Square Enix Opens Game Contest With 1 Billion Yen Prize Pool
Square Enix is funding a contest at a scale that assumes it will crown winners, which makes selection itself the product it is buying: attention for games that would otherwise be buried.
Reporting from 1 source: Inside.
Square Enix announced SQUARE ENIX GAME CONTEST 2026 on May 20, with a total prize pool of 1 billion yen. Executive officer Yosuke Saito, who supervises the contest office, said the company plans to select winning entries from the submissions. He said the goal is to help new developers get noticed in a market where nearly 20,000 works are released on Steam annually.
Saito said the contest was planned around the spread of indie development, where small teams can now finish a playable game in about half a year. He pointed to the volume of releases on Steam, where nearly 20,000 works arrive annually, as the reason a prize or selection matters: it makes a game easier to notice than an unsubmitted one. The contest has no age limit, and Saito said he expects entries from creators of a range of ages, including people making games alone. Square Enix held a similar contest in 1982.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.