Based on an employee’s LinkedIn account, it has been confirmed that Square Enix is actively doing some outsourcing for Final Fantasy XV. The LinkedIn account in question is that of Kaei Sou, currently a Project Manager for the company. Sou’s job description says verbatim:
Technology and Outsourcing focused management for Final Fantasy XV and other 1st Production titles.
The listing provides few other clues on what work is actually being outsourced by Square Enix, but based on Sou’s body of work, localization and technology are not out of the question. Sou did localization at Nanica K.K. for companies such as Square Enix, Tecmo Koei, and others. He also went to Ulvac Tehcnologies to help work on an environmental energy project commissioned by the Japanese government.
Sou has been working at Square Enix for over a year now, and became Project Manager five months ago. In his prior capacity as Technical Production Associate, he helped in different fields such as global licensing, vendor relations, middleware, 3rd party coordination, tech business development, and a few management related tasks.
It’s great to see Square Enix have such a talented staff member, but more importantly, this helps give us a clearer picture on the state of the game's development. For a project that’s allegedly been in the works since 2006 (literally the impetus of the previous generation of consoles), it’s surprising that they promoted a (relatively) new hire to a senior position.
I see two possibilities: Square Enix wants Final Fantasy XV to make the best use of 8th generation technology, so they’re seeking out more help to that end, or they’re closer to completion than we think, and Sou was brought in to help wrap things up on realms outside development, such as localization.
Either way, we’ve confirmed outsourcing on the Final Fantasy XV, after all this time. How does that make you feel?
