Square Enix West Material Usage Policy
Last Updated: Thursday 8 Jun 2023 11:00 GMT

Square Enix West Material Usage Policy

Last Updated: Thursday 8 Jun 2023 11:00 GMT

Square Enix is honoured when fans want to share material from our games—including videos and screen shots—online, but we ask that you be mindful of a few things, as set out in this Material Usage Policy (the “Policy”).

First, please note that this Policy applies only to games developed and published by Square Enix’s western division, not to games developed or published by Square Enix’s Japanese affiliates (including Square Enix’s Japanese office, LUMINOUS PRODUCTIONS, and Taito Corporation). Accordingly, this Policy does not apply to any games in the following franchises: FINAL FANTASY, KINGDOM HEARTS, DRAGON QUEST, NieR, SPACE INVADERS, or any other Japanese franchise (even if a Western studio worked on the game). For those franchises, our colleagues in Japan will determine what uses are permissible on a game-by-game basis. Please respect their wishes. Notwithstanding the foregoing, this Policy does apply to FINAL FANTASY XVI and FINAL FANTASY VII EVER CRISIS.

Since every situation is different, and this Policy applies to so many different games, Square Enix reserves the right to object to any use of Square Enix materials and Square Enix may submit takedown requests to third parties hosting any such content. With that said, here are some general rules that will guide our decisions:

  • No Commercial Use: Do not use Square Enix materials to make money or gain any other financial benefit. This means you can’t sell our game content and you can’t use our game content to help sell other products or services. Similarly, you can’t require payment to view or access any Square Enix materials. However, we do allow you to monetise content via advertising through platform-operated programs on YouTube, Twitch, Mixer, and other similar services.

  • Only Original Square Enix Content: Some Square Enix games contain music or other content that Square Enix doesn’t own. Usually you’ll be able to recognise this—for example, Square Enix doesn’t own the music that plays on the radio in Sleeping Dogs—but we understand it won’t always be clear. If you include non-Square Enix music or other content in your video (even if it was in the original Square Enix game), your video could be subject to filtering or takedown notices by the owner of the copyright in the original work. Since we cannot grant you a license to use someone else’s content, you’ll need to get permission from the copyright owner(s) before using their content.

  • Attribution: If you use Square Enix’s materials, you should mention that they belong to us by showing our copyright notice. “© Square Enix” will suffice. This helps protects us legally and it’s also nice to give credit to the creators. If Square Enix’s original materials include any credits or legal lines, you must not remove them.

  • No Unreleased Content: Unofficial content from our games—including leaked content, content released without Square Enix’s permission in advance of an embargo date, or content otherwise captured or obtained without Square Enix’s permission—must not be posted online, and especially not prior to the official release date for the game. Square Enix treats pre-release leaks very seriously; you may receive a copyright “strike” or suffer other consequences if you violate this guideline.

  • Spoilers: Spoilers can ruin a player’s game experience, so we ask you to be considerate when posting content that may contain spoilers and to clearly mark any such content. This is especially important during the first few weeks after a game launches. In all cases, please use appropriate and clear spoiler warning tags; we also encourage you to use verbal spoiler warnings at the start of your videos.

  • No Unauthorised Use or Copying: You still have to follow the terms of our software licenses and user agreements, which means, among other things, that you cannot modify any of our games without permission and you cannot copy, reverse engineer, distribute, or do anything else with the game software that would breach the applicable end-user license or terms of service.

  • Unofficial Content: You must make clear that your content is not sponsored or endorsed by Square Enix. It’s a problem if someone might think your content or channel is official.

  • No Ripping or Extracting Files: You may not separate our videos or other content into component parts (vocals, music, visuals, etc.) and distribute the individual components as standalone assets.

  • Our Trademarks: You may not use our trademarks (e.g., game titles and our company name) other than to describe the fact that your video is about one of our games. Use of our logos is not permitted at all.

  • Don’t Be Offensive: Please don’t use Square Enix materials in any content that is or could appear to be offensive, racist, sexist, homophobic, sexually explicit, hateful, harassing, defamatory, deceptive, controversial, or otherwise inappropriate or illegal (including any use on or in connection with any piracy sites), or in any content that promotes any of the foregoing.

  • Don’t Remix Our Materials With Those of Others: This can be confusing to viewers, as it may not be clear who owns what content, and where each piece of content is from.

  • Additional Guidelines: Individual games may be covered by different or additional guidelines (such guidelines could be provided with the game itself, on the game’s website, or in another publicly accessible location); if so, please abide by those guidelines. If Square Enix issues you individualised written guidelines, please abide by those guidelines.

Violation of the guidelines above is the most common reason we might object to your use of our materials, but there may be others. Please use common sense and act responsibly. Note that you use our materials at your own risk, and we don’t offer any warranties. Finally, please note that we can’t address individual requests for clearance or questions, so feel free to share this link with anyone requesting details about our policy.