🎮 Square Enix is putting 1 billion yen (about $6.3 million) on the table for 15 original games: 300 million yen for first place, 100 million yen each for four runners-up, and 30 million yen each for ten more. Entries open on December 15, 2026. The first line of the eligibility rules says you have to live in Japan.

The SQUARE ENIX GAME CONTEST 2026 was announced on May 20, 2026. For developers outside Japan, the document that matters is the final set of entry terms, published on October 2. It says who can enter and what a winner gives up.

First, can you enter from abroad?

No. The official site lists three conditions, and the first is that entrants must be individuals, groups or companies residing in Japan. The final terms spell it out further: individuals or teams living in Japan, or companies with their head office registered in Japan.

The rule is about where you live, not your passport. Asked by the Japanese games site AUTOMATON whether a foreign national living in Japan could enter, executive producer Yosuke Saito said there is no restriction based on nationality. Takashi Tokita, a producer and director at Creative Studio 5, said the Japan-residence line was drawn for legal reasons.

Tokita didn't say what those reasons are. The payment rules show what winning involves in practice. Prize money goes into a Japanese bank account, and individual winners must submit a My Number, Japan's resident ID number used for tax, along with ID documents. Japanese income tax is withheld from prizes paid to individuals.

If you live outside Japan, there are other routes, including one at Square Enix itself. Square Enix Collective, its global indie funding and publishing division, is the label behind PowerWash Simulator. Saito told AUTOMATON the two programs are completely separate, though the teams talk to each other. Shueisha Games, the game arm of the publisher behind Weekly Shonen Jump, accepts game pitches in Japanese or English. Its terms set no residence requirement, and a proposal and a portfolio are enough to apply.

Why only Japan?

Saito, an executive officer at Square Enix and the producer behind the NieR series and Dragon Quest X, gave Famitsu a short answer. He wants Japanese creators to do well, and this round is aimed at people living in Japan. He added that he hopes winners become creators recognized worldwide.

He also brought up Enix's old contests. In 1982, Enix, one half of today's Square Enix, held its first Game Hobby Program Contest. Total prize money was 3 million yen, with 1 million yen for the top prize (nominal 1982 figures). Close to 300 games came in, and 13 were sold commercially. Yuji Horii of Dragon Quest and Koichi Nakamura, whose later work includes Shiren the Wanderer, were among the winners.

Saito recalled a later Enix contest that took entries from anywhere in the world. The winner was from Chile, and the win made the local papers, he said. This time, entry stops at Japan's border.

1 billion yen, split 15 ways

Award Games Prize
Grand Prize 1 300 million yen (about $1.9 million)
Masterpiece Award 4 100 million yen (about $630,000)
Excellence Award 10 30 million yen (about $190,000)

All 15 slots will be filled. The terms rule out a "no winner" result.

The money is a prize for winning, not a development budget. Saito told Famitsu that Square Enix is not paying in order to dictate the game. On top of the prize, the company says it will handle publishing, distribution and marketing and pay royalties on sales.

Bigger per game than Epic's largest grant

An easy Western comparison is Epic MegaGrants. Epic announced the fund at GDC in March 2019: $100 million over five years, with individual grants from $5,000 to $500,000.

Square Enix's Grand Prize is about 3.8 times MegaGrants' largest single grant, though Epic's 2019 fund was roughly 16 times bigger in total. The bigger difference is in the strings. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney called the grants "no-strings-attached," and Epic said it would not take ownership of the projects. Square Enix's prize comes with a copyright transfer.

Inside Japan, the jump in money is starker. Saito told 4Gamer that contests of this type usually pay from a few million yen up to 10 million yen (about $63,000). Even the smallest award here is three times that ceiling.

What winners hand over

Asked by 4Gamer how ownership of a winning game would work, Saito said it would be a joint work, split roughly one-to-one. The October 2 terms are more precise. When the prize is paid, the winner transfers half of the game's copyright to Square Enix. The FAQ says this wording replaced the earlier "joint work" phrasing to fit Japanese copyright law, and that winners' rights and prize terms did not change.

Article 4 also says:

  • The winner gives blanket advance consent to Square Enix or anyone it designates modifying, adapting and sublicensing the game, with no individual approval needed.
  • The winner agrees not to exercise moral rights, the creator's right to object to changes.
  • The winner hands over source code, project files and all other data needed to maintain and update the game.
  • Winning does not guarantee a release. If Square Enix decides not to ship, the prize is still paid as consideration for the copyright share.
  • Royalty rates are not published. Revenue sharing is set in a separate commercialization contract signed after the award.

Games that don't win stay with their creators and can be entered elsewhere.

The interviews describe a gentler working relationship. Saito told Famitsu that the creator makes the calls that are theirs to make, and told AUTOMATON the creator can hold the final say over the game's content. Tokita compared the setup to the split between a manga artist and an editor. Saito added that winners would generally ship under the Square Enix brand.

Japanese developers are split. One writer on the blogging platform note called it closer to a publishing contract than a prize, with a large sum guaranteed up front. Another warned that a winning game could end up half-owned and never released. Much depends on the commercialization contract, and its terms have not been published.

AI is allowed, with paperwork

The contest permits generative AI. Entrants must declare the tools, model names and versions, and where in production they were used, and guarantee that nothing infringes anyone's rights.

Entries where a specific person's voice or an artist's recognizable style can be identified are excluded from judging. If a game is released, AI-generated parts may need to be redone by hand. As of October 2026, the AI guideline is still labeled a draft, with a final version due after entries open.

What to submit

Games must run on PC or mobile. VR is out. Under-18s can enter with parental consent, and you can submit more than one game. Each entry needs:

  • a design document as a PDF of up to 10 pages
  • a gameplay video of up to 20 minutes, posted as an unlisted YouTube link
  • a build in a ZIP file, as a standalone Windows 11 .exe

Judging has three rounds: video, playable build, then an overall review with interviews. Square Enix says it is hiring ordinary players under NDA as judges, and their scores carry the same weight as staff scores. The criteria are novelty, originality, fun and polish. An unfinished game can still take the Grand Prize if it scores well on novelty, originality and fun.

The deadline is March 15, 2027, at 11:59 p.m. Results are scheduled for June 30, 2027.

Japan is trying more than one way to fund new games and anime, such as a government subsidy for big-budget projects. This one is a publisher paying out of its own pocket, for its own country first.

Does limiting a contest like this to local creators help them reach the world, or keep the world out? If your country's biggest publisher ran one, would you want it open to everyone?

References