Yuito Kimura, one of the two co-founders of Granblue developer Cygames, has stepped down from his role as executive director at the company, citing ongoing health concerns.
Kimura’s departure was announced today via the official Cygames website, with the company confirming that his responsibilities “have been allocated among the current board members”, so it sounds like they won’t be searching for a specific replacement for Kimura.
Cygames’ announcement doesn’t give a reason for Kimura’s departure, but over on social media (thanks, Gematsu), the man himself says that he has ongoing health issues that have made his duties at Cygames difficult to carry out. These health issues are, however, not life-threatening, according to Kimura.
Kimura says that he’s hoping to return to video game production at some point in the future, assuming that he makes a recovery from his health issues, so this may well not be the last we’ve heard of him. Let’s hope not!
If you’re not familiar with Cygames, it’s the studio responsible for most of the games in the Granblue series, including the 2024 action RPG Granblue Fantasy: Relink and fighting game Granblue Fantasy Versus (although development on that game was handled by Arc System Works).
Cygames was founded by Kimura and president Koichi Watanabe back in 2011, going on to develop a number of mobile games for the Japanese market, including Rage of Bahamut, Dragon Quest Monsters: Super Light, and, of course, Granblue Fantasy.
Interestingly enough, given how big the Granblue series has become overseas, it’s still not possible to play the original Granblue Fantasy in English. Other Cygames titles, like Dragalia Lost and the positively meme-worthy Umamusume: Pretty Derby, have received Western releases.
It’s not clear how Kimura’s departure will affect operations at Cygames, but it sounds like it’s business as usual for the studio, at least for now. Stay tuned for more on this.
