Microsoft Corp, whose Xbox is the world's No. 2 video-game console, hired the creator of the top-selling Final Fantasy series for Sony Corp's PlayStation device to develop games for the next version of Xbox.
Hironobu Sakaguchi, 42, will create two role-playing games exclusively for the Xbox, Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft said in a statement. Such games allow players to control fictional characters that cooperate to advance a storyline or complete a task in computer-generated environments.
Microsoft is working on the next version of Xbox and it needs compelling games to avoid the failure of its first console in Japan. Microsoft shipped 9,279 units of its Xbox in the six months ended Sept. 26 in Japan, while Sony Corp shipped 946,065 units of its PlayStation 2, according to Tokyo-based game market researcher Enterbrain Inc.
Shares of Microsoft rose US$0.16 to US$25.36 at 4pm in NASDAQ Stock Market composite trading. They have fallen 5.7 percent in the past year.
"We think we've identified our issues" in Japan, said Peter Moore, corporate vice president of worldwide marketing and publishing at Microsoft. The company has lacked role-playing games that are popular with Japanese gamers, he said. As of June, PlayStation 2 had outsold Xbox by 48 to one in Japan.
More than 60 million copies of Final Fantasy games have been sold since it went on sale in December 1987. The game is produced by Tokyo-based games maker Square Enix Co for PlayStation.
Sakaguchi served as executive vice president at Square Enix until February 2001, Microsoft said in the statement. In April last year, he began planning game development at his own company, Mistwalker Inc.
Sakaguchi started developing story lines and characters for Microsoft's new games several months ago, Moore said. He declined to say when the games will be released. The company hasn't set a release date for the new Xbox. Some analysts have said they expect it in time for the year-end holiday season.
Terms of Sakaguchi's employment agreement with Microsoft were not disclosed. He'll be based in Tokyo.
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