In its latest progress report on its medium-term business plan, Square Enix has revealed that it plans to promote the use of AI-based technologies in Japan. This plan revolves around the company teaming up with the Matsuo-Iwasawa Laboratory at the University of Tokyo in order to partake in joint research. There is also a planned company-wide business idea contest at Square Enix with AI being the main theme. Ideas will be selected from this contest to then be developed into projects.
The goal of the joint research with the Matsuo-Iwasawa lab has stated goal of automating 70 percent of the work that goes into quality assurance and debugging tasks related to game development by the end of 2027. This, the company hopes, will happen by making use of automation technology that can also be leveraged to improve the efficiency of QA operations. To take part in this research, a team of more than 10 members comprised of engineers at the Matsuo-Iawasawa lab and engineers from Square Enix group will collaborate.
It is worth noting these plans to make use of AI tools for the purposes of QA and debugging in game development were first mentioned back in May as part of Square Enix’s “three year reboot” plans. At the time, the company had noted that it wanted to create a new research and development division that would work on AI-based development tools, and had noted that this would start paying off in around 3 years, which falls perfectly in line with the stated end-of-2027 deadline mentioned in the new progress report.
The three-year reboot plan also includes further streamlining the game development pipeline at Square Enix. The more recent progress report noted that the company wants to achieve a shift from quantity of releases to quality. By the end of FY 2027, the company wants to “achieve stable launches of major titles centered on key IPs, following the three-year period of the current medium-term business plan.” Some of the games noted as being part of this three-year reboot plan include Octopath Traveler 0, Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined, and Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade on Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S, which all have release dates of December 4, February 2 and January 22 respectively.
Along with these, the company has also mentioned titles like Killer Inn and The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales, which don’t yet have release dates yet. After these titles, and heading into FY 2028, Square Enix also wants to have released multiple new titles across different platforms, as well as “several” large-scale titles, which would ultimately lead to “consistent releases of large-scale titles.”
Square Enix also noted that it has “expansion projects for existing titles” since March 2025 when it comes to growing the fan base for these games. Part of this was to grow the fan base for each of the titles, including the recent releases of Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles and Dragon Quest 1 and 2 HD-2D Remake, as well as the upcoming Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined.
