Famitsu Interview with FFXIV Hiromichi Tanaka

Tags : final fantasy XIV beta, Final fantasy xiv news, ffxiv beta test

This week's Famitsu included an article with interviews of 20 creators for some of the most highly anticipated games for 2010. Included in the article was a short interview with Hiromichi Tanaka, head of development for Final Fantasy XIV. In it, he talks about what last year was like for him and what he thinks is in store for the game industry in 2010. Translation by SteveManly and Aya.

Thoughts switching to Eorzea
Famitsu (F): What kind of year was 2009 for you?
Hiromichi Tanaka (HT): I’ve been working on online games since 2000, so 2009 was really more of the same. To be honest, I’ve been developing continuously for so long that my sense of time is shot (he laughs). We revealed a lot about FFXIV last year, but of course I’m also still working on FFXI, so I’ve been busy just as I have since 2000, except now I’d have to say that since the latter half of last year my attention has slowly shifted from XI to XIV.

F: What are your thoughts about 2009 for the rest of the gaming industry?
HT: I think 2009 was a big year for the iPodtouch and the iPhone. (The iPhone saw a later release in Japan and is only distributed by the smallest of the three main cell phone services, Softbank. Wide-spread iPhone use did not start until Softbank started offering some models for free and others for around fifteen American dollars with a new contract, so development for Japanese games for the iPhone just started picking up this year –Manly) An explosive amount of applications and games saw release last year and the iPhone is really starting to show its power as a multimedia device. Its integration with services like twitter make it easier to share information, and we’ll probably see this functionality broaden in the future. In Japan, a cell phone is a cell phone, not a portable game system like the DS or PSP, but if the iPhone sees a killer game app, it may cause some waves which could bring around the tides of change. The iPhone’s CPU isn’t made for games and it doesn’t have a lot of memory, but if it someday has similar specs to a DS or PSP, then the iPhone could be the next big handheld game system. If the rumored tablet device (I’m assuming he’s talking about the iPad –Manly) brings even more to the gaming scene, the mainstream consoles may be in danger. I’m still stuck with my Docomo phone, though (He laughs). (Docomo is the largest cell phone company in Japan, and the only one with service that reaches my house in the village –Manly)

Official service after efficient Beta test
F: What kind of year do you wish 2010 to be?
HT: First of all, I’d like to start the official service of Final Fantasy XIV, which took several years to create. I can’t make an official announcement, but I hope users can enjoy it within this year. For starters, I’d like to get the beta test up and running.

F: About the length of the Beta test, would you like users to play it for a long time?
HT: I am not going to define the period of the Beta test, but if it is almost completed, it may not be possible to reflect the opinions of the users. I wouldn’t like that, so I’d like users to play the Beta test of the game in its unfinished state, and would like to complete the game while taking users’ opinions into account. Therefore, I’d like to have the Beta test just before the master version, and want the game to reflect users’ ideas. However, this may be quite difficult, since there could be technical problems if the Beta test was started as the game is under construction. For instance, users may not be able to log into the server for a few days. As for the period of the Beta test, we can’t say anything yet.

F: What are you expecting from the game industry this year?
HT: This year I think we can look forward to interesting innovations in interface accessories like Project Natal. We were worried about whether or not we could get voice-chat to work with FFXIV, but like FFXI, FFXIV is a cross-platform game and the technology to get the systems voice technologies to work together are not completed yet. Because of this, we’re worried about the community being separated by game system, and there are other issues to worry about, like real-time translation and harassment prevention. It would be difficult get voice-chat up and running soon.

F: Please tell the readers what you would like to do this year.
HT: See you in Eorzea! We will work on starting the official service of FFXIV. Oh, and, of course, XI is also a very important title which has been going on over eight years. We’ll also continue working on it, so see you in Vana’diel, too!

Source is Weekly Famitsu, volume 1105, February 18th, 2010 (released February 4th).