Square Enix Montreal Creative Director Quits After Game Cancellation

Square Enix Montreal creative director is no longer with the company. On his official website, he discussed the reasons why he left and one of them is the cancellation of their game.

After making a name for himself developing 2015’s smash Indie hit Hyper Light Drifter, Square Enix Montreal co-creative director, Teddy Diefenbach announced today on his personal website that he will officially be parting ways with studio following the cancellation of a game his team was working on.

On his site he says that he has decided to “leave” his “position as Creative Director at Square Enix Montreal, effective last Friday”.

After originally working at Indie Game studio Heart Machine, Teddy was offered a position as creative director at Square Enix’s Montreal office following the success of Hyper Light Drifter.

Square Enix Montreal is most popularly known for making mobile-based spinoffs of Square Enix franchises with the studio being accredited with releasing games like Hitman Sniper and Lara Croft Go for mobile platforms.
Teddy elaborates on the reasons why he left on his site, saying:

My team was working on a game that I deeply wish we could have shared with you. But the business strategy of the studio shifted, and our project was sadly no longer compatible. Thankfully, the talented team remain employed and valued, assigned to other projects. Because of this shift and the loss of our project, I no longer feel this is the place for me to pursue the type of work I aspire to make – the avenues of storytelling in game design I’ve been trying to explore in my career.

From the looks of it, the project Teddy was working on seems to have been narrative focused, conflicting with the studio’s goals to create something more profitable.

Teddy hasn’t gone into any details about what exactly he’ll do after leaving except that he’ll be coming to the indie scene and that he will “pursue the best games” he can.

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Ali is a passionate RPG gamer. He believes that western RPGs still have a lot to learn from JRPGs. He is editor-in-chief at SegmentNext.com but that doesn't stop him from writing about his favorite video ...