Hironobu Sakaguchi
| Hironobu Sakaguchi | |
|---|---|
Sakaguchi at the Tokyo Game Show in Tokyo, Japan in 2006
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| Born |
November 25, 1962 Hitachi, Ibaraki, Japan |
| Residence | Honolulu, Hawaii, United States |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Occupation | Founder of Mistwalker, Game designer, Game producer, Game director, Author, Writer |
| Awards | AIAS Hall of Fame Award (2000) |
Hironobu Sakaguchi (坂口 博信 Sakaguchi Hironobu?) (born November 25, 1962) is a Japanese video game designer, director, producer, and former film director. He is the creator of the Final Fantasy series, and has had a long career in gaming with over 100 million units of video games sold worldwide. He left Square Enix and founded a studio called Mistwalker in 2004.
Sakaguchi was born in Hitachi, Ibaraki, Japan. He studied electrical engineering while attending Yokohama National University, but dropped out in 1983 mid-semester with Hiromichi Tanaka.
On leaving the university, Sakaguchi became a part-time employee of Square, a newly formed branch of Denyūsha Electric Company founded by Masafumi Miyamoto. When Square became an independent company in 1986, he became a full-time employee as the Director of Planning and Development. Sakaguchi then decided to create a role-playing video game which he named Final Fantasy as a result of his personal situation; had the game not sold well, he would have quit the games industry and gone back to the university. The game was released in Japan for the Nintendo Entertainment System on December 18, 1987, and was successful across Japan. Under Sakaguchi's supervision, Final Fantasy developed into a successful franchise, spanning from stand alone stories to spin-offs to direct sequels. In 1991, following the release of Final Fantasy IV for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, he was honored with the position of Executive Vice President. The last Final Fantasy game he directed was Final Fantasy V, becoming the producer for future installments of the franchise. In 1995, he became president of Square's North American division. His final role as game producer was for Final Fantasy IX. In an interview at the time he described it as his favorite Final Fantasy. He later went on to serve more as an executive producer of the series, as well as many of Square's other games, including Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve and Kingdom Hearts. The Kingdom Hearts series would later go on to feature a character named Master Eraqus, who was designed to physically resemble Sakaguchi and match with Disney's Yen Sid. In May 2000, Sakaguchi received the Hall of Fame Award of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.
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