Naoki Yoshida
| Naoki Yoshida | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
吉田 直樹 1 May 1973 |
| Nationality | Japanese |
| Other names | Yoshi-P |
| Occupation | Video game producer and director |
| Employer | Square Enix |
Naoki Yoshida (吉田 直樹 Yoshida Naoki, born May 1, 1973), also known by the nickname Yoshi-P, is a Japanese video game producer, director and designer working for Square Enix. He is known primarily for his work on massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), as chief planner on Dragon Quest X, and as director and producer of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. He is credited with rescuing the original Final Fantasy XIV project from its disastrous launch. Yoshida is an Executive Officer at Square Enix, the Head of Square Enix's Business Division 5 and part of the Final Fantasy Committee that is tasked with keeping the franchise's releases and content consistent.
Yoshida joined the video game industry in 1993 and started his career at Hudson Soft, where he was assigned to the creation of PC Engine games at first. Later, he participated as scenario writer in the Far East of Eden series and as game designer in the Bomberman series. After he left Hudson Soft, he worked at several smaller game studios for five years.
Yoshida eventually joined Square Enix in 2004 and became the head of the Dragon Quest: Monster Battle Road series as well as a game designer of Dragon Quest X in its early stages. In December 2010, he was taken off the Dragon Quest team and placed in charge of the staff that developed the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Final Fantasy XIV, which had been unsuccessful since its launch several months before. Then company president Yoichi Wada attributed this decision to Yoshida's experience, "charismatic" leadership skills and "passionate" will to satisfy customers. Yoshida was not acquainted with any of the Final Fantasy XIV team's members and thus had to demonstrate his dedication to the project first to gain their trust as director. He then talked with the individual developers to find out their ideas for improvements to the revised version known as Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. He proceeded with describing to the team the precise goals to achieve. Yoshida drew some inspiration from his long-lasting enthusiasm for MMORPGs, having played such titles as Ultima Online, EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, World of Warcraft, Warhammer Online, Rift, Star Wars: The Old Republic and Guild Wars 2. As a result of his direction, reviewers and commentators have credited Yoshida with "rescuing" the Final Fantasy XIV project.
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