[Rumor] Tetsuya Nomura no longer working on FFVII Remake?

[Mistwalker]

I was browsing through the Internet, when I suddently found this from Kinja. What to make of this? Any chance of this being truth?

http://tay.kinja.com/nyrens-corner-tetsuya-nomura-is-rumored-to-no-longer-b-1790386262

 

[Lulcielid]

The article writer says that this rumor has laughtable sources, yet still writes an article about it.....*sigh*

Doesn´t seen convincing.

 

[Lulcielid]

Some google searching gave me this:

Final Fantasy VII Remake: Kyohei Suzuki Working As Game Designer, Development Might Have Been Fasten
Kyohei Suzuki Now Working On Final Fantasy 7 Remake As A Game Director

 

[APZonerunner]

The core of FF7 Remake's work is taking place at CyberConnect2, away from SE's offices and indeed Nomura. Basically, think of Nomura more as an overseer, but there'll be other people inside CC2 who have directorial credits of sorts on the game - people who work on the game daily at a more granular level.

This isn't dissimilar to what's going on with KH - Nomura is overseeing it from Tokyo, looking at it a few times a week or whatever and making comments and feedback, but the work is actually being done in Osaka under Tai Yasue.

Anyway, the addition of other directorial credits doesn't necessarily mean Nomura has been yanked. FF7r will almost certainly have more than one director, just Nomura will be the top-billed one.

 

[Lulcielid]

Wait isn't S.E the main developer with CC2 just being merely assisting? Like how Hexadrive assited Bussiness Divison 2 with FFXV.

 

[llazy77]

Thanks for the update.

 

[SonOfEtro]

Urg... Don't believe it without an actual statement from SQEX.

 

[Jenova]

Too soon to say. However, I expect the internet to dissolve once this becomes widespread even though the initial rumor is unsubstantiated.

 

[APZonerunner]

Wait isn't S.E the main developer with CC2 just being merely assisting? Like how Hexadrive assited Bussiness Divison 2 with FFXV.

This is the narrative that Square has chosen, though my understanding is that CC2 is doing the heavy lifting on the game with SE overseeing, more like the relationship between SE and Platinum for Nier or indeed Tose and SE for World of Final Fantasy.

These partnerships take many different forms; with Nier and Platinum SE chose to very firmly push it from a PR perspective because Platinum have a very sharp reputation, especially in the West, but with WOFF Tose's involvement was left in the background. It changes from game to game. For FF7 they've acknowledged it but appear to be underplaying it, at least if what I'm told is true.

They also take different forms in terms of how much control a dev has: It's clear that Platinum have a lot of freedom to inject their ideas into Nier, for instance, but WOFF appears to be more tightly creatively controlled from within SE. Who knows where FF7 falls, but my understanding of the situation (which could be wrong!) is simply that they are the main developer doing the actual day-to-day heavy lifting on FF7R while SE staff like Kitase and Nomura make top-level decisions about the creative direction of the game. This is a smart decision: CyberConnect has proven with their string of commercially successful anime tie-ins and the like that they can deliver large scale projects on a time and on a budget in a way SEJ has consistently failed to do in-house.

CC2 is a good studio anyway. There's nothing to worry about.

 

[Storm]

yeah, he stepped out as director to work on Versus XV

 

[xXShuyaXx]

Ahem, to clear some possible confusion.

鈴木恭平 or Suzuki Kyouhei, is a Game Designer from BD4. He has previously worked on several KH games as Battle Planner and Planning Director.

Under these circumstances, I would assume that this revelation is nigh unrelated to Nomura being off as Director. And since Suzuki has a connection to Nomura through KH, it might be entirely possible that Nomura was the one who gave Suzuki his position.

Oh and hi, I'm kinda new here. I migrated from the FFXV forums as it is currently down under maintenance. I was the local translator there.

 

[15thCrystal]

The core of FF7 Remake's work is taking place at CyberConnect2, away from SE's offices and indeed Nomura. Basically, think of Nomura more as an overseer, but there'll be other people inside CC2 who have directorial credits of sorts on the game - people who work on the game daily at a more granular level.

This isn't dissimilar to what's going on with KH - Nomura is overseeing it from Tokyo, looking at it a few times a week or whatever and making comments and feedback, but the work is actually being done in Osaka under Tai Yasue.

Anyway, the addition of other directorial credits doesn't necessarily mean Nomura has been yanked. FF7r will almost certainly have more than one director, just Nomura will be the top-billed one.

I'm actually fairly salty about this because Nomura will likely get much more esteem despite not putting nearly as much as time in those projects like Kitase or Tabata have been doing for their games.

 

[Squirrel Emperor]

This is the narrative that Square has chosen, though my understanding is that CC2 is doing the heavy lifting on the game with SE overseeing, more like the relationship between SE and Platinum for Nier or indeed Tose and SE for World of Final Fantasy.

These partnerships take many different forms; with Nier and Platinum SE chose to very firmly push it from a PR perspective because Platinum have a very sharp reputation, especially in the West, but with WOFF Tose's involvement was left in the background. It changes from game to game. For FF7 they've acknowledged it but appear to be underplaying it, at least if what I'm told is true.

They also take different forms in terms of how much control a dev has: It's clear that Platinum have a lot of freedom to inject their ideas into Nier, for instance, but WOFF appears to be more tightly creatively controlled from within SE. Who knows where FF7 falls, but my understanding of the situation (which could be wrong!) is simply that they are the main developer doing the actual day-to-day heavy lifting on FF7R while SE staff like Kitase and Nomura make top-level decisions about the creative direction of the game. This is a smart decision: CyberConnect has proven with their string of commercially successful anime tie-ins and the like that they can deliver large scale projects on a time and on a budget in a way SEJ has consistently failed to do in-house.

CC2 is a good studio anyway. There's nothing to worry about.

Square Enix doesn't do a lot of large scale projects internally anymore do they? With maybe the exception of a couple titles, everything else seems to be outsourced with creators at Square Enix sent out (or stay put) to oversee those projects. Nier (Platinum Games), Dissidia Final Fantasy (Team Ninja), World of Final Fantasy (Tose), Final Fantasy VII: Remake (CyberConnect2), Bravely Default (Silicon Studios)... And even though they're part of Square Enix, we could even throw in Kingdom Hearts (Osaka Studios), Dragon Quest (Armor Project) and Star Ocean (tri-Ace), and I Am Setsuna (Tokyo RPG Factory) too.

 

[Edge]

Square Enix doesn't do a lot of large scale projects internally anymore do they? With maybe the exception of a couple titles, everything else seems to be outsourced with creators at Square Enix sent out (or stay put) to oversee those projects. Nier (Platinum Games), Dissidia Final Fantasy (Team Ninja), World of Final Fantasy (Tose), Final Fantasy VII: Remake (CyberConnect2), Bravely Default (Silicon Studios)... And even though they're part of Square Enix, we could even throw in Kingdom Hearts (Osaka Studios), Dragon Quest (Armor Project) and Star Ocean (tri-Ace), and I Am Setsuna (Tokyo RPG Factory) too.

Does SE have any problem with mass hiring new developers? Why don't they hire new developers?

I mean , look at Capcom, 3 years ago they had 1623 devs. Now, they have more than 2050 devs.

It is really strange.

 

[Lulcielid]

Does SE have any problem with mass hiring new developers? Why don't they hire new developers?

I mean , look at Capcom, 3 years ago they had 1623 devs. Now, they have more than 2050 devs.

It is really strange.

As of March 2016, Square-Enix has over 3900 devs, they don´t seen to lack manpower. I think these recent colaborations have to do more with having a faster output of games (and maybe because it´s cheapter?).

 

[Edge]

As of March 2016, Square-Enix has over 3900 devs, they don´t seen to lack manpower. I think these recent colaborations have to do more with having a faster output of games (and maybe because it´s cheapter?).

Or maybe not all of them who work on Japanese console titles at Tokyo.

 

[Tornak]

I think the approach of having a (strong, I assume) creative team and higher ups and an outside company to capture and produce that vision is a great one, if the company chosen has the time and talent to produce a title with a quality comparable to what S-E has envisioned (so, that there's justice done to FFVII-Remake).

It's basically the Enix system, as far as I'm concerned. If that's the way for them to handle these pretty big titles at the same time, without resenting any quality they might be set to achieve and are able to produce them in a timely manner, be my guest.

There's something I don't really want to do, and that's waiting 5 years between mainline titles, for example. XVI might be far away as I don't think it'll be earlier than 2019, but at least FFVII-Remake could be as early as late next year if you're incredibly optimistic (I would love to switch the dates, but I'll take the remake).

 

[xXShuyaXx]

Does SE have any problem with mass hiring new developers? Why don't they hire new developers?

I mean , look at Capcom, 3 years ago they had 1623 devs. Now, they have more than 2050 devs.

It is really strange.

It's because Square Enix as a whole is not just a game developer anymore. They are a multi-entertainment business giant. SE circulates it's business not only in games, but other media as well internationally. Putting them with Capcom is like putting MLB to JLB (Japan League, for the lack of a better name). They are in the same industry, but the scale is incomparable.

So why?

Well $$$ circulation. When you have a international entertainment business, where you spew out new projects and products left and right, top to bottom, pretty much in every angle, profit becomes a different meaning. They have to use the most efficient means to produce their products. Not just about going the cheapest route, but a fast efficient route.

But isn't hiring other third party devs the same as hiring in-house devs? Not exactly. Third party devs, most of the time work on contracts. Meaning they only get paid what the contract pays out. However, internal devs must be paid out every month, even when they are not working at full potential. This means more funds are used in the longer run.

Having to spend as much to make as much, taking an efficient routes means to spend less to potentially make more. And to possibly reduce loss in case the product does not go according to plan.

The HR circulation is just on a different scale, to say in comparison to Capcom, or even CD Projekt Red, where Red is exclusively a game developer. Their profits are hard line simple.

 

[APZonerunner]

As of March 2016, Square-Enix has over 3900 devs, they don´t seen to lack manpower. I think these recent colaborations have to do more with having a faster output of games (and maybe because it´s cheapter?).

Well, a few things:

1. It has 3900 employees, and employees are not devs. And, to be honest - SE has a lot of bloat in those other areas. Generally speaking structure wise they have a lot more people in areas like marketing, PR and so on compared to their peers, at least in my experience. So, yeah, 3900 employees, but that includes PR, Marketing, SE Products, SE Music, their anime arm, all that crap. I don't know the specific breakdown without looking it up, but there's a lot of people in these other areas and like I say... I think SE has an awful lot of fat. There's a lot (way too many if you ask me) of cooks in the kitchen on any given SE title in areas outside of dev. You can see this for yourself, mind - next month, compare the credits for those sorts of departments in Resident Evil 7 to FF15. You'll be astounded how FF15's is several times larger. I always find this doubly mad as everybody at SE always seems to be exhausted and run ragged by the amount of work in spite of their sheer numbers, too. There's something to the company structure that is deeply bureaucratic and promotes a structure that leads to many layers of decision makers that makes companies like Capcom or Namco look incredibly streamlined... and don't get me started on that versus Western devs!
2. Around 40% of whatever in-house dev staff they have is in the West, at IO, Crystal, the various Eidos studios, etc.

So in real terms, yes, Square Enix isn't as well equipped as they once were for in-house development, but that's because that shit's expensive. That's why they're outsourcing lots.

The HR circulation is just on a different scale, to say in comparison to Capcom, or even CD Projekt Red, where Red is exclusively a game developer. Their profits are hard line simple.

CD Projekt owns the second biggest video game distribution service on PC after Steam, to be fair. They're an enormous company beyond games (And I can say this with at least some authority as I've been to their studio in person). They just don't have all the fat. CDP resembles Square circa the FF7 games, so hopefully they don't bloat and grow all the barnacles SE did.

 

[Fireryu]

I wonder how Square compares to Sony because Sony is freaking huge and I'm just not talking about Sony's game department I'm talking about Sony as a whole. Sony is one of the richests companies in Japan. Imagine compare Square to Sony is like compare a mouse to a elephant.