Viewing Company : Square Enix

Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd. is a Japanese video game developer, publisher, and distribution company. The original Square Enix was formed as the result of a merger between Square and Enix in April of 2003. The company owns Taito Corporation and Eidos Interactive, which has been absorbed into Square Enix Europe. Square Enix now publishes all of Eidos’s intellectual property and runs Eidos’s development studios.


Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition mysteriously REelisted on PlayStation 4
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition mysteriously REelisted on PlayStation 4

UPDATE 06/30/20: After approximately one week, Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition returned to sale on PlayStation 4 today in all affected regions. It’s unclear if any of the licensed content we mentioned previously has been altered, but the game is once again available. We made a quick check on PC and Xbox, and the game remains available on those platforms as well.

PSNProfiles forum members noticed last week that Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, the 2014 repackaging of the previous year’s Tomb Raider reboot, had disappeared from the PlayStation Store. Digging into it this weekend, here’s a quick recap of where this peculiar situation stands.

So far, only the PlayStation 4 versions of the game have been delisted, and it’s only been removed from Western regions (Australia, Europe, North America). It is currently only available on PlayStation 4 in Asian territories including Hong Kong and Japan but it’s still out there worldwide on Xbox One. Equally odd is that neither the original PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 versions have gone away.

So what gives? The best I can figure is that the Definitive Edition releases included some extra content that may have had separate licensing terms. From Square’s own product description, that includes the “digital versions of the Dark Horse comic, Brady Games mini-art book and the Final Hours developer videos (from Geoff Keighley and Spike TV)”.

It’s possible we’re in the middle of a rolling delisting and that the Xbox One versions as well as the Asian releases on PlayStation 4 will disappear once their regional content teams get up to speed. However, it’s also possible that Square Enix is working to restore the Definitive Editions with a renewed license from all parties involved. Ironically, it’s equally possible they’ll come back without the bonus content, making them decidedly less definitive packages.

I’ll keep checking the store pages this coming week to see if anything changes and get the game on the site after that. Thanks to @Dinahfan1Luid77 for linking to PSNProfiles’ discussion and pointing out this curious situation.

Hands on with Spelunker World ahead of its shutdown in July
Hands on with Spelunker World ahead of its shutdown in July

Square Enix and Tozai Games announced back in January that their free-to-play PlayStation 4 title, Spelunker World, would be coming to an end in July. I haven’t actively played the game in about 4 years but I spent some time brushing up over the weekend and recorded just under an hour of footage.

It’s honestly a pretty succinct video given the game’s 100 stages and hundreds of upgradeable items including crossovers with Tomb Raider, Just Cause, Final Fantasy, and more. I go over the shutdown announcement, show off a few stages, and refresh myself on the fusing and upgrade systems. 

I’d like to record a few more sessions before the game is shut down on July 29th including some of the Japanese version that I started playing in 2015. Let me know what you think and what else you’d like to see from the game over the next month.

Spelunker World on PlayStation 4 shutting down July 29th
Spelunker World on PlayStation 4 shutting down July 29

Tozai Games announced on January 29th that their free-to-play PlayStation 4 title Spelunker World will become unplayable at the end of July. Downloading the game and purchasing it’s in-game currency was disabled the same day, and although you can play the entire thing solo, once the servers are shut down the game will no longer be accessible to anyone.

First, we would like to thank all the spelunkers who have supported and enjoyed our SPELUNKER WORLD. It is with heavy hearts that we will be concluding the service for SPELUNKER WORLD as of July 29th 2020, 8:00 PM (PDT). Below is the planned schedule regarding the end of service:

January 29, 2020, 7:00 PM (PST): Notice about service conclusion. (This notice.) 

January 29, 2020, around 7:00 PM (PST): The Game and all Moon Gems will be removed from the PS Store, and in-app purchases will be disabled. * New Moon Gems will not be able to be purchased, but Moon Gems already purchased before the end of Moon Gem sales can be used until the end of the service.

July 29, 2020, 8:00 PM (PDT): Service end. 

Since the release of SPELUNKER WORLD in November 2015, we appreciate and thank all of the players who have supported our game, and hope everyone continues to enjoy spelunking during the remaining time of the service.

Tozai has re-enabled as many of the game’s timed events and unlockable gear as possible for players who already have the game installed. 

On a personal note, this one hits me especially hard as Spelunker World was one of the reasons I got a PlayStation 4 in the first place. I worked my way through the Japanese version and when it was released in English I did it all over again. I haven’t played since 2016 but I’m going to try to find the time to give it a fitting revisit before it’s gone.

For now I’ve added the date to the Watch List calendar and will get a page up on the site in due time. Thanks to @MckissickAllen for pointing out this news.