While Naoki Yoshida has been at Square Enix for fifteen years, he rose to public fame primarily due to the continued success of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and its expansions. Square Enix even appointed him as the producer for the next mainline Final Fantasy game (XVI), due to launch next Summer.
In a recent interview with Inverse, Yoshida expressed his thoughts on the future of gaming, such as Virtual Reality and quantum computing.
If we think in terms of the next decade, the development and spread of new devices — such as VR chips — may give way to revolutionary game experiences. I’d thought this could happen a bit sooner, but I believe it might’ve been delayed by several years due to the shortage of semiconductors caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and other factors. […]
This (quantum computing) would dramatically increase server performance and elements that could be simulated. That could lead to the creation of a living world that resembles reality, or even new ideas that create an actual online world. There is the possibility that game development styles will drastically change and culminate in a major turning point not only for video games but everyday life itself.
Naoki Yoshida concluded the interview by sharing his wish to create a brand new MMORPG from scratch before retiring.
I am a game designer, so I always have several ideas for games. I can’t talk about them here, but I think that goes for any game designer. I am the kind of person who’s happy as long as they can make games, so while there isn’t anything in particular, I occasionally think that I would like to make one more MMORPG title, from scratch, before I die.
Yoshida is currently 49 years old, so there’s still plenty of time to do that.
