Yoshida On Destroying the Company, And How to Not

Posted on Saturday 1st December 2012 at 22:47 by Death Penalty (with credit to Cazboab)

"We won't make a mistake like FFXIV again - if we did, it would be like at the level of destroying the company."

That's the buzz quote coming from a Kotaku interview last week with A Realm Reborn: FFXIV producer Naoki Yoshida. The revised version, first announced last summer and officially shut down until re-release a month ago, has been a headache since its inception. We've all heard lately how much of a blunder Square Enix's recent MMO attempt turned out to be, and we all knew Yoshida certainly has his hands full, but this admittance - coming from a big player int he company - shows the company as in deeper trouble than any of the comments preceding it.

On a more hopeful note, Yoshida speaks of his efforts to turn around FFXIV with competency and no hesitance towards calling out past mistakes, particularly the company's failure to survey and emulate the contemporary MMO landscape. By failing to do this the first time around, Yoshida says the team behind FFXIV failed to create anything more than an out-of-date rehashing of FFXI. He also says that under his watch - unlike last time, when a half-finished project was rushed into release - the game won't be released until it is completely ready, so as to ensure its success.

Who knows, Yoshida might just pull off a resurrection; he's confident enough, and Square Enix certainly has high hopes pinned on the guy. Because, you know, nobody wants to destroy the company.

Source: Kotaku

Posted in: Square-Enix News

Written by	Death Penalty
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Comments

Blinge Odonata	Comment 1: 2012-12-02 09:21
	Does anyone else feel like there's a flock of vultures circling the company as we speak? industry and critics alike..
MogMaster	Comment 2: 2012-12-03 05:30
	Quote (Blinge Odonata @ 2nd December 2012 05:21) Does anyone else feel like there's a flock of vultures circling the company as we speak? industry and critics alike.. I really do. But it's been that way since they lost their awesome character designer (some might argue "character designers"), awesome producer/director/supervisor, and their awesome musician.
Glenn Magus Harvey	Comment 3: 2012-12-04 14:35
	I know the first is Yoshitaka Amano (and Tetsuya Nomura possibly), and the third is Nobuo Uematsu, but who's the second? Hironobu Sakaguchi?
MogMaster	Comment 4: 2012-12-06 04:22
	Indeed I do. He's a magic man.
Death Penalty	Comment 5: 2012-12-06 10:48
	Quote (Glenn Magus Harvey @ 4th December 2012 10:35) I know the first is Yoshitaka Amano (and Tetsuya Nomura possibly), and the third is Nobuo Uematsu, but who's the second? Hironobu Sakaguchi? I'm not sure that this conclusion is entirely fair (not GMH's conclusion but MogMasters, GMH just filled in the names). Uematsu's work is absolutely incredible, but it isn't as if the series has lacked in soundtracks since his departure. FFX's incredible OST was only overseen by Uematsu; most of the tracks were written by others. FFXII and FFXIII each had strong soundtracks as well, each of which had a unique feel and pronounced style felt in all of the tracks. (Also, while he is no longer the official FF composer, he was in charge of the FFXIV soundtrack, so we may see more of him.) Yoshitaka Amano, while great, hasn't had the central position in the series since FFVI; I don't think anyone, even here, wants to argue that the Final Fantasy series didn't produce anything worthwhile after his departure. Tetsuya Nomura, of course, is still very much active in the series, directing FF Versus XIII, so it doesn't really make sense to call him 'lost'. With Sakaguchi it's a bit trickier, since it's hard to tell how much direct influence he exerted on the actual end result of any game after FFV, the last title he directed. He's listed as producer for VI, VII and IX and executive producer for VIII, but there were certainly people in each of these titles, particularly VII and VIII, who served more important roles in shaping the final product. So you might be right there, but it's certainly debatable.
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