Polygon Article
Today, it sits above a Doutor coffee shop a few doors from a train station in a busy part of Hiyoshi, Yokohama.
Visit the building and you won't see a plaque commemorating the history or remnants of a company whose characters now model Louis Vuitton clothes and sell millions of games. Yet on that spot in 1983, inside his father's office space, founder Masafumi Miyamoto began a development studio called Square.
Initially, it wasn't even a formally-designated company. It was a room where people came and went.
Some describe the company in its early days as a family business. One of Square's first hires, Shinichiro Kajitani, joined simply because he was friends with Miyamoto and compares the young studio to a college club. Another, Hironobu Sakaguchi, designed games while working part time.
”We treated it like a hobby, not a career," says longtime Square composer Nobuo Uematsu. ”We just wanted to do what we liked. We weren't worried about our salaries or living situations or thinking, ‘Where is this company going?'"
But people grow up and things change.
After a few early successes and stumbles, Square found a hit in the Final Fantasy series of role-playing games. Moved into progressively larger offices. Hired hundreds of people. Built a portfolio.
”Eventually Square's stock went public, and Sakaguchi-san and people on the management side had to focus hard on the financial goals they had to reach, the unit numbers that they had to hit," says Uematsu.
”That whole mentality started to change around the time of Final Fantasy 7."
When Final Fantasy 7 shipped in 1997, it was Square's cash cow. The game pioneered 3D graphics techniques, helped Sony's PlayStation outperform its competitors, established Japanese RPGs in the West and went on to sell more than 11 million copies. To many fans, it defined Square as a company.