Former Tales Producer Hideo Baba Leaves Square Enix

Former Tales series producer Hideo Baba has left Square Enix after joining up with the company in 2017. He was hired by Square Enix to head a new studio called Studio Istolia and work on a new IP.

In an official statement, Baba announced, "Accompanying a change in Studio Istolia management policies, I'm announcing that I resigned as representative director in December 2018 to make room for the next generation. Also, in March 2019, I resigned from Square Enix."

Before joining Square Enix, Baba served as a producer on the Tales JRPG series at Namco Bandai. When he joined Square Enix to head up Studio Istolia, it was announced the studio was working on a new IP called Project Prelude Rune. This was back in 2017, and there's no word as to how Baba's departure will affect Project Prelude Rune.

Famitsu says that fans should look forward to Baba's next project, which will be announced in the future. So presumably Baba is keeping himself busy, even after leaving Square Enix.

This marks yet another change in management at Square Enix. Previously, Final Fantasy 15 director Hajime Tabata left Square Enix and Luminous Productions to start his own company while Luminous began work on a next-gen triple-A game. Square Enix also enlisted Naoki Hamaguchi as co-director on the Final Fantasy 7 remake, and has Final Fantasy 14's Naoki Yoshida working on a new triple-A game as well.

Safe to say that there's a lot of moving and shaking happening at Square Enix. How this all plays out for the Japanese company remains to be seen.