Nihon Falcom founder and chairman Masayuki Kato has passed away at the age of 78, the studio has revealed. His cause of death has not been stated.
Per an announcement by Nihon Falcom (with translation from Reddit user TheBlueDolphina), Kato died on December 15th, which is also when he "resigned from his position as Director" at the company. That might sound obvious, but I'm guessing confirming this is some kind of requirement with regards to corporate structure.
Kato's death will be marked by a funeral and a wake that are open only to close family members "in accordance with the wishes of the bereaved family", Nihon Falcom's statement reads. The studio is also "respectfully" declining condolence gifts or physical messages of sympathy.
Nihon Falcom was founded by Masayuki Kato back in 1981, with the studio named for Star Wars' Millennium Falcon spaceship (and the N being swapped for an M due to the popularity of the "com" suffix at the time).
The company's early games would prove hugely influential in shaping the then-nascent JRPG and action RPG genres; with franchises like Ys, The Legend of Heroes, and Dragon Slayer, the company arguably laid the groundwork for later giants like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.
Today, Nihon Falcom is perhaps best known for the still-ongoing Ys and The Legend of Heroes franchises, the latter of which has birthed the popular Trails sub-series to which luminaries like Trails in the Sky and Trails of Cold Steel belong.
While Kato remained the chairman of Nihon Falcom, he wasn't its president; that role is filled by Toshihiro Kondo, who said back in October that the studio was considering utilizing generative AI for speedier translations.
It's not clear how the day-to-day running of Nihon Falcom will be affected by Kato's death, but for now, we can simply mourn the loss of one of the JRPG world's most influential figures. Stay tuned for more.
