Hajime Tabata Announces New 'JP Games' Studio

Guess who's back, back again.

Hajime Tabata, the past director of Final Fantasy 15, has today established his own studio, post-Square Enix. Tabata has revealed 'JP Studio' to be the name of his new venture, and it'll launch fully in January 2019.

In a Facebook post announcing the new studio, Tabata writes "I started up my own company called JP Games, Inc. Right now, we are preparing for a target January 2019 launch. And to everyone who has assisted me until today--I kindly ask for your ongoing support."

Tabata's last project was helming Final Fantasy 15, after a troubled development period of roughly a decade. Final Fantasy 15 launched in November 2016, but Tabata wasn't finished with the game, producing three new DLC packs centering around Prompto, Ignis, and Gladiolus, as well as changes to the infamous Chapter 13 and a revised ending to the game, in the year after launch.

But, Tabata resigned from Square Enix at the end of October 2018. In the special livestream that you can see above, Tabata announced his departure, cancelling all but one of the further planned Final Fantasy 15 DLC episodes, as well as resigning from Luminous, a new studio that he was due to lead under Square Enix.

At the current time, it's anyone's guess as to what Hajime Tabata could be working on next. JP Studio doesn't actually open until January 2019, and it looks like it'll be a fair while before we hear about Tabata's next project.