Chrono Break was a cancelled third mainline entry in the Chrono series of video games by Square. A similar trademark was registered by the company in the European Union a week later.
The registration followed a press report of talks about a new Chrono series game. Within this report, Hironobu Sakaguchi stated that the development team of Chrono Cross, especially Masato Kato, was interested in creating a new game in the series, and that script and story ideas were currently being considered, but that the project had not yet been greenlighted. Kato had previously mentioned in the Ultimania guide for Chrono Cross that he wanted to create a direct sequel to Chrono Trigger to wrap up certain story elements and plot threads, but the pitfalls of a direct sequel prompted them to do Chrono Cross instead. The registration, and Sakaguchi's comments, led video game journalists to believe that a sequel to Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross was in full development. On November 13, 2003, the trademark was dropped in the U.S. It expired on December 14, 2011, in the European Union, and on July 26, 2012, in Japan. A similar trademark was registered in 2001 by Square Enix in Japan as .
Official response
Inquiry over a new title was subsequently large enough to warrant an entry in Square Enix's FAQ page, in which the company noted that no new game was in development, though this did not mean the series was dead. In 2006, the entry was revised to include sequel inquiries for any series. After the release of Chrono Cross, a number of key staff from the title left Square to form a new development studio, Monolith Soft, which was initially owned by Namco and is currently a first-party developer working under Nintendo. Other staff who had worked on the title remained at Square and proceeded to work on Final Fantasy XI, an MMORPG conceived by Hironobu Sakaguchi – one of Chrono Triggers creators. During an interview at E3 2003, this development team stated that they would love to develop a new Chrono game, but their commitment to Final Fantasy XI would keep them busy for a long time. Richard Honeywood, localization director for Square Enix, explained,