Announced earlier today, Akihiro Ishihara retired from Bandai Namco. He was best known as one of the heads behind the iDOLM@STER franchise for the past 10 years and was key to the initial success of the arcade game and the later games and merchandise of the franchise.
He has no plans for the future in terms of projects or games at the moment but he would like to realize his ideal IP and to see how the IP grows and becomes without him. He is grateful for the past 10 years working on the series and is glad to see all the developers, voice actors, and the rest of the staff enjoy their work for the series.
From the time he has joined the company to now, he has seen the franchise grow in popularity from a single arcade game to a profitable multimedia industry covering video games, music, live dome concerts, and more. He has also inadvertently converted Katsuhiro Harada, the producer of the Tekken series, from initially hating the iDOLM@STER to becoming one of it's biggest fans.
http://www.famitsu.com/news/201602/01098507.html
http://www.4gamer.net/games/232/G023283/20160201044/
For those wondering why Harada likes iDOLM@STER now, here is the article for his interview and more about it.
Mandatory reading: Famitsu interview with Harada outlining his life experience going from hating iDOLM@STER to it becoming one of his favorite things at work.
Famitsu article condensed ver.
He has no plans for the future in terms of projects or games at the moment but he would like to realize his ideal IP and to see how the IP grows and becomes without him. He is grateful for the past 10 years working on the series and is glad to see all the developers, voice actors, and the rest of the staff enjoy their work for the series.
From the time he has joined the company to now, he has seen the franchise grow in popularity from a single arcade game to a profitable multimedia industry covering video games, music, live dome concerts, and more. He has also inadvertently converted Katsuhiro Harada, the producer of the Tekken series, from initially hating the iDOLM@STER to becoming one of it's biggest fans.
http://www.famitsu.com/news/201602/01098507.html
http://www.4gamer.net/games/232/G023283/20160201044/
For those wondering why Harada likes iDOLM@STER now, here is the article for his interview and more about it.
Mandatory reading: Famitsu interview with Harada outlining his life experience going from hating iDOLM@STER to it becoming one of his favorite things at work.
Famitsu article condensed ver.
