Case Study: Square Enix achieves 90% faster international data transfers with Riverbed Steelhead appliances

Square Enix - Customer Case Study

Square Enix, the global video-game developer behind franchises like FINAL FANTASY and DRAGON QUEST, faced growing delays transferring large game ROMs and development files (4–5GB per ROM, with project files much larger) between Japan, North America and Europe. Using a 100 Mbps Internet VPN, daily localization and QA transfers were taking about half a day, creating a one-day workflow lag and stressing WAN links when multiple developers downloaded the same large files.

To fix this, Square Enix deployed Riverbed SteelHead appliances—SH5050 units at high‑latency overseas links and SH7050s with all‑SSD caching at major Japanese sites—optimizing TCP and caching large volumes of data. Transfer times dropped by more than 90% (from ~half a day to about one hour), eliminating lag, streamlining development, and prompting broader rollouts across Japan and planned deployment in China, plus adoption of mobile and management tools.

Square Enix

Tatsuya Mori

Manager of the Information Systems Division