There have been many game demos before that people spent hours on (God only knows how many times I played that Metal Gear Solid 2 demo packaged with ZOE). But how many demos have taken that long for just one playthrough? Apparently, that’s exactly what Square-Enix has planned for the Final Fantasy XIII demo, which will take PS3-owners through an early portion of the game. According to an upcoming issue of Famitsu, the demo will come packaged with the Blu-Ray release of the feature-length film, Final Fantasy: Advent Children Complete, which will feature new and deleted scenes for a much longer run-time than before. More impressive than that though is that the accompanying demo will apparently run even longer than the film; probably well over two hours.

That’s pretty gutsy of Square-Enix actually. I’ve encountered many demos that took less than five minutes for me to get tired of, so a two hour one would have to be pretty spectacular to hold peoples’ interest. You have to wonder if they’ll actually give you the option to save in the middle though, even if it is a demo. You also have to wonder what the cut-scene to gameplay ratio is for this portion of the game.

Via Playstation Universe

Here is the trailer that was shown at E3 yesterday when Square Enix announced that FFXIII was heading to the Xbox 360. To find out all about it, check out our previous posts here, and enjoy the trailer. It is as just as lovely as any Final Fantasy trailer released in the past – which is what we have all come to expect. Actually, it is drop-dead gorgeous.

Bloomberg is reporting that Square Enix’s shares have gained a 3.2% jump to 3190 JPY ($30.46) after yesterday’s announcement that FFXIII was headed to the Xbox 360.

The PS3 and 360 versions will have a simultaneous release in the US and Europe, so it looks like the decision to bring the title to the 360 was a smart move on their part financially. Now all they have to do is start working on the port, since the decision to include the 360 was just a recent decision.

“We had to adjust so many things, including the relationship with Microsoft, and the development tools – it wasn’t such a long time ago that we made the decision,” Hashimoto said.

Thanks: GI.biz

Gaming Today is in the trenched at E3 this week, and yesterday may have been pretty exciting, what with FFXIII being released for the Xbox 360, Resident Evil 5 getting a release date, all the Halo Wars and Gears of War Footage (will be posted soon) and other nice nuggets – it is only going to get better today.
The Nintendo press conference will start off the morning, and the day will close with the Activision private party (away from E3) taking place around 7:00 pm PST. So for those of us on EST, we can expect some info to start arriving 10pm this evening as far as that event goes. Again, Jonathan and Shawn will be blogging live, so expect more information throughout the day and into the evening.

Meanwhile, what are you excited to hear about? Personally, I am curious to see what else Bethesda has to offer other than more Fallout 3 info, and Activision will more than likely be talking up the Guitar Hero franchise and possibly be giving us the first real look at World Tour. They released a press statement yesterday during the Microsoft event about the new Metallica coming to Legends of Rock, so hopefully the guys will have more information on that later. What I am anxious to hear about is the new Wolfenstein title because there is nothing more fun than shooting Nazis ate up with the occult bug.

As far as the Sony press conference goes, I am keeping my fingers crossed that God of War 3 is mentioned or at least shown in rough form. Of course, I am a total Kratos groupie, and anything regarding a future title starring the angry Spartan piques my interest very much. I am sure we will also hear more about “Home” and LittleBigPlanet and many other titles along with future firmware updates coming, so keep your eyes peeled.

Immediately after the Microsoft event, Square Enix decided it was a good time to directly address the press about the big Final Fantasy XIII news. Along with press from around the world I pressed into a small conference room to listen as Final Fantasy Producer Yohinori Kitase and Square Enix VP Shinji Hashimoto as they addressed questions about the highly anticipated game.

Right out the gate the question of why Square Enix changed its stance on Final Fantasy being a Sony exclusive game was posed. The gentlemen diplomatically fielded the question and the root of the answer was basically that Square has come to recognize the impact of the 360 in America versus the PS3 and they want Final Fantasy XIII to reach the widest audience possible. The two versions will be developed by Square Japan but only the US and possibly Europe will get the 360 version.

While this might not seem strange one of the more shocking admissions during the conference was that the development cycle of the game would proceed normally for Japan but the US release would be tied to the development of the 360 game and the localization concerns. The 360 development, according to Hashimoto would not even begin until after the PS3 version was complete. This effectively means that Japan will get FF XIII a good while before the US and Europe because the 360 version will take time to integrate and develop.

There was a lot of discussion in the panel about the motion control, downloadable content and other advantages that could be leveraged for the various platforms but Kitase reiterated a number of times that the two versions would be identical. They were not sure how they would ship the game on the smaller storage size of DVD or even how many DVDs it might require because the game is not yet complete and they aren;t sure how much of the PS3 Blu-Ray it’ll take up.

There was a little talk about the differences between the previous games and FF XIII and it basically came down to a flashy, fast frenetic game that is being built off the ATB ( Active Time Battle) system and would not be real-time as some have feared.

Microsoft kicked off E3 with a press conference not unlike a firecracker that has been dipped in water: it starts off exciting, but then the fuse runs out and all you get a a little “pop” if you’re lucky. Similarly, they brought out the big guns for an opener, leaving everything but the last few minutes pretty unsurprising. Read on for a play-by-play of Microsoft’s big E3 announcements. Read the full article

Lovely scans of FFXIII are showing up on the net thanks to a user calling herself “BlankChocobo”. The scans in question are from her copy of Famitsu PS3 and contain all 27 pages of Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Granted, some of these have circled the net in recent weeks, but this time there is little to no Japanese text running across the pictures.

To say that these are the best looking eye-candy I have seen since Clive Owen’s last Lancombe ad would be an understatement. I have posted a few of the scans below, but you can drool over all of them by clicking on the FFXIII link at the bottom of the post.

Thanks: FinalFantasy-XIII.net

Erroneous reports have been spread all over the Internet claiming that a Japanese magazine was reporting that Square Enix had promised Final Fantasy XIII would be released in 2008. This is, in fact, not correct, and Square Enix promised no such thing – they know better than to make a promise for something that has virtually no chance of happening.

The following was posted on Square Enix’s official website:

Although information regarding the release date of FINAL FANTASY XIII has been reported by certain videogame websites, Square Enix itself has yet to make an official statement on this topic. Any reports of a confirmed release date are erroneous and should be disregarded.

Square Enix will make an official announcement in the future concerning the release date when it has been determined.

Disappointing for FF fans? Sure. But they’ll be happy when they’re literally swimming in FFXIII games.

Square Enix have not seemed too keen on sending out too many screens for their Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII titles, but thanks to the wonderful folks over at Shonen Weekly Jump – we have a full scan of both games. While we are still waiting for a release announcement and more “official” assets, these will have to do, and hopefully between now and sometime in 2009 when the game hits, we will get at least something to keep the fanboys and girls satisfied – me included.

Read the full article

Looks like PS3 owners will have to wait until next year for Final Fantasy XIII. Stop crying, it will be here soon enough – when it comes to Final Fantasy…  you should expect this sort of delay in the first place because FF games never come out on time.

According to Square-Enix, president Yoichi Wada moved the Japanese release to March 2008, which is the end of the company’s fiscal year. Sounds like he wants 2008 to give their stockholders a little bang for their buck. A March 08 release means that a US version will be here MAYBE in late summer 2008. Just be patient until then, and we will keep you up to date on anything we hear.