By Tom Richardson, BBC Newsbeat
It is a June Friday evening in Tokyo, and Naoki Yoshida has weekend plans.
“Take it simple, relaxation up.”
Pretty customary, you may assume. However Yoshida-san, the director of Ultimate Fantasy 14 (FF14), is aware of that it will most likely be his final likelihood to chill out for some time.
When he speaks to BBC Newsbeat it is a week till Dawntrail, the most recent growth to the massively multiplayer on-line role-playing sport (MMORPG), is launched.
Following a “disastrous” launch in 2010, FF14 has gone on to grow to be probably the most worthwhile title within the franchise’s historical past, in keeping with writer Sq. Enix.
The sport’s turned issues round a lot that servers struggled to maintain up with demand when the earlier growth, Endwalker, launched in December 2021.
It isn’t the one change since FF14 first got here out. The business, and Japan’s place in it, has additionally shifted over the past decade.
Ultimate Fantasy is a large cultural export for the nation, and Sq. Enix has stated it desires to focus extra on the “world market” and its followers worldwide.
There’s proof of this method in Dawntrail, a big second for Yoshida-san and his crew, and one he calls “the place to begin for the subsequent 10 years of Ultimate Fantasy 14”.
Endwalker introduced a decade-long story arc to an in depth and Dawntrail opens a brand new saga. It additionally provides a graphical overhaul to the sport, together with new character lessons and different options.
It is billed as a “summer time trip”, with the motion happening within the sunny, Latin America-inspired Tural area of FF14’s world.
Yoshida-san says Ultimate Fantasy video games have beforehand taken inspiration from Europe and East Asia and his crew needed to strive one thing totally different.
He says Central and South America present a “large space” with “quite a lot of historical past” to attract from.
Authetic illustration of different cultures is one thing Sq. Enix has been criticised over previously, and its latest video games have made efforts to deal with this.
Yoshida-san says he is at all times regarded FF14 as a “world sport”, however agrees that social media’s affect has grown and “it is grow to be simpler for folks to collect collectively and make their voices heard”.
He admits “there are dangers concerned” in depicting different cultures, however his crew has made it a degree “to study concerning the tradition, learn the texts which are accessible”.
“The world is numerous,” he says.
“There are individuals who have many various units of values, many various religions, many various senses of relationships.
“And so it is actually necessary, I really feel, that we perceive these factors.”
Ultimate Fantasy video games have at all times blended Japanese sensibilities with Western influences, however some have instructed that the collection has had an identification disaster not too long ago.
Yoshida-san tells Newsbeat Sq. Enix makes “50% to 80%” of its revenue from “abroad followers”, who’re “actually necessary to think about after we are creating the sport”.
However he believes there is a stability to be discovered.
“We had been born in Japan, we had been introduced up in Japan. So what we had been introduced up with was elements of Japanese tradition,” he says.
“So if we put an excessive amount of of a spotlight ourselves on abroad audiences, we do not have that background and that context.
“If we focus a lot on the abroad audiences, then no matter we make would not achieve success.”
Nonetheless, Yoshida-san says the builders cannot stay in a bubble.
“I feel figuring out the world is essential for us in our growth shifting ahead,” he says.
There’s not too long ago been one other vital change for Ultimate Fantasy.
Sq. Enix produces video games for a lot of platforms however has a historical past of putting up unique offers to ensure some titles solely seem on sure consoles.
Gross sales of two latest PlayStation 5-only video games, Ultimate Fantasy 16 (FF16) and Ultimate Fantasy 7: Rebirth, have reportedly upset in Japan.
Following their launch CEO Takashi Kiryu instructed buyers the corporate would “aggressively pursue a multiplatform technique” to get its video games on extra machines.
Yoshida-san is accustomed to arguments about exclusivity, having launched the long-awaited Xbox model of FF14 this yr.
It is a signal of a wider shift within the business, the place corporations have gotten much less selective about the place their video games seem.
In Japan, figures counsel players are opting to play on mobiles or the Nintendo Change – which not too long ago grew to become the nation’s all-time bestselling console.
“We wish to have gamers no matter whichever system they’re enjoying on,” Yoshida-san says.
“We wish them to play our sport and all join and take part after which play collectively in the identical world.”
Yoshida-san says Xbox CEO Phil Spencer “devoted quite a lot of his time” to getting FF14 on to Xbox.
“Due to his exhausting work, I am tremendous, super-glad we had been capable of see it to by to fruition,” he says.
“However after all, there are platforms which stay.”
When he is requested which these could be, Yoshida-san does not hesitate.
“In fact,” he says. “It goes with out saying that might be Nintendo’s platform.
“I am certain persons are ready for the reply to that query.”
For now, although, there is a extra urgent problem on Yoshida-san’s thoughts – giving Dawntrail “the very best launch”.
After his weekend relaxation, he anticipates being busy.
“I am certain that it should be sleepless nights, we will be simply eyes targeted on the service standing,” he says.
Endwalker’s tough beginnings might be on participant’s minds, however Yoshida-san says he isn’t one for dwelling an excessive amount of on the previous.
“It is what’s already occurred,” he says. “And that is not likely going to take us ahead.
“Wanting in direction of the longer term is our job.”
Regardless of this, Yoshida-san says there may be one factor necessary to recollect.
“The gamers who caught with us, [who] put their belief within the Ultimate Fantasy 14 crew.
“They actually served as a supply of motivation,” he says.
“They actually drove us to get to the place we’re and we might not be right here with out them.
“So retaining them in thoughts, we actually simply wish to do our greatest for the Ultimate Fantasy 14 group.”
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