Square brings Ubi games to Japan

With the Japanese gaming market sputtering in recent years, Square Enix has made it a top priority to expand its operations to a global scale. Part of that initiative involves establishing a significant presence in Western markets, and recent months have seen Square Enix sign publishing deals with the likes of Gas Powered Games as well as set up its own development studio in Los Angeles.

However, the Japanese gaming company hasn't given up hope on its home nation entirely. Today, Square Enix announced that it had entered into an agreement with Ubisoft to be the exclusive distributor of the French company's games in Japan, beginning in April 2009.

"The global video game market is expected to maintain sustainable growth thanks to geographical expansion and diversification of customer base," said Square Enix president Yoichi Wada in a statement. "By partnering with the Ubisoft Group, [which has] a number of highly acclaimed titles, we can now work to provide high-quality overseas-produced games to Japan, thus invigorating the Japanese game market while strengthening our presence as a global leader in the video game industry."

Square Enix and Ubisoft did not reveal any particular game that would be party to the distribution agreement, promising only that additional details will be available at a later date. As noted by the publisher in today's announcement, Ubisoft's wares won't be the first foreign-produced games that Square Enix will have distributed in Japan. That designation belongs to UK-based Frontier Development's WiiWare game LostWinds, which Square Enix delivered to Japanese audiences in December.