Naotoshi Zin

What FromSoftware's own pages say about Naotoshi Zin

Naotoshi Zin appears in FromSoftware's own company profile as its advisor. The English version of the page lists the board of directors with Hidetaka Miyazaki as Representative Director and President, then senior managing and outside directors, operating officers and corporate auditors, and ends the list with the line Advisor Naotoshi Zin. That line is the full extent of what the studio currently publishes about him: the profile gives no date of birth, no career history, no length of service and no explanation of the advisory role.

What role did Naotoshi Zin hold at FromSoftware?

The studio's press releases use a standard byline naming the issuing company and its president, and the releases that name Naotoshi Zin in that byline identify him as Representative Director and President. The earliest of them still published on FromSoftware's site is dated 19 January 2010 and announces that ARMORED CORE 5 was in development for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. In that release the company introduces itself as FromSoftware, Inc., head office Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Representative Director and President: Naotoshi Zin.

The same byline appears in the release of 28 February 2014, which announced the Windows version of DARK SOULS II. The next company release in which FromSoftware identifies its representative director is dated 5 June 2014, announcing downloadable content for the same game, and names Yoshimi Yasuda as Representative Director and Chairman. Neither the releases nor the company profile state when the change from one name to the other took place.

Naotoshi Zin in the studio's game credits

FromSoftware publishes game manuals as PDFs on its media site, and those credits are the studio's own record of who worked on a title. The manual for Yoshitsune Eiyuden, the PlayStation 2 game whose copyright notice on the same credits page reads 2005 From Software, Inc., lists Naotoshi Zin under the heading Supervisor. The company publishes no credits database covering its catalogue, so the advisory entry in the company profile and the bylines in its press releases remain the main corporate record of his position.

Which parts of his record are not on official pages

Several things commonly stated about Naotoshi Zin are absent from FromSoftware's and Kadokawa's own pages. Neither the company profile nor the company history page names the person who founded FromSoftware; the history page opens in 1986 with the establishment of a business application developer and names no individuals in its later entries. No official page gives his date of birth, his education, his first role at the studio, the year he became president, or the year he moved to the advisory position listed today.

Quick facts

FromSoftware's company profile lists Naotoshi Zin as Advisor, with Hidetaka Miyazaki listed above him as Representative Director and President. The studio's release of 19 January 2010, announcing ARMORED CORE 5, identified him as Representative Director and President, and the release of 28 February 2014 for the Windows version of DARK SOULS II used the same byline. FromSoftware's release of 5 June 2014 names Yoshimi Yasuda as Representative Director and Chairman in that position. The Yoshitsune Eiyuden manual credits Naotoshi Zin as Supervisor under a 2005 From Software copyright notice.

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