The development team of Final Fantasy XIV received gifts from Blizzard for the successful launch of Shadowbringers. Especially the composer Masayoshi Soken was very happy about it.
What happened? Actually, Nathaniel Chapman no longer works at Blizzard. The former developer of Warcraft has since founded his own studio, but he still seems to be in close contact with his former colleagues at Blizzard.
During his visit to the Square Enix headquarters in Japan, Chapman brought some gifts for the FFXIV team. The developers from Blizzard congratulated them on the successful launch of the Shadowbringers expansion.
The gifts included:
- A cute card with greetings from the Blizzard team and the artwork featuring Murlocs from WoW and Chocobos and Moogles from Final Fantasy
- An artwork and soundtrack from the Overwatch team specifically for composer Masayoshi Soken
The Murloc artwork was drawn by Kelli Hoover, who works at Blizzard as an Environmental Artist. She was very touched that her drawing was presented to the director of Final Fantasy XIV. She wrote on Twitter:
I never thought I would see Yoshi P next to something I made! I am so touched! […] It was so much fun to draw this.
This is how the FFXIV composer reacted: The greatest impression and most joy, however, came from the gift from the Overwatch team to the composer of Final Fantasy XIV, Masayoshi Soken. He posted a photo of the signed artwork and soundtrack on Twitter and wrote:
Noooooooooowaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy!!! BEEEEEEST! PRESENT! EVAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!1!!!111!!!111!1!1
— ニー祖堅 (@SOKENsquareenix) September 30, 2019
A HUUUUUGE thanks to everyone who developed Overwatch!!!!!
and, Thank U @pedrothedagger !!#overwatch pic.twitter.com/vRt46s8j5x
Soken is a huge fan of Overwatch and often wears merchandise from the game, like the D.Va hoodie shown below, which he purchased at Gamescom 2018:
What is the FFXIV director’s view on Blizzard? It is generally known that Naoki Yoshida is a fan of Blizzard games. When asked in our interview which games he would like to do a crossover in FFXIV with, he immediately replied: “World of Warcraft and Diablo!”
In an interview with colleagues from Gamebyte, he even jokingly said that he would “drop everything” and move to Blizzard if they let him work on Diablo 4.
It is also known that Yoshida goes to Blizzcon every year and mingles with the visitors. His acquaintance with Nathan Chapman began when Chapman gave him a tour of the Blizzard office in Phoenix.
Are Blizzard developers also fans of FFXIV? There are also great fans of Final Fantasy XIV among Blizzard employees. The lead software engineer of Overwatch, William Warnecke, has even taken time off specifically for the MMORPG.
Warnecke took a week off for the launch of Shadowbringers and another for the start of the Eden raid (Epic), as he confirmed on Twitter. Warnecke also said that many people from his team are huge fans of Final Fantasy XIV.
Nathan Chapman wrote about this on his Twitter:
It is something I hope players understand. Developers whose work is theoretically considered “competition” often have immense respect for each other and love each other’s games regardless of company and national boundaries.
Nathan Chapman
