Blazblue Creator Toshimichi Mori Leaves Arc System Works
BlazBlue series creator Toshimichi Mori has departed from Arc System Works after almost 20 years. He started working for the company in 2003.
“I have something to report to all of the users. I, Toshimichi Mori, have left Arc System works, the company I worked at for many years,” Mori says on Twitter (translated by Gematsu). “I first joined Arc System works after working on Guilty Gear X as an employee of PicPac, and I cherish many of the experiences I have had during my 20 years there, whether it was working for various fighting game titles, developing my own title BlazBlue, or connecting with many of our users.”
He continues, “I have nothing but gratitude towards the staff of Arc System Works and others who have worked with me, as well as all the users who supported us. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will depart from Arc System Works. This may cause some feelings of anxiety, especially among fans of the BlazBlue series. For this, I sincerely apologize.”
ご報告です。 pic.twitter.com/wACWEOfxVh
— 森P (@zatuyoP) September 25, 2022
However, Mori also explains that he isn’t done with video games just yet. At the moment, he’s thinking of creating a game for BlazBlue fans in some sort of fashion, and he’s going to focus on that endeavor going forward.
Many veteran developers in the Japanese video game industry have moved on from places where they first established their names or have retired recently. Earlier this year, Yakuza series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi left SEGA to establish his own studio with NetEase. Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy producer Shinji Hashimoto left Square Enix back in May.
In other Arc System Works news, Guilty Gear Xrd REV2 is getting rollback netcode on PC.
George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey
