Hironobu Sakaguchi

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Hironobu Sakaguchi

At the Japan Expo in Paris, France (2007)
Born November 25, 1962 (1962-11-25) (age 45)
Hitachi, Ibaraki, Japan
Nationality Japanese
Occupation Founder of Mistwalker
Game designer, producer and director

Hironobu Sakaguchi (坂口 博信 Sakaguchi Hironobu?) (born November 25, 1962) is a Japanese game designer, game director and game producer. He is famous around the world as the creator of the Final Fantasy series, and he has had a long career in gaming with over 80 million units of video games sold worldwide. He founded the studio Mistwalker in 2004 and created two new works Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early years

Sakaguchi was born in Hitachi, Ibaraki, Japan. He is a graduate student of Mito Senior High School. He went on to study electrical engineering while attending Yokohama National University, but dropped out of the university along with Hiromichi Tanaka mid-course in 1983.

[edit] Square

On leaving the university, Sakaguchi became a part-time employee of Square, a newly formed branch of Denyūsha Electric Company founded by Masafumi Miyamoto.[1] When Square became an independent company, he became a full-time employee as the Director of Planning and Development. The company's first games were very unsuccessful. Sakaguchi then decided to create his final work in the game industry with the rest of Square's money, and appropriately named it Final Fantasy. The game was released in Japan for the Famicom (also known internationally as the Nintendo Entertainment System) on December 18, 1987. The game was successful across Japan. Final Fantasy developed into a successful franchise under Sakaguchi's watchful eye, which spans from stand alone stories to spin-offs to direct sequels. In 1991, following the release of Final Fantasy IV for the Super Famicom (also known internationally as the Super Nintendo Entertainment System), he was honoured with the position of Executive Vice President.[citation needed] His mostly hands-on involvement became a bit more lax following Final Fantasy VI, which was released on April 2, 1994 (for which he was the game producer, before that, he was the game director of all the Final Fantasy games up until Final Fantasy V)for the Super Famicom and one year later, in 1995, he became President at Square USA, Inc. His final role as game producer was for Final Fantasy IX. In an interview at the time he described it as his favourite Final Fantasy.[citation needed] He later went on to serve more as an executive producer of the series, as well as many of Square's other games, including Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve and Kingdom Hearts.

Hironobu Sakaguchi became the third person inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Hall of Fame on April 5, 2000. His Hall of Fame status was given to him because of the tremendous amount of video games he has sold and created.

[edit] Time as film director

A long time proponent of bringing together the story-telling vehicle of film and the interactive elements of games, Sakaguchi took the leap from games to film when he made his debut as film director in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, an animated motion picture based on his world-famous Final Fantasy series. However, the movie was the second-biggest animated box office bomb in cinema history, losing over $120 million dollars.

[edit] Resignation from Square

Sakaguchi voluntarily stepped down from his post as an executive vice president at Square. This event also reduced Square's financial capital. Square later merged with its rival, the Enix Corporation, which led to the creation of Square Enix in 2003. Sakaguchi founded Mistwalker with the financial backing of Microsoft Game Studios.

[edit] Mistwalker

Mistwalker (ミストウォーカー, Misutowōkā?) logo
Mistwalker (ミストウォーカー Misutowōkā?) logo

In 2001, Sakaguchi founded Mistwalker, which began operation in 2004. In February 2005, it was announced that Mistwalker would be working with Microsoft Game Studios to create two RPGs for the Xbox 360. Still, the company remains independent from console exclusivity. Sakaguchi released the works Blue Dragon in 2006, and Lost Odyssey in 2007.

Currently, Sakaguchi is developing Cry On and ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat.

[edit] Games

Hironobu Sakaguchi has been credited, in some capacity, with the following games.[2]

Title Year released Console name Director Producer Executive producer Original concept Supervisor Notes
Rad Racer 1987 NES - - - YesY -
Final Fantasy 1987 NES YesY - - YesY -
Final Fantasy II 1988 NES YesY - - YesY -
Final Fantasy III 1990 NES YesY - - - -
Final Fantasy IV 1991 SNES YesY - - YesY -
Final Fantasy V 1992 SNES YesY - - YesY -
Final Fantasy VI 1994 SNES - YesY - YesY -
Seiken Densetsu 3 1995 SNES - - - - -
Chrono Trigger 1995 SNES - - - - YesY

[edit] References

  1. ^ Fujii, Daiji (January 2006). "Entrepreneurial choices of strategic options in Japan's RPG development" (pdf). . Faculty of Economics, Okayama University Retrieved on 2008-04-26.
  2. ^ MobyGames.com

[edit] External links

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Persondata
NAME Sakaguchi, Hironobu
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 坂口, 博信 (Japanese)
SHORT DESCRIPTION game designer
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Hitachi, Ibaraki, Japan
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH