What is love?
Hajime Tabata has left Square Enix. And with the exit of the Final Fantasy XV director, much of the game’s future add-on content has been cancelled. This means that all DLC that’s been announced but not finished/released, as well as future support for the PC version, simply won’t happen.
Tabata managed to put Final Fantasy XV back on track after it had been through a troubled, decade-long development. It could easily be argued that his ability to right the ship is a testament to his skill. Nonetheless, without him, much of the planned content is sunk.
The first signs that Tabata was through with the company was when Square Enix wrote off a substantial loss in regards to Luminous Productions. Luminous Productions was the in-house studio set up for Tabata and his team to work on new content and titles. Naturally, SE spun it as a good things, but in the wake of the director’s departure, it’s basically impossible not to draw lines anchoring the news to reality.
Tabata did, however, share a statement on his departure:
In regards to my next endeavors and near future, I have a project that I truly wish to solidify as my next challenge after FFXV. For that reason, I have decided to leave my current position and start my own business in order to achieve my goal.
What We’re Left With
There were four story episodes planned for Final Fantasy XV; one based on the villainous Ardyn, one on female lead Luna, one for Aranea, as well as one alternate universe tale for Noctis. Only Episode Ardyn will see the light of day; the rest have been cancelled. Episode Ardyn will launch in March.
As for Final Fantasy XV: Comrades, the multiplayer portion of the game, that will see release. That said, it will only be available for the Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game. The PC release of Comrades has been cancelled. For all of them, however, Comrades will be removed from the season pass, with the cost of the pass adjusted accordingly.
The PC version, however, gets the rawest of deals. in addition to losing Comrades, it also loses the promised mod support. On the flipside, it will still get Episode Ardyn.
So, yeah, it’s sad that one of the better mainline Final Fantasy games released since Sakaguchi left has mostly been shuttered. On the other hand, Tabata seems like a talented guy. So I’d keep an eye on whatever he plans to make in the future.
Source: VG 24/7
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