Taku Murata joined Square Co., Ltd. in 1991 when he started work as a programmer for Secret of Mana. Soon afterwards, his passion and motivation drove him into the role of Main Programmer for Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story, two key titles in the Square Enix portfolio. Taku was also instrumental in a development of PlayOnline, an entertainment network service that served as the hub for Square Enix's online games. Most recently, he served as the supervisor for Final Fantasy XII. Today he is a general manager of research and development at Square Enix
As a gifted programmer, Murata has consistently delivered unique and refreshing gameplay experiences that challenge the conventions of RPG gaming. Using these experiences, he is now leading an effort to establish a technology platform throughout the company to power its next-generation content and services.
Murata was instrumental in the 2007 decision by Square Enix to adopt the Unreal Engine for game development. "The complexity of next-generation game systems featuring HD graphics and multi-core parallel processing poses a number of technological challenges to our game development. However, we can expedite our game development process significantly while allowing extra time and resources to be spent on game design and mechanics by establishing an effective technology platform," said Taku Murata. "The technology platform for game development is becoming more important than ever. I'm excited to be partnering with Epic Games in such an important area."
