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Report: Square-Enix Yet to Begin FFXIII on 360
Development on the recently-announced Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy hasn't begun, according to a report on consumer site GameSpot.
"We haven't changed the direction of the development [of FFXIII]," said director Motomu Toriyama during Square-Enix's DK Sigma3173 event. "We're making the PS3 version first, and then porting to the 360 later."
Square-Enix made the surprise announcement at July's E3 Media and Business Summit that FFXIII would be coming to Xbox 360, launching simultaneously with the PS3 version is North America and Europe.
Square-Enix reportedly doesn't have Xbox 360 development kits yet. "I'm telling [the development team] to not think about the Xbox 360 right now. We can think about it after the development kits arrive."
Toriyama assured that the multiplatform status of the game doesn't mean the PS3 version will suffer from any spec change.
"Right now, we're fully concentrating on the PS3 version," he said.
As GameSpot notes, due to the simultaneous platform release plans for the game in North America and Europe, the PS3 version will presumably be held back until the Xbox 360 version is complete.
Square-Enix has not announced a firm U.S. release date for FFXIII.
For God's sake.
They should put an English subtitle on these "Japanese first" PS3 titles like FFXIII or Imabikisou, problem solved. No one would bother to buy the US / EU versions anymore.
Let's put all our shares in an import firm from the US to UK. When the US release happens it will be at least 6 months before the EU, and, as we all know the PS3 has no region protection.... So if you want it - it will be available.
Import for the win!!!!
I'm expecting this game to be released in fall 2009 or 2010 at this rate.
As there's no Xbox 360 version in Japan (clever - it would just confuse customers), there's no wait there... and as historically we are used to wait 7-10 months for the Western translation/release of the Final Fantasy games, they will presumably not "hold back" the PS3 version here either - they will simply fiddle with the localization process while the port is done. The time frame is well enough, as they use a PC development environment (12 months are enough to port games from Xbox 360 to PS3 - see Bioshock); and if not, Tose is always there to "jump in." ;)
They should care if it's a "timed release" or not because that "sack of cash" you mentionned earlier probably was a lot bigger by being a simultanous launch and not a "timed release"
I knew we would be hearing more about this as soon as they announced it. You could tell that very little due diligence had actually been performed. Basically right before E3 MS showed up with a sack of cash and said we want FF to be released the same day, and they said OK without having any details worked out.
I would be shocked if they sat on a completely finished game for over a year just so it can be ported to another system. Its just too risky, why hold back a finished game? Why should they care if it is a "timed release", they get paid no matter what system you buy it for.
Awesome. We get to wait for them to make a port while they'll be sitting on a finished product just so Microsoft can puff out its chest a little.