Luminous Productions to merge into Square Enix in May 2023

Luminous Productions is coming off of the release of Forspoken and is still currently working on patches and DLC for the game, but soon it will reorganize to become a full part of Square Enix. It has been announced that Luminous Productions will merge into Square Enix and become part of the larger publisher this coming May 2023. Until then, it will still work on new content and improvements for Forspoken with a patch coming shortly and DLC coming in the summer season.

The decision to merge Luminous Productions into Square Enix was announced via a press release from the latter, as well as a statement on the Luminous Productions Twitter on February 28, 2023. The merge is set to be completed by May 1, 2023, and Square Enix believes it will boost Luminous’ output of AAA game development:

The merger is part of the Company’s efforts to further bolster the competitive prowess of the Group’s development studios, a goal set forth under its current medium-term business strategy. Square Enix Co., Ltd. has developed numerous AAA high-definition games and possesses a wealth of intellectual property and content. Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. is meanwhile equipped not only with AAA title development capabilities but also technical expertise in areas such as game engine development. Combining the two entities will further enhance the Group’s ability to develop HD games.

Forspoken was Luminous Productions' most recent project and the studio will continue to work on DLC and patches for the game leading up to its merge with Square Enix.
Source: Luminous Productions

Luminous would go on to say that it still has plans in the works until the merge is complete, including the development of content and patches for the recently released Forspoken:

It’s an interesting situation with Luminous. The company was originally formed during the development of Final Fantasy XV. Employees got together from Square Enix’s former “Business Division 2” to form the group, effectively making Square Enix’s division inactive. Luminous went on to help develop Final Fantasy XV to completion with Square Enix before focusing on its own project in Forspoken. Now it seems that group is being rolled back into the group from which it began.

It will be interesting to see what comes next for the crew at Luminous as Forspoken wasn’t a bad experience. At the very least, we know more content and patches are coming for the game. Stay tuned for further news on the developer as information becomes available leading up to its merge into Square Enix.