Hironobu Sakaguchi voted the most important figure in the Japanese console industry

Famistu recently ran a survey that was sent to customers, retailers and other developers regarding the five most influencial people in the Japanese video game industry in 2005. Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy, got the first pick with 473 votes. Akihiro Hino from Level 5 (Dragon Quest VIII / Rogue Galaxy) scored 412 votes. Coming in at third was Satoru Iwata he’s the president of Nintendo and one of the minds behind Super Smash Brothers Melee. Hideo Kojima, who made countless Metal Gear games and Snatcher snatches the fourth position. The fifth position goes to Ken Kutaragi who’s behind the Playstation empire.

Hironobu Sakaguchi’s position is interesting since his studio Mistwalker has yet to put out a game in 2005. However even without any games released the news bytes on Blue Dragon, Lost Oddessy, Archaic Sealed Heat and now Cry On must have had a dramatic influence on the Japanese public. Since three of the four Mistwalker games are Xbox 360 exclusives Sakaguchi could single handedly turn around the fate of the Xbox 360.