Ex-Final Fantasy XV Director Has Words For The Malaysian Games Industry

At Level UP KL 2024 AKA Malaysia Digital Content Festival (MYDCF) Biz Day 2024 hosted by MDEC (Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation), we attended a panel featuring Hajime Tabata. Tabata is best known for having worked at Square Enix and being the director of Crisis Core Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy Type-0, Final Fantasy XV and more.

During the panel, Metronomik CEO Wan Hazmer interpreted and translated what Tabata said. Tabata spoke about the Malaysian games industry and how he wants to help it grow.

Tabata said (as translated by Wan Hazmer):

“Although Malaysia has a lot of talents (in the games industry), but there’s still no impression that there are many Malaysian games that have attracted global attention.

But the ecosystem that we have in Malaysia right now is really amazing from what I saw. For example, you already have other overseas companies coming to Malaysia as well. Also, the institutions and the infrastructure that allow the teaching of video game education is really great.

Within MDEC, there are a lot of talks about how to improve the IP ecosystem in Malaysia, and this is where I come in.

So, I, from JP Games, and with all the members who have worked on RPGs before, I would really love to help in this activity.

I would like to work with new developers as well, and now that I’m level 50 and can defeat the last boss, so I will share with all of you whatever knowledge that I can pass.

That is my promise.

Of course, nothing is set in stone yet, because we don’t know the proper approach yet, so let’s discuss on what would be the best method and we would bring it to MDEC as well and propose something.

Just like how Hazmer and Metronomik has created an ecosystem that brought up a lot of talented developers, I would also like to create that environment just like how JP Games have been doing the same, where we raise really talented developers.

I have also received a lot of help from Malaysian companies with my productions, including Final Fantasy XV.

Since the founding of JP Games, Lemon Sky has helped a lot with outsourcing on our projects and I would love to continue this support.

Hajime Tabata left Square Enix back in 2018, with Final Fantasy XV (and its various editions) being his last game at the company, most likely because of the perceived failure of the game by Square Enix, which also resulted in the cancellation of all its DLCs, much to the dismay of fans of the game. Now, he has established his own company, JP Games, Inc. His first game with his new studio was 2021’s The Pegasus Dream Tour.