Yuuki Matsuzawa, a Lead Concept Artist at Luminous Productions, teased the new IP during a recent interview. He announced the game as “a brand new IP”. The details are scarce, but we know that it will likely take a few years before we see anything of this new game. During a recent interview with Famitsu (translated via DualShockers), Matsuzawa said that development on this project was wildly “different compared to what we’ve done until now.”
Going further, Matsuzawa was very cryptic. “There’s not much we can tell you for now,” Matsuzawa said. “We decided on certain elements of the game, but other elements are still under consideration. People like me, who are at the top of the development process are very busy.” The studio is working on something new, and it’s likely to be completely different from a JRPG. The new game is likely to debut on the PS5 and Xbox Series X
The original form of Luminous Productions was founded with Hajime Tabata, The studio first helped work on a video documentary in Japan during 2018, before moving to other projects. The company went on to support work on Final Fantasy XV during its infamously long development cycle. The game did finally come out in 2016 after years of reworks and delays. Hajime Tabata left the company he helped found in November 2018, while Luminous was working on DLC for Final Fantasy XV. Sadly, the later batches of DLC, which would have expanded on the story and adding new story arcs for other characters, were cancelled at this point, leaving three batches of DLC lost to the wind.
It’s likely that these cancellations were linked to the development of this new IP, as Square Enix chose to back the new console project rather than DLC for an aging RPG entry.
So whatever this new game is, Square and Luminous are throwing their full weight behind it, I hope it turns out well for them all.
