Hideo Baba Left Square Enix; What Will Happen to Project Prelude Rune?

A few times now, we’ve talked about Project Prelude Rune, an upcoming JRPG from Square Enix’s new Studio Istolia.

Studio Istolia was established when Hideo Baba, known for his work as a producer of the Tales series, left Bandai Namco and joined Square Enix.

Their first game was announced under the code name Project Prelude Rune and was eventually confirmed to be a PS4 title.

However, last week Hideo Baba announced that he had resigned as head of Studio Istolia in December and left Square Enix at the end of March. He left as part of “the change in Studio Istolia’s management policies.” What exactly that means is unclear.

What does this mean for Project Prelude Rune? Since it hasn’t been cancelled, it sounds as though work on it may continue without Baba.

I’m still looking forward to what Project Prelude Rune will become, but I was hoping for a chance to see Baba’s work outside of the Tales series for a better idea of whether or not he deserves the criticism he gets for recent Tales games (until Berseria, which he did not serve as producer for).

Aside from that, it also makes me wonder if something is happening at Square Enix. Tabata left alongside the cancellation of the remaining Final Fantasy XV DLC, now Baba left, and Hiroaki Iwano of the Million Arthur series (which I’m not too familiar with) announced his departure last week as well.

Square Enix has been restructuring its business divisions, so maybe that is related.

What do you think will happen to Project Prelude Rune? Share your thoughts in the comments.

---
If you want posts like this delivered straight to your inbox, enter your email in the box below to subscribe!