Shinji Hashmoto officially retired from Square Enix today after a long and successful career. Shinji announced this via his Twitter account. He joined the company during its early days when it was known as Squaresoft, and has held many roles including executive producer, head of Square Enix’s Business Division 3, and brand manager for the Final Fantasy series.
Hashimoto has also worked on games like Kingdom Hearts, The World Ends With You, and the Final Fantasy 7 remake.
Hashimoto has been with Square since 1995, first joining the company as a producer for the game Front Mission. After working on Final Fantasy for over a decade, he moved up to become the brand manager of Final Fantasy.
He has been an executive producer for Square Enix, and is also credited as the co-creator of the Kingdom Hearts series. Yoshinori Kitase will succeed Shinji Hashimoto as Final Fantasy brand manager.
Hashimoto will remain on as a consultant to Square Enix, but he is leaving the company with good reason. He has a long-standing relationship with the company, serving as a co-producer on Kingdom Hearts and directing several mainline Final Fantasy games.
While he will be retiring from Square Enix, he will continue to play the Final Fantasy series as a consultant, and will oversee its spin-offs and remakes.
The game’s title is still in development, but no release date or price has been announced. Hashimoto has been the brand manager for Final Fantasy for over a decade, and he recently revealed the pre-production process for a new title.
In addition, he is currently seeking a new developer for the game, and he is known to follow events related to his games.
