Hajime Tabata’s new studio has finally been established following the former Final Fantasy 15 head’s exit from Square Enix. JP Games, the studio in question, will be launching in January of next year, making it open for actual business and games development, though we don’t really know what they’ll be making.
Hajime Tabata has been part of Square Enix for many years and is responsible for a number of different Final Fantasy side-games like Type-0, Agito, Type-0 HD, Brave Exvius, Dimensions 2, and Dissidia Final Fantasy NT. Final Fantasy 15 is the first mainline Final Fantasy game that he was the director for.
Tabata’s announcement that he was leaving Square Enix cut the game’s DLC roadmap short, with only an episode about main antagonist Ardyn Izunia still scheduled to come out. Before him DLC episodes about the other members of the main party had been launched, with the other DLC episodes after Ardyn’s being targeted towards other minor but still plot-important characters.
Hajime Tabata’s new studio comes around a month after he left Square Enix’s Luminous Productions, but so far we don’t really have any other information on what the studio will be doing first off. While Final Fantasy 15 sold very well and got positive reviews, that was Tabata’s only mainline Final Fantasy game. However, he did have a long career at Square Enix directing a large number of well-reviewed games, so it’s likely it’ll still work out.
At the same time it’ll likely be a while before the studio is able to create any games at all as they go through hiring, getting funding, and coming up with a game. While we’re likely going to see JRPGs, hopefully Hajime Tabata’s new studio can bring some new talent and ideas to the video game industry and be able to make good games at the same sort of quality as Tabata’s previous work.
