Hironobu Sakaguchi



Hironobu Sakaguchi (坂口 博信, Sakaguchi Hironobu) is a Japanese game designer, director, and producer who is widely known as the creator of the Final Fantasy series. Born on November 25th, 1962, in Hitachi, Ibaraki, he joined Square Co., Ltd. (presently Square Enix) in 1983 as part-time worker after dropping out of his university mid-course. He currently lives in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Profile
Sakaguchi started his career at Square Co., Ltd in 1986 as director of planning and development. He was promoted to executive vice president in 1991 and eventually ascended to president of Square LA Inc. (now Square Enix) in 1995. Sakaguchi is the creator of the original Final Fantasy. Contrary to popular belief, the name "Final Fantasy" does not refer to the situation with Square, but was in fact given because the game was intended to be his final work.

Neither proved to be the case, since Final Fantasy was a huge success. He was the director and producer of Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy IV, and Final Fantasy V. He also produced Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, and Final Fantasy IX. In 2000, Sakaguchi was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) Hall of Fame for his groundbreaking work on the Final Fantasy series. He was the third person to be inducted, after other gaming icons Sid Meier and Shigeru Miyamoto.

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 and leading to the closure of Square Pictures.

Sakaguchi 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, Enix Co., Ltd., 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.

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 exclusivity.

Apart from Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, Sakaguchi also produced ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat for Nintendo DS, and has at least three more games planned for DS and Nintendo's Wii, one of which being The Last Story, announced in 2010. News blogs reported an exchange on Twitter made between him and Takashi Tokita, where he told Tokita and the other employees to "stop rehashing Final Fantasy". Tokita responded with "We're planning to!"

Trivia

 * The Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep character Master Eraqus, whose name is an anagram of Square (in the same way as the Disney character Master Yen Sid), is said to be designed after Hironobu Sakaguchi.
 * Between all Final Fantasy games, Sakaguchi said that Final Fantasy IX is his favorite.
 * Garland from the first Final Fantasy is Sakaguchi's favorite villain in the series.
 * Sakaguchi makes a cameo appearance in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.