It must've been an enormous project to require four or five teams, considering each of them could create an entire game on their own. We knew MMORPGs were an enormous endeavor and couldn’t be undertaken with the size of previous teams that worked on the FF and Mana series, so establishing the FFXI project began with bringing together four or five teams. Sakaguchi began by going around and looking for members. Were you the one who formed the development team?
#FINAL FANTASY XI BENCHMARK PS2#
It was then that we heard Sony Computer Entertainment (as they were known at the time) might be releasing a hard disk drive for the PS2 (the PlayStation BB Unit), which we felt we could use and thus began development. However, we had to provide version updates in MMORPG development, something that was quite difficult on gaming consoles back then, as they relied on read-only memory and couldn’t handle updates. Was this experience what convinced you to make an online FF title?Īround that time, game development was moving from the PlayStation to PlayStation 2 (PS2), so I believed online was definitely the next step for role-playing games, including the FF series. *Ultima Online is a game released in 1997 widely considered to be a pioneer of the MMORPG genre.
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I was curious about Ultima Online* but never actually played. Was that your first experience with MMORPGs? Sakaguchi would be sporting some impressive golden armor. (laughs) The rest of us would be wearing newbie gear while Mr. But sometimes he’d be like, “Here are some hand-me-downs,” and give us his leftover items. Sakaguchi had joined an ambitious guild at the time and was quickly going through all sorts of adventures, so his level was much higher. I think it was around 2000 when he got really into EverQuest* and urged us, “This is fun, so give it a try.” *EverQuest is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in North America in 1999.ĭid you play EverQuest together with Mr. We worked during the day, but Hawaii didn't have many places for us to hang out in the evening like we did in Japan, and I think Mr. Sakaguchi (Hironobu Sakaguchi, one of the founding creators of the FINAL FANTASY series) began working on the FF movie. (laughs) Back in 1996, Square (as we were known at the time) started a studio in Honolulu, Hawaii and Mr. It was a long time ago, so my memory is hazy. (laughs) First, I’d like to ask about how you were originally asked to join the FFXI project.
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Tanaka is my esteemed predecessor, so I’m a little nervous.