It’s been a big year for Naoki Hamaguchi. The director of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has been enjoying nearly universal praise for Rebirth since its February 29 launch, and now he’s been promoted. Hamaguchi shared via X (Formally Twitter) that he's now an Executive Officer at Square Enix.
There are no specifics on how this promotion impacts Hamaguchi’s authority and day-to-day at Square Enix, but based on his announcement, he’s clearly not done with making games. We’ve seen developers-turned-executives at the famed Final Fantasy publisher continue their careers on the development side with great success. Just look at Naoki Yoshida who was promoted to an executive office in 2015 but hasn’t pumped the breaks on leading the Final Fantasy XIV team and still managed to take on a producer role for Final Fantasy XVI.
It looks like we’ll be seeing a lot more of Hamaguchi even after the conclusion of the Final Fantasy VII Remake Trilogy. That can only mean good things for the future of Final Fantasy and its loyal fanbase.