March 5^th, 2004 (12:00am) - The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences, saluted Square Enix last night, awarding the company’s Final Fantasy X-2 video game for Outstanding Achievement in Character Performance – Female for the game’s Rikku, voiced by Tara Strong. AIAS presented the awards at their Seventh Annual Awards ceremony held at the Palms Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada.

FINAL FANTASY X-2 was also a finalist in Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction and Console Role Playing Game of the Year categories. The title was released in November 2003 in North America for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system and has sold more than one million units to date.

Accepting the award, Jun Iwasaki, president and CEO of Square Enix U.S.A., Inc. said, “On behalf of the FINAL FANTASY X-2 development team, I would like to thank the Academy for the award. We are honored that our peers have chosen FINAL FANTASY X-2 from the many excellent titles released this past year. We hope to continue to deliver quality titles and come back for more awards next year.”

Located in Los Angeles, Calif., AIAS is a professional academy of the interactive entertainment software industry. Voting members include some of the most respected designers and executives in the interactive arts and sciences industry. The Interactive Achievement Awards are amongst the most sought after and prestigious awards honoring excellence in video game design for console, computer and online platforms.