Since its announcement in 2021, Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate hasn’t received many updates of any real significance, but new report published by Bloomberg has shed light on new behind-the-scenes details related to its development, including some significant shifts in its development team’s leadership.
Square Enix is set to initiate a significant internal restructuring imminently, which will see the company renewing its focus on larger, flagship releases, and trying to revitalize the flagging sales of its titles. As part of those efforts, according to Bloomberg’s report, the Dragon Quest series’ leadership is seeing a key change.
More specifically, Yu Miyake is reportedly set to step down from his role as lead producer of the franchise. Miyake has held a director position on Square Enix’s board and has been responsible for overseeing a number of major Dragon Quest releases. Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate has, however, seen development delays, according to Bloomberg’s sources, following which Miyake is being reassigned and will now be heading up Square Enix’s mobile games division.
As per the report, the likeliest candidate to replace Miyake as the main producer of the Dragon Quest franchise (including its upcoming twelfth mainline instalment) is Yosuke Saito, who is best known for his work on the NieR series, and also served as a producer on Dragon Quest 10.
Dragon Quest 12: The Flames of Fate is being developed on Unreal Engine 5, with Orca serving as its co-developer. According to Square Enix, it is “being developed taking into account the next 10 to 20 years of the Dragon Quest series.”