Kingdom Hearts Co-Creator Retires From Square Enix
Shinji Hashimoto, the co-creator of the Kingdom Hearts series and a longtime producer for the Final Fantasy franchise, has announced his retirement from Square Enix. Hashimoto revealed on social media today that after being with the Japanese publisher for over 25 years, today marks his final day with the company. And while this certainly marks the end of an era for Square Enix, Hashimoto's impact on the publisher will surely continue to be felt long after his absence.
On his personal Twitter account this morning, Hashimoto made the announcement official regarding his departure from Square Enix. "Thank you everyone. I will retire on May 31st. During my tenure, I am very grateful to all of you in various fields," Hashimoto said in a loosely translated message. "From now on, I would like to support you as a Square Enix fan. I'm really thankful to you."
皆様、お疲れ様です。本日5月31日（火）をもちまして定年退職することになりました。在職中は多方面の皆々様方々には大変お世話になりました。これからは、一スクエニファンとして応援させて頂きたいと思います。本当にありがとうございました。 pic.twitter.com/yIj89uvh8x
— shinji hashimoto (@shinjihashimot3) May 31, 2022
Hashimoto's message was met with numerous responses from fans around the globe, all of which largely thanked him for his work over the years. While some fans specifically thanked him for his work on Kingdom Hearts, others talked about his importance to franchises like Final Fantasy, SaGa, and many more. In short, Hashimoto helped produce dozens of different games over the past couple of decades, so if you've ever played a game from Square Enix, there's a chance that his hands were on the project in some manner.
Even though Tetsuya Nomura might be the developer most well-known for working on the Kingdom Hearts franchise, Hashimoto is arguably just as important to the series and its existence. Initially, Hashimoto was the one who came up with the core concept of Kingdom Hearts before Nomura joined on and was chosen to lead the project. Hashimoto was also the one who was able to pitch the idea to executives at Disney about collaborating with Square Enix on the game. Without this, it's hard to know if Kingdom Hearts ever even ends up getting greenlit in the first place, let alone becoming one of the company's biggest franchises ever.
How do you feel about seeing Hashimoto make his leave from Square Enix? Let me know for yourself either down in the comments or you can reach out to me on Twitter at @MooreMan12.
