Hajime Tabata, the man who brought Square Enix’s troubled Final Fantasy 15 project home, has quit the company, with a majority of planned DLC for the game now cancelled.
The news comes in the immediate wake of Square Enix posting notice of an ‘extraordinary loss’ of 3,733 million yen – just over 25 million GBP – with Luminous Productions, Tabata’s recently formed studio, cited in the statement. Bizarrely, Square Enix made the announcement of Tabata’s departure and the cancellation of DLC as part of a special livestream, a continuation of a series it’s used to keep in touch with fans throughout the latter part of Final Fantasy 15’s development.
Eurogamer understands that Tabata was presented with the option to have Luminous Productions turn into one of Square Enix’s regular business divisions, a course it now seems set on, or spin it off as his own company with Square Enix investment, though he chose to leave altogether. The departure was confirmed internally towards the end of this summer.
Source: Eurogamer Final Fantasy 15 DLC cancelled, Hajime Tabata quits Square Enix