Typically, when you talk about key people within the gaming space, you hear about those at the literal top of the food chain more times than not. After all, they’re the ones who typically do interviews and promote titles at key events. Whether they’re CEOs, Presidents, or the head of a certain brand, you know the names that are thrown out often. One such name is Hidetaka Miyazaki, who is the President of FromSoftware. They have been hands down one of the best video game developers of the last decade or so, as they’ve cultivated not only a genre of difficulty within its titles but have produced numerous Game of the Year-worthy or winning games.
The honest truth here is that Hidetaka Miyazaki is responsible for much of that. As we said, he is the company’s President, but he views himself more as a director than anything else. After all, he has directed basically every big game the company has released since it hit its stride via Dark Souls. By his own account, via an interview with The Guardian, he prefers being a director to an executive:
“I enjoy helping grow and nurture the younger directors whom I see guiding the company in the next stage. But sitting in a management office all day isn’t my style. “I really get my hands dirty and continue to make games together, through which I hope I can communicate my process to a different generation of talent.”
He also admitted that when it comes to determining how to spend his time in the company, 95% of it is spent on directing games! That might seem odd at first, but it should be noted that he was made President because of how good a director he was and the results that his games were getting. Yet, he doesn’t feel the need to be the true head of the company when, instead, he can keep making great games for them.
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of such a thing. Recently, Arrowhead, the team behind Helldivers 2, had a change at the top, where its CEO decided to step down so that they could continue making games versus just running the company.
One might feel it’s a bit “counter-intuitive,” but that’s not really the best way to look at it. Some people just want to make games, or continue their company’s success by making video games that will keep gamers happy. They don’t need the top title in the company, they just want to keep making games for it.
