After fulfilling various roles at Square Enix for more than twenty years, Hiromichi Tanaka is leaving the Japanese developer / publisher to work on his own projects. The report by Gamasutra states that an additional reason Tanaka will be leaving the company is because of an illness, though Tanaka did not futher elaborate on this.
Tanaka joined Squaresoft in 1983 and started out as one of the game designers on the first three installments released in the Final Fantasy-franchise. He moved on to the role of producer for several other Sqauresoft titles, and finally took on the role of lead designer for Final Fantasy XI.