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Square Enix likely secretly had a 2nd Production Department

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For the last generation, Square Enix was defined by their 1st Production Department which included legendary developers like Yoshinori Kitase, Motomu Toriyama & Tetsuya Nomura. At it's core was Product Development Division 1 which was behind the Final Fantasy X series, Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and early Kingdom Hearts games. It would also absorb Product Development Division 5 which would soon become the Kingdom Hearts team. It also absorbed Product Development Division 6, behind the Front Mission series. Both divisions were falling apart.

 

However, Product Development Divisions 2, 3 & 4 had zero part in it. Reason for this? They clearly had made them the 2nd Production Department in secret. There is a clear overlap in teams on their projects following Final Fantasy XII where Akitoshi Kawazu the head of Division 2 took over as Producer on Division 4's Final Fantasy XII late in development. He would also be involved with Division 4's other projects following this including Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions. While The Last Remnant was made by the SaGa team (Division 2), you can see many staff from Final Fantasy XII (Division 4) were involved. There was little overlap between Divisions during the PlayStation 2 generation so clearly something changed.

 

Additionally, you can see the staff behind The Last Remnant, Final Fantasy XII and Tactics: Ogre Let Us Cling Together were the teams that helped rebuild Final Fantasy XIV. They also had the original Final Fantasy XV in development (it's now XVI) headed by Hiroyuki Ito but that was put on hold due to due to the remake of FFXIV. Yochi Wada even confirmed projects were delayed due to FFXIV 2.0 but you'll notice it did not affect any projects by the 1st Production Department. You'll also find notable staff including Akitoshi Kawazu & Hiroyuki Ito were extremely quiet during this period.

 

It's clear the reason they didn't make this public was due to the poor reception of a lot of their games and the remaking of XIV taking up their resources after that.

 

After FFXIV was remade and the XIII series finished, Square Enix restructured. Which you can see here.

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Wow when the CEO once said that the company was undergoing restructuring, all of this was what he meant. Amazing what you learn.

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