Following Forspoken’s middling sales and reviews, the developer—Luminous Productions—is being absorbed back into Square Enix proper.
On May 1st, Luminous Productions will be merged back into its parent company, Square Enix. This announcement comes following the studio’s sole game release seemingly flopping after middling review scores and disappointing sales numbers. The game in question, Forspoken, was critically panned for its dialogue and pacing, but the action RPG received a lot of positive reviews as well, including here at CGMagazine.
Luminous Productions confirmed the news of its upcoming absorption into Square Enix in a post on its official Twitter account:
“When we established Luminous Productions in 2018, our vision was to make AAA games that fused technology and artistry to deliver completely new play experiences. Having the chance to do just that has been a dream come true… We appreciate you taking this journey with us and look forward to continuing to create new entertainment and experiences as a part of the Square Enix family.”
Luminous Productions
While there would normally be some concern as to what happens with Forspoken following this news, Luminous Productions assured players that future patches and DLC previously announced are still on track for release:
“Between now and then we remain entirely focused on Forspoken. We are currently working on the previously announced patch to address overall game performance (we will deliver an update soon) and the DLC, In Tanta We Trust, is on track for release this summer. Thank you again for your patience and support!”
Luminous Productions
Luminous Productions was originally founded by Hajime Tabata (who resigned in 2019 and started their own company, JP Games) and Square Enix employees from Business Division 2 following the launch of Final Fantasy XV. So many of the original staff came from this portion of Square Enix that they stated that it functionally “no longer exists.” While it’s not been announced what exactly will happen with the staff of Luminous Productions now, because of their history, they could simply find themselves back where they started following this announcement.
