Back in March, Square Enix announced that they were opening a new Tokyo-based studio, Luminous Productions, which would be led by
Final Fantasy XV Game Director Hajime Tabata.
For some reason that still isn't quite clear, Hajime Tabata decided to leave Square Enix and Luminous Productions after being head of the newly created studio for a mere 6 months. According to reports, Tabata simply wanted to pursue his own business; which is a valid reason for someone that wants more creative control like Tabata seemed to want.
Earlier today,
we found out that Tabata had recently announced both the name of his new studio called JP Games, as well as asking fans for support and letting them know that they are preparing for a target launch in 2019.
It seems that things are going well for both Tabata and Square Enix as today we found out that the latter has finally managed to find a replacement for Tabata, as the company announced that
Final Fantasy XV Lead Programmer Takeshi Arakami is now the head of Luminous Productions.
Not much information was revealed besides the announcement, but since Arakami was also involved in
Final Fantasy XV, and credited as the Lead Physics Programmer in
Final Fantasy XIII, there may still be a chance for the future DLC for the game to be released;
which was cancelled when Tabata left the studio.