The universally deprecated Final Fantasy XIV launch has its staff over at Square Enix restructuring its development team. In a post on the game’s official website, the company announced that Naoki Yoshida (Cross Edge, Record of Agarest War) will be taking over as the new Director/Producer for the title, replacing both Nobuaki Komoto (who remains on staff as Lead Game Designer) and Hiromichi Tanaka and their respective duties.
The full list of staff replacements and changes can be found after the jump. The company also released a statement concerning the PS3 version of the MMO, which has been issued an indefinite delay until the producers are “confident that the game has reached the level of enjoyability and service befitting the Final Fantasy name for users on all supported platforms.”
New Core Final Fantasy XIV Staff
- Assistant Director: Shintaro Tamai (FINAL FANTASY X, Front Mission 5: Scars of the War)
- Lead Game Designer: Nobuaki Komoto (FINAL FANTASY IX, FINAL FANTASY XI)
- Lead Combat System Designer: Akihiko Matsui (FINAL FANTASY XI)
- Technical Advisor: Yoshihisa Hashimoto (Next Generation Game Engine Development)
- Lead Programmer: Hideyuki Kasuga (FINAL FANTASY XI, DIRGE OF CERBERUS -FINAL FANTASY VII-)
- Senior Concept Artist: Akihiko Yoshida (FINAL FANTASY XII, Vagrant Story)
- Lead Artist: Hiroshi Takai (FINAL FANTASY XI, THE LAST REMNANT)
- Lead UI Designer/Lead Web Designer: Hiroshi Minagawa (FINAL FANTASY XII, Vagrant Story)
“While more than two months have passed since the official launch of Final Fantasy XIV service, we deeply regret that the game has yet to achieve the level of enjoyability that Final Fantasy fans have come to expect from the franchise, and for this we offer our sincerest of apologies,” wrote Square Enix President Yoichi Wada. “After thorough deliberation on how to meet those expectations, it was decided that the most viable step was to approach improvements under new leadership and with a restructured team. We also welcome several new leaders handpicked from other projects to work with the existing talent on Final Fantasy XIV.”
“I would like to apologize for our inability to fully satisfy our users with the initial release of Final Fantasy XIV. I take full responsibility for the game’s current situation, and have therefore made the decision to step down from my role as producer,” Tanaka wrote. “A number of concerns that have been voiced by users, such as the design of the user interface, availability of tutorials and game content, and battle system functionality, represent key issues that must be addressed. While improvements are already well underway in many areas, we were unfortunately not able to incorporate player feedback as quickly as we would have liked.”
“As these changes are our first priority, they will be commanding our full attention and efforts. It is to that end that we have put a new organizational structure into place for the development team. Under this new system, Final Fantasy XIV will see changes and additions in line with the desires and expectations of players. Though no longer producer, I will be continuing to support the development team in other capacities, and personally hope that you will continue your adventures in the realm of Eorzea,” he continued.
“Regarding the PlayStation 3, it is not our wish to release a simple conversion of the Windows version in its current state, but rather an update that includes all the improvements we have planned. For that reason, we have made the difficult decision to delay the release of the PlayStation 3 version beyond the originally announced date of March 2011.”
After playing the beta, and then seeing reviews and hearing that they didn’t tweak much from the beta, I knew this was going to happen. See when it is hard to tell if you can fight a monster by size or its appearance, there is a big problem. Also the crafting system was a mess, and various other things.
It is good to hear that they are fixing their problems, but they should have done that before they shipped the game and put it into players’ hands. Since the game was such a mess SE extended the free trial to the game, to encourage people to play, and now with them restructuring the way the game works, the game will have no subscription fees until the new team deems the game is good and is ready to be put out on the PS3. I just wonder if SE can pull through as this is a very costly move, and considering that Cataclysm just launched, and TOR is coming out next year, SE will be in a bind to see how much FFXIV can be relevant.