electric power conglomerate led by Kuniichi Miyamoto.

[1][4] His son Masafumi Miyamoto, then a part-time employee of the Science and Technology Department at Keio University, had little interest in following his father into the electricity business.

Miyamoto, on the other hand, believed that graphic designers, programmers, and professional story writers would be needed to keep up with advances in computing and video game development.

[8] To recruit for this new organizational structure, Miyamoto organized a salon in Yokohama and offered jobs to those who demonstrated exceptional programming skills.

As Miyamoto had not secured the license to adapt it, the show's producers forced Square to cancel the game, prompting its team to be reshuffled.

[6][11] During this period, the team also hired new developers Akitoshi Kawazu and Koichi Ishii, artist Kazuko Shibuya, Iranian-American programmer Nasir Gebelli, and composer Nobuo Uematsu.

[17][18] In April 1986, Square moved into new offices based in Ginza, noted as one of the most expensive areas for companies to operate; Sakaguchi later speculated Miyamoto was hoping to attract business by appearing affluent.

Sakaguchi proposed making a role-playing video game (RPG), believing it to be a viable project after the success of Enix's Dragon Quest (1986).

Sakaguchi eventually received help from the other team at Square led by Tanaka, which included Shibuya and newcomer debugger Hiroyuki Ito.

[42] Additional staff joined Square by the early 1990s, inspired by the successful Final Fantasy series, with several first working on Final Fantasy IV (1991),[43][44] Yoshinori Kitase acted as a writer and later director,[45] artist Tetsuya Nomura began as a graphic designer,[46] and Tetsuya Takahashi and Kaori Tanaka were both artists and writers.

With the production of Final Fantasy VII, Square decided to shift their projects to Sony Computer Entertainment's new PlayStation console, prompted by the affordability of CD-ROM distribution, compared to Nintendo's continued use of expensive cartridges.

[8] In 1996, Square's final project with Nintendo was Sting Entertainment's Treasure Hunter G for the Super Famicom, while the company debuted DreamFactory's Tobal No.

[8] These included Parasite Eve, based on a novel of the same name by Hideaki Sena;[69][70] Front Mission, which began on the Super Famicom but was transferred to the PlayStation beginning with its second entry;[71] and the Final Fantasy spin-off series Chocobo, starring an incarnation of the titular mascot character.

[7][73] Late in the PlayStation's lifecycle, Square continued to support the console with multiple releases, such as Threads of Fate (1999) and Vagrant Story (2000).

[75][76] During the late 1990s, Square launched an initiative to give teams of younger staff members a chance to create experimental titles on smaller budgets.

The corporate reshuffle was intended to strengthen Square's overseas connections and bring in technical and administrative support for future digital and online content.

[8][84] Titled Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, it was planned as Sakaguchi's first push towards cross-media storytelling; however, the project ran over budget and ended up costing Square and co-producer Columbia Pictures US$137 million.

[8] Following both the failure of The Spirits Within and a delay of Final Fantasy X (2001) for the PlayStation 2, Square suffered a financial loss for the first time, prompting Sakaguchi, Takechi, and director Masatsugu Hiramatsu to resign from their positions.

[90] Under Wada, the company underwent restructuring with the intent of streamlining production and resources, and cutting development costs to increase profits.

[91] After evaluation of its financial position, and with changes to the console war due to Microsoft's Xbox, Square opened talks with Nintendo for the first time since their breakup in the 1990s.

[1][119][120] One of their third-party North American releases was the original Breath of Fire by Capcom, who were busy enough to outsource publishing and localization to Square.

[125] Many Square titles remained exclusive to Japan, for reasons including design complexities, low graphical quality, and technical difficulties.

[40] In 1997, a second Square USA branch was opened in Honolulu, Hawaii to focus on new interactive entertainment research,[134] going on to help with CGI development on Parasite Eve and Final Fantasy IX.

[141] Square USA's Hawaiian branch developed the CGI short "Final Flight of the Osiris" that later formed part of the 2003 anthology film The Animatrix.

[92][93][144] The Game Designers Studio was absorbed back into Square Enix after the completion of Crystal Chronicles, first renamed to SQEX Corporation and eventually dissolved entirely in 2010.

The Square-owned label, called Disk Original Group (DOG), included Square, HummingBirdSoft, System Sacom, Microcabin, Carry Lab, Thinking Rabbit, and Xtalsoft.

[52][172] Staff members from Square Pictures, including The Spirits Within co-director Motonori Sakakibara, established Sprite Animation Studios in 2002.