Naoki Yoshida: A Strong Competitor or An Enthusiastic Supporter of Blizzard Games?

Naoki Yoshida / CC by SA

Recently FF14 was named the Best Ongoing Game of 2019 by IGN, and also got three nominations for Best Role-playing Game, Best Ongoing Game and Best Community Support by The Game Awards 2019 which will release outcomes in 17:30 on 12 Dec (PST). Behind these honours the producer and director, Naoki Yoshida, plays a significant role.

FF14 was named the Best Ongoing Game of 2019 by IGN/ Twitter: @FF_XIV_EN

FF14 was got 3 nominations in TGA 2019/Twitter: @FFXIV_XIV_EN

Back to 2010 when the original FF14 was launched, it got poor 49 in Metacritic and a number of complaints about its disastrous gameplay experiences. Soon Naoki Yoshida was assigned to reconstruct this game and the later success of the relaunch of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn in 2013 indicates his excellent ability to bring FF14 a rebirth.

A video series called The Fall and Rise of Final Fantasy XIV shows details about the original and how it was reborn/ Speakers Network

This year FF14 went to a peak time after its latest expansion “Shandowbringers” released, which gained 9.5 score in IGN, overstepping the highest score 9.1 of WoW, which seems that FF14 has become a strong competitor of Blizzard games.

However, the relationship between these two sides is not that tense, and actually Naoki is a big fan of Blizzard games. He recently showed his interest in crossovers with WoW, ever joked that he was going to drop everything to go for Diablo IV, and also enjoyed some communications between SE an Blizzard like tour or receiving presents.

Kelli (@ @teddybear_toast)is an Environment Artist at Blizzard Entertainment, and Nathaniel Chapman(@pedrothedagger) formerly worked in Blizzard

See, great games like each other!