Final Fantasy XIII Not Simultanious Everywhere

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?

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Users Pwn MetaCritic Review SubmissionsUsers Pwn MetaCritic Review Submissions

Although we’ve found Metacritic a userful resource for game reviews, many folks have gone on a user submission rampage to discredit games that haven’t even launched yet. Their first attack was on LittleBigPlanet followed by Resistance 2, now their hitting Gears of War 2.

While Gears of War 2 has a Metacritic score of 94/100 the user’s have reviewed it to be a 3.5 out of 10, with a bright red box around the user review due to its low nature we’re sure. Although users are free to give their own honest representation of the game from their perspective, Gears of War 2, as of the review dates, hasn’t been released yet – these reviews are bogus.

This style of attack was popularized in Spore, when Amazon got nailed with poor reviews of the game because Spore’s “Draconic” DRM made people angry. However, it’s more reasonable for people to voice their opinion on a known issue with a game; Gears of War 2 review spamming is just mean.

We use Metacritic as guidance when we do our gaming podcast to understand what games are rated in the industry, but we don’t use user reviews as our main guide. There are plenty of folks out there that may utilize these reviews in more seriousness because they may feel journalists reviews are tainted by advertisers or “the man” and want the common gamers opinion.

The common gamer cannot possibility be reviewing Gears of War 2 before the title has arrived. This is bogus. Metacritic has this to say:

“My advice for our faithful users is to focus your attention on the Metascore for this game and not the thousands of user votes, most of which have been submitted before said users have played the game. This is a gaming community, and if people want to stuff the ballot box, there’s not much I can do at this point. When we upgrade the registration requirements for participation on the site in the near future, this type of thing won’t happen. We’ll post the full legitimate user reviews upon the game’s release. As always, thanks for using the site.” (1up)

So, to those looking for holiday gaming gifts, keep this in mind while you start hunting down games you’ll want to buy.