Final Fantasy Creator Goes Mobile, Free-to-play

2 Jul 2014
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hironobu

For many of us here at GamerEscape, the name Hironobu Sakaguchi carries a LOT of weight. We’re talking about the man who, under his direction, gave us Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy II, Final Fantasy III, Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy V. He even stayed involved as an Executive Producer for every Final Fantasy up until Final Fantasy IX. And after stepping down from Square Enix in 2003 and making games under his own studio, Mist Walker, it seems that this industry veteran is now going mobile.

Sakaguchi’s next RPG, Terra Battle, will release on Japanese phones in September, as well as possible releases on a wider breadth of iOS and Android devices. Which makes sense, too considering that Japan became the number one spender in mobile apps globally, overtaking the US.

While Sakaguchi is probably the biggest name to personally switch to mobile platforms, it appears that many Japanese developers are making a pivot to the new market segment. Here’s to hoping that doing so doesn’t cause them to forget the rest of their platforms.