It seems the promise of Final Fantasy XIII on the Xbox 360 is a big “work in progress” as it’s not actually under development yet. Square Enix is fully ready to commit on a simultaneous release for Europe and North America but not every territory around the globe.
The reason is simple: there are just too many countries to perform language translations in the time of a release window. Final Fantasy, as many know, is very text heavy in terms of dialog and storyline. We’ve spoke at length about that in the gaming podcast which helps explain why certain countries get some releases of Final Fantasy at different times and why some sequels never make it out of Japan.
“We’re ready to start developing FFXIII for 360,” said Square Enix’s Shinji Hashimoto. “First, we will complete the game for PS3 in Japan, then begin localization for America and Europe while developing the 360 version simultaneously. The PS3 and 360 versions will be released at the same time outside of Japan — although, due to language and other conditions, the game may not be released simultaneously across territories.” (1up)
Their plan of attack seems solid and gives the PlayStation 3 a bit of an advantage in the Japanese market, but considering the lack of 360 presence in the land of the rising sun, this isn’t too surprising. What is surprising, still, is the concept of Final Fantasy XIII on the Xbox 360 at all!
When it comes to E3 announcements, letting the crowd know Final Fantasy XIII was arriving on Microsoft’s console was a positive shock to the system. It may not be simply because yet another Final Fantasy game is in the works but to prepare gamers for the idea that they don’t have to run out and invest in a PlayStation 3 just to play the next big RPG.
The value to the Xbox 360 is growing and the need to collect all the consoles is fading. End of an era?
You know why I hate Windows sometimes? Because it decides to do a reboot and a system update while I’m in the middle of writing a comment on a podcast episode…
Anyway, let’s cut to the chase. I will keep it brief because I don’t feel like writing an elaborate post again after what just happened.
1. I got the T-shirt, thanks a lot! It fits perfectly and the cotton quality is excellent. Great gift.
2. X-bone launch date. It will not launch in Poland and some of the neighboring countries so it makes me care even less about the console that I did previously. Because of the limited launch range, the date hase everything to do with Black Friday and nothing to do with the PS4 double release date. We sort of have some sales like this before Christmas and people do get trampled over in stores but still it’s not as crazy as over there. Thankfully, there’s always Amazon and Cyber Monday so I’m going to stock up on stuff then. Also, we didn’t have labor weekend or anything like that last week 😉
3. PS4 controllers. Do they mean 4 Dualshock 4s or 4 controller of any kind? Maybe it’s the former which would mean that the console will support more RockBand or Buzz controllers? That would make little sense, though. Still, I don’t care that much. The last time I played couch co-op was maybe two years ago when I played NHL 3-on-3 Arcade with two of my friends. Other than that, I don’t remember what else I played. I use my second controller while the other one is charging and that’s it.
For move games you usually don’t have enough space in the room to fit 3 or 4 people playing so it’s 2 people time 2 controllers = 4 total and that’s enough.
4. External hard drives. This is unclear to me. Do they mean media storage as well, i.e. movies and music on an external hard drive? This wouldn’t make sense, again. It shouldn’t be that hard to support an external USB drive in the OS so maybe they do mean games and game data.
500 GB is not that much if you count all the games you download with PS+. I own a 120 GB PS3 and I need to cycle my games constantly, which is not convenient. I’m getting a 1 TB disk soon and I wanted to put it in the PS4 and move the 500 GB into the PS3. I’m not sure the warranty is void if you do it, to be honest, since Sony encourages the disks to be exchanged (see, the 12 GB Flash iteration of the PS3)
5. FF XIV – I believe the only reason they’re continuing to realease new games is to learn the Roman numerals…
6. QOTW – If it ain’t broke, I’m not getting a new one – that’s my way of thinking. And since I’ve never had a console break, I’ve never exchanged one. To be fair, I only owned an NES, a PS3 and a Vita (I’m not counting some old, old TV consoles that played Pong…), so my experience is limited. Maybe it will change with the PS4 which I will get at launch. The chances that it will last for 6-8 years are slim, I guess but hopefully I’m wrong.
7. @Jordan – have you played Killzone: Mercenary on your Vita? That’s a AAA exclusive you’ve been waiting for. I’m not a huge FPS fan and I’m not that good at them, especially online, but I really like this game and it plays extremely well on the handheld.
8. I’m going off the grid for over a week so I will miss the next episode. You will probably talk about the new Vita model. Have you noticed that the mysterious connector has disappeared from it? The one next to the game slot on top of the device? Any ideas what that was supposed to do anyway? 🙂