Hiromichi Tanaka and some friends are looking for work

[gatotsu911]

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/12/10/final-fantasy-xiv-team-restructuring-ps3-version-delayed

So, looks like Final Fantasy XIV has been such a disaster that Square Enix is completely restructuring the dev team, and Hiromichi Tanaka is out. I guess that kind sucks for him, but for me this is good news. Presumably Square will not be having him work on another MMO for the foreseeable future, meaning that - hopefully - he can go back to what he's good at: producing ambitious and original single-player RPGs. Like, for instance... a Chrono game?

Before you discount that as a pipe dream, keep in mind that when last Tanaka and his associates were asked about why they haven't begun work on Chrono 3, his response is that they won't be able to do anything as long as they're still working on a MMORPG. Well... now he's not working on a MMORPG anymore. So we'll see.

I wonder whether Mr. Tanaka is familiar with the credo, "Do something badly enough and you'll never be asked to do it again"...?

[tushantin]

Man, that is bad news! Not sure if Hiromichi was forced to work on the MMORPG, but despite the content value if it did indeed suck up so much of his time he must have worked hard indeed.

Regardless, if he does decide to revive the old beloved series hope things don't go for that as bad as it did for the MMORPG.

[ShinGundam]

He clearly didn't lose his job, just position on the FFXIV project. He said that he will continue to support the development team. This is much better for him, gamers have been spamming a lot of hate/whining almost after every PR from Tanaka, his Twitter account filled with terrible comments . People are just extremely jaded towards him.

New Chrono game hmmm ...

[chi_z]

yes once again it's a far leap, but that's about all we have nowadays for those hoping for a new chrono game. IMO, monolith is more qualified to develop chrono break if they get mitsuda and katou on board than square-enix would be

[gatotsu911]

yes once again it's a far leap, but that's about all we have nowadays for those hoping for a new chrono game. IMO, monolith is more qualified to develop chrono break if they get mitsuda and katou on board than square-enix would be

True that, (and Kato and Mitsuda collaborating with Monolith should be a no-brainer, as both have done so on separate occasions) but unfortunately SquEnix owns the rights to the Chrono name, not Monolith. I would love to see them outsource development to Monolith, but I think that's even less likely than a third game materializing.

[ShinGundam]

yes once again it's a far leap, but that's about all we have nowadays for those hoping for a new chrono game. IMO, monolith is more qualified to develop chrono break if they get mitsuda and katou on board than square-enix would be

True that, (and Kato and Mitsuda collaborating with Monolith should be a no-brainer, as both have done so on separate occasions) but unfortunately SquEnix owns the rights to the Chrono name, not Monolith. I would love to see them outsource development to Monolith, but I think that's even less likely than a third game materializing.

Monolith = 80% Nintendo + 20% Bamco

[Mr Bekkler]

Monolith = 80% Nintendo + 20% Bamco

What? What does that mean/have to do with anything?

[Manco]

Mitsuda finished Xenoblade and Nobuteru Yuki finished Solatorobo this year. I don't think either have any big projects planned for now. The Shiren the Wanderer series is finished so I think Kato has time to choose what he wants to do for next year.

[gatotsu911]

Monolith = 80% Nintendo + 20% Bamco

What? What does that mean/have to do with anything?

Stock shares. Nintendo owns the majority, Namco Bandai still owns a fifth (hence their work on various Namco DS games). It would've been helpful to specify this in the original post (and also the reason for bringing this fact up in the first place), but, well, there you have it.

[Mr Bekkler]

Gotcha, that could have meant a number of things. I appreciate the clarification.