Interested being the operative word
Over the weekend at PAX Prime 2014, Destructoid sat down with veteran Square Enix producer Hajime Tabata to discuss Final Fantasy Type-0. We did that. It was good. Then, seemingly at random, he mentioned how much time he spends watching League of Legends and other multiplayer online battle arena games (MOBAs) on Twitch.
I love a good tangent. So naturally, I inquired if he’s ever thought of working on a MOBA of his own.
“I do have a great amount of interest in creating a MOBA game,” Tabata replied. “But obviously that genre itself isn’t very popular in Japan. So it’s kind of a question as to ‘If we were to do it, how would we approach it?’ — so that it would be picked up by the Japanese audience.
“[MOBAs] include the essence of RPGs in really short amounts of time, short spurts,” he continued. “I think other RPG creators also look at the game in awe. They are amazed about what they are capable of doing in such a short amount of time.
“I’m really interested in eSports games,” Tabata said just as one of the Square Enix representatives in the background decided to spoil the fun.
“I just want to clarify that these are his interests,” the PR handler chimed in before everyone in the room erupted into laughter and the conversation shifted back on topic.
