Forspoken Dev Luminous Productions will soon be no more as it has folded into Square Enix

Luminous Productions, the development team behind Forspoken, will merge with publisher Square Enix on May 1st. The Japanese outfit was already a subsidiary of Square Enix, so that essentially means it will no longer exist as its own studio. Instead, we assume that most of its employees will move to different parts of the parent company.

The core of Luminous Productions was initially made up of developers who worked on Final Fantasy XV, the studio was officially founded in 2018. Its overall purpose was to create new, big budget features using Square Enix’s Luminous Engine.

Forspoken was the company’s first attempt, but it’s fair to say that things didn’t go particularly well. The project had a somewhat turbulent development cycle, with several delays, and when it was finally released earlier this year, it was met with lukewarm reviews, and it divided player opinion.

We’re not sure if this spells the end for the brilliant engine, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see the publisher cut its losses.

As for Forspoken, Shining Productions says it’s still committed to the action RPG for the time being. A seemingly major update is still in the works – aimed at improving technical performance – and the title’s ‘In Tanta We Trust’ DLC is promised for a summer launch.