News
Final Fantasy XV Director Hajime Tabata Establishes JP Games Company
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Final Fantasy XV game director Hajime Tabata announced on Facebook on Monday that he has established the company JP Games, Inc. Preparations are currently underway, and Tabata is planning to launch the company in January. The announcement also included the following message in Japanese and English: "And to everyone who has assisted me until today--I kindly ask for your ongoing support."
Square Enix's subsidiary studio Luminous Productions also announced that it has appointed Takeshi Aramaki as the new studio head. Aramaki formerly worked as the vice president of development at Luminous Productions. He worked as the lead programmer for Final Fantasy XV and was also involved with the development of the game's PC version.
Square Enix announced in November that Tabata resigned from both Square Enix and Luminous Productions on October 31. Tabata wrote in a letter at that time that he is working on a new project and has started his own business to work on it.
Final Fantasy XV went on sale worldwide for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2016. The game received a Royal Edition for the PS4 and Xbox One on March 6. The new release includes the previously released Season Pass DLC, as well as other features. The Windows Edition also launched on the same day. The game's Pocket Edition for iOS and Android launched on February 9, and also received HD releases for PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in September.
The game's combined amount of digital sales and physical shipments reached 8.1 million copies worldwide as of September.
Tabata was the former head of Luminous Productions. The subsidiary is staffed by many members of the development team for Final Fantasy XV. Square Enix founded the subsidiary in March, but recently reported an extraordinary loss for the company amounting to 3.733 billion yen (about US$33 million) for the six-month period ending on September 30, 2018.
Sources: Hajime Tabata's Facebook account, Game Watch via Gematsu (link 2)
