Breaking: FF XIII heading to the 360, PS3 fans weep
July 14, 2008
As if the recent Microsoft Japan Press Release wasn’t enought to crush many JRPG fans on the Playstation 3 (to see a handful of Squenix RPGs heading to the Xbox 360 either exclusively, or released first) today at the E3 Microsoft Press conference, Square-Enix President Yoichi Wada took the stage to formally announce that Final Fantasy XIII will indeed be heading to the Xbox 360.
Up to this point, future Final Fantasy titles were previously assumed, then confirmed, at various points to be exclusive to Sony’s Playstation 3. Following Kotaku’s most recent liveblog of the Square-Enix press conference, executive Shinji Hashimoto attempted to provide some insight to why the sudden break from exclusivity from Sony:
Asked why the break from the PS3:
“Says Hashimoto: “We considered the hardware situation. Because of that, we considered the spread of the hardware, so that’s why we decided that.”
About the development schedule for the multiplatform release:
“first they will finish ffxiii in japan. and then they will start localization for english. . . at that point, they will start the xbox 360 development.”
And that:
“[FFXIII Producer Yoshinori Kitase]: “As for development, we are using Crystal Tools for development. We are using it for the PC base. We are making the game at a faster pace. We should be able to show new footage in the future.”
Needless to say, today’s news will cause confusing ripples among the FF fan base, and obviously to the greater debate about the “console war” as a whole. The above headline was not meant as a jab to PS3 users – I’m currently a frustrated one myself as a result of the news - or bait for flames; it merely represents further headache at the surprising turn in Square-Enix’s business plan to suddenly shun RPG fans who have happened to choose the PS3 as their main console of the generation.
With the previously announced exclusives or multiplatform releases to be seen first on the Xbox 360, and now that FFXIII will too be multiplatform, Square-Enix and Microsoft seem contently cozy sleeping in that bed together. Good news for Xbox owners; further confusion for the PS3 crowd.
