Hajime Tabata’s newest endeavor has been unveiled. After leaving Square Enix at the end of October, Tabata has announced that he has formed a brand new studio named JP Games. Earlier today, Tabata made the announcement via a post on his official Facebook page. No further information was given after the the initial post. In the post, Tabata states:
I started up my own company called “JP GAMES, Inc.” Right now, we are preparing for a target January 2019 launch. And to everyone who has assisted me until today–I kindly ask for your ongoing support.
Tabata was a longtime employee at Square Enix where he served as game director for many entries in the Final Fantasy franchise including Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy: Type-0, and most recently Final Fantasy XV after taking the reigns from Tetsuya Nomura in 2013. Earlier this year, Tabata was appointed COO and studio head of Square Enix’s newest development studio Luminous Productions. The new studio, comprised of members from Tabata’s Final Fantasy XV development team, was tasked with working on a second round of DLC episodes for the game before moving on to new projects.
However, in early November during the Final Fantasy XV Special Program, Tabata’s resignation was announced via a letter read aloud. This news would come as a shock to fans. In the letter, it was stated that Tabata’s reasoning for leaving the company was to work on a brand new project and to open a new studio to accomplish that. The event also announced that all but one of the DLC episodes that Luminous Productions was working on were cancelled as well.
It is not currently known what this new project JP Games will be working is. However, fans of Tabata might not have to wait long to find what the new studio is planning as its launch is just around the corner.