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?
@GameStop developing console and PC game streaming
This is quite funny, since I remember Derrick and Jennifer talking about GameStop as the iconic brick-and-mortar type of shop, not willing to buckle up on the pressure put by digital distribution channels.
The big problem I see is the fact that now there are quite a lot of digital distribution channels: Steam, Origin, Desura, not to mention the console based ones. It got crowded, and getting a slice of the pie is (now) very difficult.
Now, in terms of streaming, the only competition is OnLive. They will need to do something differently, however, if they want to become top dog. I’m curious as to what will that be.
@Is the Xbox 720 chip set
Well, the technology is already there. Call it Sandy bridge or ‘fusion’, CPU+GPU+memory controller are here to stay.
The hardware technology was already tested (well, Intel had some issues with Sandy bridge …) and deemed suitable for marketing.
SoC means ‘System on a Chip’, meaning everything (CPU, RAM, ports etc) is on the same chip.
Jordan, I see the 720 as just a hardware upgrade of the 360. It will be (just like 360) still based on PC-like hardware, so I say the 360 games will be perfectly compatible with the 720. This means the 720 already has a good library.
The way I see it, Microsoft decided to steamroll the competition.
@industry is failing female gamers
I say put your money where your mouth is. Instead of complaining about the fact that the market represented by female gamers is not being properly exploited, I say take the opportunity and make a game that will bring you the moneyz 😛
My sister also loved UT. She also played Quake 3 and Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, but her arena of choice remained UT. Another game she liked a lot was the first Unreal game.
Back to the UT/Quake3/MOHAA, she also played them in multi player.
@QOTW
I take pretty much the same approach as Jordan. I don’t look at bullet points.
But, be it FPS or RTS, I want a nice, plausible story.