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02 Mar 2010 - Rumour: Square Enix Axes Music Staff Several industry sources have informed SEMO that Square Enix has decided to disband their music team. The company apparently made the decision at the end of 2009 for budget reasons. Their decision lies behind a number of well-publicised departures from the company in recent months, namely Junya Nakano, Masashi Hamauzu, and Kumi Tanioka. However, at present, the extent of Square Enix's cuts are unclear. Among those that may be affected are the six composers at the team: Masashi Hamauzu (Final Fantasy XIII, Dirge of Cerberus, SaGa Frontier II) Junya Nakano (Final Fantasy X, Threads of Fate, Musashi: Samurai Legend) Tsuyoshi Sekito (The Last Remnant, Dawn of Mana, Founder of The Black Mages) Naoshi Mizuta (Final Fantasy XI, Final Fantasy Gaiden, Founder of The Star Onions) Kumi Tanioka (Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Chocobo Series, Code Age Commanders) Takeharu Ishimoto (The World Ends With You, Dissidia, Compilation of Final Fantasy VII) These six potential casualties were each employed by Square Enix for between 12 to 15 years and have accumulated dozens of scores between them. Their future destinations are unknown. Square Enix Music Online's sources report most axed employees will retire, but some hope to continue a career in the games industry. Masashi Hamauzu is currently considering forming his own studio, while Junya Nakano and Kumi Tanioka have recently become part of the sound alliance GE-ON-DAN. The current employment status of Tsuyoshi Sekito, Naoshi Mizuta, and Takeharu Ishimoto remains to be clarified. In future, Square Enix will principally rely on independent composers and music production studios to handle their scores. They will continue to rely extensively on the studios of their former sound team members Nobuo Uematsu, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Yoko Shimomura, and Kenji Ito, as well as various others. It is also possible that some of the recent departees from the sound team will be contracted to produce further compositions. Square Enix's current approach is in accord with the model demonstrated by most Western game studios, which outsource to various external composers under the supervision of an internal sound director. This approach is generally cheaper than employing internal staff and results in the selection of composers specifically suited to a project. However, numerous Japanese developers, such as Nintendo, Sega, and Konami, still produce accomplished scores while relying principally on internal talent. At present, it appears the Zuntata sound team at their subsidiary Taito are unaffected by the cuts. This news was confirmed to SEMO by three reliable independent industry sources. However, Kumi Tanioka and Hidenori Iwasaki have denied aspects of the news in their Twitter accounts. We are currently contacting them to learn more and hopefully produce a definitive article about the happenings. |
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