Speaking as part of a 4Gamer roundtable discussion this week, Sakaguchi revealed that Mistwalker’s next game will be announced in 2017 ahead of its upcoming release.
Sakaguchi additionally stated that Mistwalker has entered a partnership with Bravely Default developer Silicon Studio, giving the team access to a suite of developer tools and middleware for its next game.
Prior to founding Japanese game developer Mistwalker in 2004, Hironobu Sakaguchi was a key player during the production of several landmark Square games throughout the ’80s and ’90s, including Chrono Trigger, Super Mario RPG, and the original Final Fantasy. Sakaguchi stepped up to a directorial role for Final Fantasy II, III, IV, and V, leading the long-running series to worldwide popularity during its formative years.
Sakaguchi’s studio Mistwalker later produced two of the Xbox 360’s most popular JRPGs, Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. After following up with The Last Story for the Nintendo Wii in 2011, Mistwalker turned its attention to mobile platforms, producing multiple Android and iOS apps in the years since.
Mistwalker found its greatest success to date in 2014 with Terra Battle, a free-to-play tactical RPG for iOS and Android devices. The project reunited Sakaguchi with fellow Final Fantasy series veterans Nobuo Uematsu, Hitoshi Sakimoto, and Yoshitaka Amano, and the finished product has been downloaded more than 2 million times across iTunes and Google Play.
Thus far, it’s unclear whether Mistwalker’s next project will be for consoles or mobile devices. Sakaguchi previously announced plans to produce a scaled-back console version of Terra Battle following its success on mobile platforms, but details regarding the proposed port are not yet known.
