Yet another interview..Kotaku however.

[Alhanelem]

The funny part is, this is how you know you couldn't have blamed Tanaka (like it seems to be the cool thing), because he had them do their homework for XI's development, so XIV clearly was a misstep by the entire company, not just one man.

Two things: Tanaka (plus other senior staff members) took the fall for the faliure, he wasn't solely resopnsible, but since he was the producer it was his responsibility to get a good product from his team. So yes, it was a misstep by many, not just him- Just explaining why everyone thinks it's him. The other thing is, it's the very fact he was on the original XI team that led to dated ideas and concepts being brought to the project. MMOs have changed and evolved since he made XI, but not a lot changed in XIV 9 years later.

Just a key note for those who like to tell people SE shouldn't look at what they did with XI and learn from it.

Just because XI was successful, doesn't mean that they should be pulling every idea and concept from it. As I alluded to above, the things that made XI successful years ago and the things that will make an MMO successful today are not the same.

Yoshida's comments reflect this- he recognizes that the needs of MMOs have shifted as time has gone on.