HIRONOBU SAKAGUCHI

(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 has had a long career in gaming with over 80 million units of video games sold worldwide.

Biography

Square

Sakaguchi was born in Hitachi, Ibaraki, Japan. He is a graduate student of Mito Senior High School. He went on to study electricity while attending at Yokohama National University in the department of engineering, but he dropped out of the university with Hiromichi Tanaka during mid-course in 1983.
On leaving the university, Sakaguchi co-founded Square (now known as Square Enix) with Masafumi Miyamoto in September of 1983, which was a newly formed branch of Denyūsha Electric Company at the time. . Shortly following that, he became the Director of Planning and Development for that company. Their first games were very unsuccessful. Sakaguchi then decided to create his final work in the game industry with the rest of Square's money, hence naming 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 became an instant hit across Japan, and surprised even himself how well it did, and Sakaguchi came out of his retirement following the success. 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 ''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 . 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 . 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 his tremendous amount of video games sold and created.

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 '', 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 and leading to the closure of Square Pictures.

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 then merged with their rival, the Enix Corporation, which led straight into the present day Square Enix in 2003. Sakaguchi then resigned his position at Square, and founded Mistwalker with the financial backing of Microsoft Game Studios.

Mistwalker

In 2001, he founded Mistwalker, which began operation three years later in 2004. In February 2005, it was announced that Mistwalker would be working with Microsoft Game Studios to produce two computer role-playing games for the Xbox 360. Still, his company remains independent to console exclusitivity. Apart from Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey and Cry On, Sakaguchi is also producing ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat for Nintendo DS.

Games credited

References

1. MobyGames.com

External links

★ ''Hironobu Sakaguchi'' profile, interviews, and photo gallery at the Square Haven People Database

★ ''Hironobu Sakaguchi'' profile at MobyGames

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HIRONOBU SAKAGUCHI

Biography

Square

Time as film director

Resignation from Square

Mistwalker

Games credited

References

External links

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