Hiromichi Tanaka leaving Square Enix

Big news on the second day of VanaFest: Hiromichi Tanaka, the current producer of Final Fantasy XI, is stepping down and will leave Square Enix mostly due to health problems.

Hiromichi Tanaka started his work at Square in 1983 and was one of the earliest members and eventually headed up  Square Enix's 3rd development division. Later he became Corporate Executive Online Business.

At Square he worked on games like Final Fantasy, II and III, Secret of Mana, Xenogears and Chrono Cross. Besides producer of Final Fantasy XI he was also producer of Final Fantasy XIV till December 2010 (which was badly received by the fans causing him to step down).

Akihiko Matsui will take over his spot as producer of Final Fantasy XI.