Final Fantasy IX Animation Done

Sources at Square's Honolulu studio have informed GameSpot News that CG animation for Final Fantasy IX for the PlayStation has been completed. The team has been working rigorously over the past few weeks, even over the Thanksgiving break, to complete the animation. However, now that work has been finished, Square is apparently releasing many of the team members.

According to some, this has caused a negative reaction amongst the animation designers who had hoped to continue the same work once the project wrapped. Square doesn't see it that way, though. "Employment contracts for all game designers and CG graphic artists at the Square USA Honolulu studio are negotiated on an individual-game basis from the beginning of the project," stated a company spokesperson. "Much like in the film industry, game production is controlled by development phases, such as pre-production, production, and editing. This method is the most efficient and allows effective control of all phases of development."

The Square spokesperson went on to say, "For this reason, once an individual phase has been completed, parts of the team may be disbanded while the game is still in development. However, because of the detailed schedule management described above, such events do not affect the development schedule in any way."

Square conducted similar practices after the animation was completed for Parasite Eve for the PlayStation, the company's first game developed in Honolulu. Team members from that project went on to work on other games, and some got involved with the Final Fantasy movie. Square commented that "the current plan for the Honolulu studio teams that are disbanded are either reassigned to the Honolulu movie team or relocated to Japan to work on the next generation of games."

Final Fantasy IX for the PlayStation is currently slated for release sometime in the spring of 2000 in Japan and likely in the fall of 2000 in the US. Previously, sources had indicated to GameSpot News that Square was shooting for a 9/9/99 release date for the game in Japan, but many aspects of the project took longer than expected.