After his departure from Square Enix, Final Fantasy XV director Hajime Tabata started his own company called JP Games, which he talked about during an end-of-year NicoNico live stream with guest developers.
During the broadcast, Tabata was asked to share what his three major news was for this year, to which he said one was āNot being able to release all of Final Fantasy XVās DLC.ā One of the guest asked āIs that okay to talk about? but CyberConnect2 CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama was more direct and asked if he left Square Enix because they didnāt let him finish the DLC.
Hereās are some highlights from Tabata, starting with talk about Final Fantasy XVās DLC [Thanks, Gamestalk.]:
- I decided to leave Square Enix, and while talking about succeeding duties and positions, we also decided what would happen with Final Fantasy XVās DLC.
- I personally thought it was a shame that Final Fantasy XVās DLC development got canceled. I feel great regret for the people that were waiting for it.
- Responding to Matsuyama saying āAs a fan of Final Fantasy XV, I wouldāve liked to have had Tabatis work on it to the end before departing,ā Tabata expressed a sense of accomplishment saying āI wasnāt able to do it to the end, but I did everything I could.ā
- Ultimately, the deciding factor of Tabataās departure was a problem of motivation. I want to be able to progress through my own path and do what I want without troubling anyone at a company.
- It is a shame that we couldnāt release all the DLC for Final Fantasy XV, and I feel very regretful about it. However, that has nothing to do with the reason I departed from the company.
- There wasnāt any quarrel at Square Enix or anything, and I left the company on good terms.
The next part are highlights from Tabataās new company JP Games:
- There are several employees working at the recently established JP Games. Weāre still looking for an office.
- There hasnāt been any outside investments, but for now weāre using our own funds.
- At the very beginning, I was thinking about going independent and seeing if I can make an AAA title with the company.
- Weāll be adding more staff, but will keep it on the lower number.
- For platforms, Iād like to go multi-platform with consoles, PC, and smartphones.
- While working on Final Fantasy XV, I had a strong desire to change the way it was being developed. During the busy season thereās an increase in work and a shortage of workers. When that happens, for example, we would get a boost in numbers from a studio somewhere in Vietnam or Malaysia and develop, but it was difficult to flexibly scale up like that. I also had to prepare high-spec PCs, create all the security policies, and so on. That part was rough, so I want to change the way things are made, something cloud-based. So before making a game, Iād like to evolve the way theyāre made first.
- Iād like to eventually make a large-scale game. However, I donāt think weāll employ a bunch of developers at once. Itāll mostly be a virtual thing.
Published: Dec 17, 2018 08:00 am