和田洋一
At the beginning of development for "Final Fantasy XV", the new team reviewed the content of "Versus XIII" and decided what could be sensibly carried over to the new project. While many design elements were retained, some needed to be changed or removed. Tabata's new position as co-director and eventually as director was related to this change. The separate engine, gameplay, graphics and design sections of the team were merged into one unit to help with development. Nomura remained as co-director alongside Tabata so the project could remain as true to the original vision as possible, after which he was reassigned to other projects within the company including "Kingdom Hearts III", while Tabata took up full directorial duties to bring the project to completion. Due to the state of the project during 2012, Square Enix's then-CEO Yoichi Wada was considering cancelling outright so the team could start from scratch under Tabata's direction. Most of Tabata's team were reluctant to merge with Nomura's team due to the negative reputation of "Versus XIII" within the company, with Tabata taking six months to bring them all round to the idea. Tabata officially became director in December 2013.