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MEMBERS Year in Review

  • Posted on
  • December 30, 2008 4:04 PM
  • in
  • Memberland

It's been a fun year for us here at SQUARE ENIX MEMBERS. Whether you've been with us since day one, or you're just coming aboard, we're glad you joined.

To close out 2008, we've put together a quick rundown of our first year of operations. Maybe you'll notice something you missed the first time around, or maybe you'll simply be in a nostalgic mood, but either way, we hope you'll enjoy everything that made up MEMBERS 2008.

SQUARE ENIX MEMBERS launched in late March of this year, and we hit the ground running. We started off with several interviews with the individual development teams of FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: Ring of Fates, CRISIS CORE -FINAL FANTASY VII- and THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU. The rest of the month was CRISIS CORE-palooza with a Zack Squats Test mini-game, a sweepstakes to win an Original Soundtrack CD autographed by composer Takeharu Ishimoto, a Shinra company ID signature generator and a launch event diary.

CRISIS CORE and WEWY interviews continued to be posted through April, which also saw our first merchandise feature brought into the mix, as well as a New York Comic-Con diary.

In May, we launched our first WiiWare title, FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: My Life as a King, and along with it our first interactive game, Everyone's Kingdom, plus an interview with Director Kenichiro Yuji. We also uploaded the first high-definition trailer of Infinite Undiscovery.

081219_01.gifIn June, we brought THE WORLD ENDS WITH YOU back to MEMBERS' attention with the Reaper Quiz, and conducted our first interview with the FINAL FANTASY TACTICS A2: Grimoire of the Rift development team. Our biggest feature though, was the launch of the Game Zone, our biggest addition to SQUARE ENIX MEMBERS so far.

Through the month of July, we added more FFTA2 interviews, more games to the Game Zone, more wallpapers to the Fan Zone; an interview with the FINAL FANTASY FABLES: Chocobo's Dungeon creators, a Chocobo's Dungeon Original Soundtrack sweepstakes and unlockable dungeons; DRAGON QUEST IV: Chapters of the Chosen comic strips; FFTA2 side stories; and FINAL FANTASY IV MySpace layouts. To top off an already packed month, the MEMBERS team made a rare public appearance at the San Comic Con to pass out hand fans.

August mimicked July in terms of continuing updates, but we could breathe a little easier without having to worry over any public appearances. We did up the giveaway excitement with ten FFIV themed Nintendo DS Lite cases.

While everyone else was preparing for the back to school season, we were collecting questions for our first Fan-Powered Q&A. It was hugely popular, and we continued to accept questions and update it throughout September.

081219_02.jpgIn October, MEMBERS visited Tokyo Game Show, began our CHRONO TRIGGER New Feature feature, kicked off another Fan-Powered Q&A and posted the first in a series of our KINGDOM HEARTS Re:Chain of Memories eCards.

In November, we concluded our long-running DQIV comic strip feature, previewed a whole bunch of new Square Enix merchandise, debunked an unfortunate rumor regarding FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: The Crystal Bearers (it's still coming!), and created a special clock to celebrate the release of CHRONO TRIGGER for the Nintendo DS.

And finally, to wrap up the year, the MEMBERS team attended the FINAL FANTASY XI Fan Festival to hand out special MEMBERS posters, and kicked off another contest to give away more autographed soundtracks, not to mention review the year up to this point.

Thanks as always for your support, and see you next year!