Final Fantasy 15 Director Wants to ‘Embrace Western Gamers,’ Says Square Enix CEO

Final Fantasy 15 game director Hajime Tabata and Square Enix want Final Fantasy 15 to be a game that appeals to a very wide audience, according to Square Enix CEO of the Americas and Europe Phil Rogers.

"I mean Final Fantasy 15 has been a really great project for us and when you talk to Tabata-san, he really wants to embrace the Western gamers. He knows how important they are and the feedback he’s soliciting is from fan events and group discussions," Rogers said in an interview with Examiner.com.

While the Internet is a powerful tool for gathering fan feedback quickly, Square Enix has also utilized the more traditional method of face-to-face feedback by bringing people into the studio to play Final Fantasy 15 and deliver their feedback to Tabata.

"It’s amazing when people come to [the] office and talk to him and he’s really listening. The demo we put out and retuned based on feedback is really important for us. Again, we take our IP very [seriously], we want to build its value," Rogers said.

Square Enix is so committed to the longevity of the Final Fantasy franchise that they hope its fan-base will only continue to grow and reach more and more people.

“We really want to stand back in 10 years [sic] time and see our IP being played by more people, enjoyed by more people and a new audience coming to the IP. That’s how we plot our IP and then when you break it down, you sort of see what the right cadence is with a certain IP or project," Rogers said.

Final Fantasy 15 does not have an official release date, but it will be heading up Square Enix’s Gamescom 2015 lineup next month. Earlier this year, a demo was released called Episode Duscae and has since seen some retuning work done to it based on feedback.