Square Enix is bringing more of its stories to the page.
The video game company has announced a new deal with Penguin Random House Publisher Services that will bring all-new original titles from the company behind iconic game properties from Space Invaders to Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider to the American market under its own banner for the first time.
Square Enix is known primarily in the U.S. as a video game company, but in its native Japan, it’s also responsible for books, magazines and manga publications centered around its many properties. In the past, the company has licensed those properties — and translations of its own original material — to existing U.S. publishers, most notably Dark Horse Comics, which has published material based on Final Fantasy, NieR: Automata and Bravely Default, as well as Tomb Raider comic books, in recent years.
“We are excited to have this opportunity to introduce our wide variety of books with the help of PRHPS to our new readers,” said Katsuyoshi Matsuura, executive officer and vp of the publication business unit of Square Enix.
Penguin Random House Publisher Services president Jeff Abraham added, “We are thrilled to be partnering with Square Enix for their venture into the worldwide, English-speaking market. We see significant opportunity for their exciting and original program to succeed here.”
The new Square Enix line will launch this fall, with one prose release — Final Fantasy XV: The Dawn of the Future — and three manga titles: Hi Score Girl, A Man and His Cat, and the complete edition of best-selling series Soul Eater. Future releases will include novels, manga and art books, according to the company.
