Former Kingdom Hearts Producer Shinji Hashimoto Has Retired

[Leamax 746]

Former Kingdom Hearts Producer Shinji Hashimoto has retired from Square Enix after 27 years at the company. Hashimoto served as the producer for Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts II, and Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories as well as Executive Producer for every Kingdom Hearts game from 2009-2019 with the last game being Kingdom Hearts III. He also served as the Promotional Producer for the Final Fantasy series until May 2021 when he stepped down to become an Corportate Advisor for the company.

Hashimoto has also sent out a video message announcing his retirement. You can watch it below.

Hashimoto is an important figure within the development of the Kingdom Hearts video game series staring with a discussion with Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi in 1996. Shortly after, he had a chance meeting with an Disney Execeutive in a office elevator when the offices of Square Enix (known back then as Squaresoft) and Disney were in the same building. 

Thank you Hashimoto-san for your vision, ideas, and hard work for the Kingdom Hearts series. Without you, this series may not have come into realization and we wouldn't be here as fans of this amazing series. Enjoy your retirement and May you Heart Be Your Guiding Key.

 

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[Movies798 1,360]

He was a huge help to make Kingdom Hearts a reality! Thank you Shinji Hashimoto-sama!

[King Arthur13 51]

Shinji Hashimoto brought the magic to the early KH games, well done sir!

[Mark Cummings 39]

I'll be forever grateful for your contribution to the series, Hashimoto-san.  Thank you so much. 

[Kaweebo 3,617]

Belated happy retirement, Hashimoto-sama.