Many might be unaware of Naoki Yoshida, the current director and producer of Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn. Having taken over the game’s initially disastrous launch in 2010, Yoshida took over, fixing the current game and building A Realm Reborn to take it over. It was a massive endeavour but one that proved highly successful. Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn is now one of the top MMORPGs in the world today, both in terms of critical reception and paid subscribers.
The MMO saw the release of its expansion Stormblood earlier this year but Yoshida is still very much on the grind. Speaking to Eurogamer, he noted some of the pressures of working on a Final Fantasy title.
“Making a Final Fantasy game, you have to go through all the pressures – from the community, from the players, and also the business side of things. There’s massive pressures. Working on Final Fantasy 14, that’s something I realized. It’s not easy for anyone to make – it has to be someone special. But if the company asked me to make a standalone Final Fantasy, for example, I’d do that.”
Yoshida also said that the next two years for Final Fantasy 14 were pretty much laid out, though there might be a bit of “improvisation here and there.” He also confirmed that the development team is working on the next expansion though it may be a while before we actually hear about it.
“The two year schedule is laid out – we’ve got the blueprint already, but there will be improvisation here and there. Because it’s a live game, if you try and say something about the future it’d be a spoiler – we have to protect that. It’s like a TV drama series – when’s the next season coming? We’ve got that planned internally. And of course the team is already working on the next expansion.”
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