It’s safe to say that Forspoken has not had the best launch. The open world title was the first game to be developed wholly under Luminous Productions – a studio formed primarily of Final Fantasy XV developers. Unfortunately, it seems as though this initiative did not pan out, as Luminous Productions is now being merged back into Square Enix.

Square Enix Holdings released a statement announcing the news, saying “SQUARE ENIX HOLDINGS CO., LTD. announces that it will merge its wholly owned subsidiary Luminous Productions Co., Ltd. into its wholly owned subsidiary SQUARE ENIX CO., LTD. effective Monday, May 1, 2023.”

In the wake of this the official Luminous Productions Twitter page offered additional information on the matter, saying: “You may have heard the news that Luminous Productions is merging with Square Enix. Beginning on May 1, our talented team will join Square Enix to deliver new, innovative gaming experiences to players across the globe.”

The team continued, “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!”

It is a shame to see Luminous Productions set to be no more after just 5 years and only developing one title (two if you count their work on FFXV). That said, considering the commercial and critical reception to Forspoken, it is perhaps not too surprising. Hopefully the team fares better with their future endeavours.

KitGuru says: What do you think of this news? Are you disappointed? What would you have liked to see next from Luminous Productions? Let us know down below.

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