Tetsuya Nomura, director of the Kingdom Hearts series has stepped down as director of Final Fantasy XV, the title that has been in development since 2006 by the team who developed both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda has released a statement that confirms Nomura will be focusing his efforts on Kingdom Hearts III. You can read this below thanks to Square Enix.

“As the director of FINAL FANTASY XV, Tetsuya Nomura has mainly worked on the original concept for the story and universe in addition to creating the characters. Hereafter, he will be focusing his efforts on the production of titles that can only be made possible by Nomura, himself, and delivering products that exceed the quality of past titles, starting with another one of his representative projects, Kingdom Hearts III. Square Enix will continue to work on these titles with the best staff formation in an effort to deliver them to everyone as soon as possible and appreciates your continued support.”

Update 2: Tetsuya Nomura has answered why he stepped down as director of Final Fantasy XV in the latest issue of Famitsu Weekly. Thanks to sqexgal for the translation, you can read it below.

"It was the company's decision, I can't say more than that."

Update: Square Enix Europe have provided some extra insight about Nomura's change within these two projects, and this can be read below.

 

Spoiler

If that wasn’t enough news, I’ve got a little something else to share with you. Now I know you guys want us at Square Enix to be more open with you and to keep you updated with all the goings on with our games so I’m going to talk to you a little more about Final Fantasy XV since I’m sure you guys are just as excited about it as I am (which is VERY excited).

 

The development of Final Fantasy XV is coming along really well and as a result Hajime Tabata (the director of the original Final Fantasy Type-0 and Type-0 HD) has taken over from Tetsuya Nomura as the director of Final Fantasy XV.

 

Now before you start to freak out, let me explain how this is a good thing. There’s no denying that Tetsuya Nomura has been instrumental to the development of Final Fantasy XV and he’s done an incredible job. His main role as director was working on the original concept for the story and universe and also creating the characters. Now that development of Final Fantasy XV has come so far, Nomura’s work is pretty much all in place so instead of having him keep an eye on the more day to day stuff, we thought it’d be a better idea to pass the reigns over to Hajime Tabata and let Nomura move onto other projects and make games that only he could do, you know, like Kingdom Hearts III.

 

So now we have Hajime Tabata and the rest of his team working as hard as they can on Final Fantasy XV and making sure it’s the best game it can possibly be and we have Tetsuya Nomura and the Kingdom Hearts III team working as hard as they can to make that the best game that can be. It also means that both games will come out much sooner this way. Instead of waiting until Final Fantasy XV comes out before starting on Kingdom Hearts III, Tetsuya Nomura can now properly begin work on Kingdom Hearts III right now and with Tabata in the director’s chair, Final Fantasy XV won’t suffer either.

 

Hajime Tabata and his team are a bunch of really talented people and Final Fantasy XV is in good hands for the rest of its development but even if you don’t want to believe me, you can find out for yourself on 20th March 2015 when you can play Final Fantasy XV for yourself along with Final Fantasy Type-0 HD.

 

If you’ve got any other questions or comments then feel free to drop me a line in the comments below. I’m out and about at TGS 2014 and with the time zone difference I probably won’t be able to respond right away or until I’m back in the UK but I promise I will get back to you!

 

I hope you’ll agree though, it’s a very exciting time to be a Final Fantasy (and Kingdom Hearts) fan right now!

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What does this mean? Does it mean that FFXV doesn't need him anymore that hes done all he can do for it or will there be a new director for the game? I mean it's great that hes going to focus on Kingdom Hearts 3 but still
 

Final Fantasy XV, like every other title in the series, is like a stand alone title.

Kingdom Hearts is a huge series with countless games actually connecting to each other and it kept on getting games yearly during and after 2009.

 

I think its unfair to compare them because of those reasons.

Besides, KH3 was announced last year.

Thank you! That's exactly what I say everytime I read someone saying we have been waiting since KH2 came out for KH3 no no you haven't there have been other games that conect the game as a whole and it didn't get announced until last year while this game was announced 8 years ago and we might possible get it in 2015 but I digress

lol even Nomura got tired of waiting for the game to come outBit sad at this news since Nomura's involvement and the KH relation was the reason I became interested in FFXV in the first place, but his influence is still all over the game if the new trailer is any indication and the fact that SE is more dedicated than ever to getting it out leaves no doubt in my mind that it'll turn out excellent.Plus Nomura focusing full-time on KH3 means it should get along faster, which is fantastic.

I'm pretty sure that the game has to at least be 80% complete since Nomura is stepping down on developing the game. Like a few others said, Nomura most likely put a big chunk of his effort and ideas into the game to the point where the team no longer needs him to development now. I, for one, am glad that he is now focusing on KH3 since that game is getting a lot of hype.

THE TRAILER FOR FFXV LOOKS AMAZING. THANK YOU SQUARE ENIX MARKETING TEAM FOR FINALLY RELEASING NEW INFORMATION. I AM HYPED UP ONCE AGAIN. I CANT WAIT TO PLAY THE DEMO

Full statement from the CEO is here:

 

 

“In reviewing our development structure, we have decided to assign Hajime Tabata as the new director for FINAL FANTASY XV. Currently, Tabata and the entire development team are working, whole-heartedly, towards completing the production of FINAL FANTASY XV and ensuring the delivery of the highest quality FINAL FANTASY title to date,” said Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda regarding the staff changes. “We invite every one of our fans to view the fruits of our labor through FINAL FANTASY XV’s demo, and promise to present a game that further surpasses expectations when the finished product is released.

 

“As the director of FINAL FANTASY XV, Tetsuya Nomura has mainly worked on the original concept for the story and universe in addition to creating the characters. Hereafter, he will be focusing his efforts on the production of titles that can only be made possible by Nomura, himself, and delivering products that exceed the quality of past titles, starting with another one of his representative projects, Kingdom Hearts III. Square Enix will continue to work on these titles with the best staff formation in an effort to deliver them to everyone as soon as possible and appreciates your continued support.”

Thank god. He's really finally done with it. At least he really could focus all his energy on KH3 right now. KH3 development is indeed on full throttle.

 

But still, I don't think it would come out around 2016. I'd wager a guess that SE's doing a one-big-game per year style, I guess. FFType-0HD for 2015, FFXV for 2016, and KH3 for 2017.

And thus the possibilities of other...well, Kingdom Hearts possibilities has increased exponentially!

 

Man, way to take one for the team Nomura! I mean, I'm pretty sure he's done all he needs to do with XV already, so maybe the rest of the team will be able to finish it well enough without him leading the rest of the way. And now with Nomura on board, the SS Kingdom Hearts can finally set sail picking up more recruits and releasing more announcements/games along the way!

 

Forget about the Hype Train, all aboard the HYPE SHIP!! X3

Nice!

Now people don't have an excuse saying that KH3 will come out in 2016/17

Kingdom Hearts III WILL be released late 2016 at the earliest, that's one thing we can be sure about.

 

So he's pretty much done with FFXV, meaning the game's coming soon enough! I mean there was a big hint that it's coming soon in the TGS trailer, maybe early 2016 or late 2015!! SO EXCITED!!!!

I sure hope it's going to be released way before that.. otherwise we can be expecting a Kingdom Hearts III release date for late 2022.... in Japan.......! Nuff said.

Great news. So happy!!!

I don't know why, but I feel like something is holding me back from being excited. I'm not really upset at this. I'm fine whatever is being said. I just hope things work out smoothly over there, with him and everybody else.  

To me, it looks like he wanted to work on XV. But yet he has Kingdom Hearts 3 to work on as well. 

I was actually thinking about XV today, and remember looking at a post on Facebook about some XV demo? As well as finding one of these Game Informer magazines that has an article talking about XV (which was "VERSUS XIII" at the time...).  

 

I guess this makes Kingdom Hearts 3's development a whole lot faster, but at its pace then? 

I'm mixed about this. Yeah its better if he can't really finish it, but I'm hoping he did a good amount of work with it.

 

 

Final Fantasy XV, like every other title in the series, is like a stand alone title.

Kingdom Hearts is a huge series with countless games actually connecting to each other and it kept on getting games yearly during and after 2009.

 

I think its unfair to compare them because of those reasons.

Besides, KH3 was announced last year.

What do you mean by that? I don't quite think whether or not a game is a standalone or not makes a difference.

 

Nomura-san, instead of doing Versus XIII like he should've, had scrapped the game and oversaw 2/3 of the KH project, even back in 2006 and 2011. His love for KH practically called for Final Fantasy's ultimate doom, no matter how good a game it was, or whether or not it would have sequels. He wasn't quite right for the job.

 

It really hurt Square Enix in both a financial aspect and had the game been received sooner (which I'm sure would've got amazing reviews), they would probably never have the predicament of alienating so many fans during the FFXIII trilogy (which, in my opinion was awesome) or FFXIV.

Edited September 18, 201411 yr by Sun Wukong

What does this mean? Does it mean that FFXV doesn't need him anymore that hes done all he can do for it or will there be a new director for the game?

 

Co-director Tabata has stepped up to director.

After eight long years of waiting, Nomura-san has final shifted focus to Kingdom Hearts 3. Maybe now the game will finally get a bit more momentum in the development process.

So excited for both of these games and Bloodborne of course

I'm glad for 2 things about his news:

 

Nomura-san can now focus more on KHIII either than trying to juggle both this and FFXV.

This also means that both games have a higher possibility of being released sooner either than 4+ years in the future....just for Japan too

 

HOWEVER, I would like to point out that sometimes speed is not always good. In such haste, some things may get overlooked. Look at what happened with Sonic 06 *shot and brick'd and horribly maimed for mentioning that thing*

 

In any case, I wish them luck in deciding to go at full speed and a dang powerful break just in case.

YES! The production of Kingdom Hearts III is now truly in full throttle!

 

Peace!

They still saying "In development" for FFXV. Although I think the release date for this game will be announced at E3 2015 and it will be either late 2015 or early 2016. No doubt. 

Edited September 18, 201411 yr by AaySquare

They still saying "In development" for FFXV. Although I think the release date for this game will be announced at E3 2015 and it will be either late 2015 or early 2016. No doubt. 

 

Probably. Well they can't say a release window if they can't be sure yet.

Great news. This means FFXV is almost done and Kingdom Hearts III is now getting more attention

I'm not sure why people are viewing this as a great/bad thing. Nomura is clearly pretty much finished with his work on XV and they obviously laid out a straight forward path now for Tabata to complete the final stages of XV.

 

With that in mind Nomura can now focus on KH3. It's not like he's been booted off XV for personal reasons or anything.

I can't wait anymore, KH3 in full development, and FFXV probably in 2015, this is the best TGS ever.

 

AHHHHHHH, SO HYPED. :-D

But KH3 wasn't announced or known to be in development in 2006.  If we were told in 2006 KH3 is in development and it still wasn't out by now the hype would have died down as well.  

The hype's pretty dead for me. I've been waiting years for the announcement and when it finally comes about, it isn't anywhere near exciting.

I'm mixed about this. Yeah its better if he can't really finish it, but I'm hoping he did a good amount of work with it.

 

 

Final Fantasy XV, like every other title in the series, is like a stand alone title.

Kingdom Hearts is a huge series with countless games actually connecting to each other and it kept on getting games yearly during and after 2009.

 

I think its unfair to compare them because of those reasons.

Besides, KH3 was announced last year.

Sweet, 6 more years waiting.

I'm now more hyped than ever.