This years list of developers attending E3 in July has been released. It isn't much of a shock that Square-Enix will be attending as they do every year. What will be interesting to see is if they still believe that E3's downsizing gives them a good excuse to only show a small exhibition like last year, where we got almost no information concerning Final Fantasy XIII or any of the other Fabula Nova Crystallis titles.
The last time Final Fantasy XIII was shown outside of Japan was when it was revealed to the world at E3 2006 and ever since then it's been shown in private in Square's infamous Closed Mega Theater. All we received at last years convention was an interview with John Yamamoto, Square-Enix's European and North American CEO who divulged the possibility of a worldwide released. He even then went onto say that they were saving all their big announcements for the Tokyo Game Show. Only two trailers have been released to the public in total, one of which, some of us were actually desperate enough to pay for. All games in the compilation have been in development for over 2 years now so maybe Square-Enix will actually be confident enough to show us something new at this years E3. Let's hope so anyway. I suppose we'll have to wait for Square-Enix's game line-up which should be published soon to be sure.
Be sure to keep an eye on this spot July 15th - 17th.
In the last week I've received 3000 emails through the contact form on our site. Of course like every week, only about 40 of these emails are from actual visitors instead of spam. Most of them are people saying how much they're looking forward to Final Fantasy XIII, a lot of them are concerning release dates they've found and some are from people thinking that we are actually Square-Enix and saying how good "our" new games look.
Firstly, although any news tips are appreciated, please remember that release dates on sites like Amazon, Gamestop or Best Buy aren't official release dates. They are simply estimates these sites have to put up to begin accepting pre-orders and are in no way confirmed. In total I've received 127 emails telling me that the release date is on one of these sites. Next, no we aren't Square-Enix :P we're just a fansite. We're glad you like the look of the Final Fantasy XIII games but if you want to contact Square-Enix, it's much harder than filling in our contact form. I suppose it's flattering in a way that people can get confused into thinking this site is owned by Square-Enix.
I hope that this saves some people time instead of writing paragraphs to someone who isn't who they think. Also I apologise if I don't have a chance to reply to any of your emails. This is because my university connection blocks all out going emails from email clients.
News Added:29 Mar 2008News Category:Versus NewsBy: Kitmitsu
Although this is an extremely late find (from 26th September last year) I haven't seen this posted on any other sites. A person attending last years Tokyo Game Show recorded a video of the plasma screen outside Square-Enix's Closed Mega Theater. Although it appears very small in the video, a trailer including the Skirt Girl beginning her fight with the protagonist can be seen playing with a few seconds of new footage. This is the first time she has been seen in motion.
News Added:27 Mar 2008News Category:Versus NewsBy: Dante
With the release of Dramatica yesterday, someone has kindly ripped Somus, the bonus track from Final Fantasy Versus XIII.
Without the background noises and in full quality 256kbs, it is much easier to hear the lyrics, making the pronouncation much clearer, so lets hope this helps people to interpret and translate the lyrics a bit better this time.
Square Enix president, Yoichi Wada, has stated once again that he wishes that simultaneous releases of Square Enix games to become standard to strengthen their businesses overseas. The western market is much more interested in the Japanese style games Square Enix are famous for and now provides them more business than Japan alone, so instead of creating and releasing the Japanese copy then going back and translating it, he wishes to join the development of the two stages.
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is managing a worldwide simultaneous release, launching in Japan, North America and the UK & Europe on the same day, so Final Fantasy XIII using this strategy is not too far fetched.
News Added:8 Mar 2008News Category:FFXIII NewsBy: Kitmitsu
Square-Enix has released a new promotional video for Final Fantasy XIII on the Square-Enix mobile channel. The video was shown at a private event and has now been publishes to Square-Enix's mobile channel. Unfortunately it's only available to people with a FOMA 905i series phone in Japan so it seems unlikely we'll be seeing it. Of course it's always possible someone will get a hold of it. Let's hope so anyway.
Thanks to BlankChocobo we have 31 new scans from the issues of Dengeki and Gemaga published in January as well as some from Famitsu Playstation. These scans never appeared on the internet before. As expected, there isn't any new images or information.
News Added:23 Feb 2008News Category:Square-Enix NewsBy: Kitmitsu
4Gamer.net has managed to take photos of Square-Enix's presentation yesterday and they show Final Fantasy XIII enemy models including a solider and the creature Lightning fights in the CLOUD trailer. One of the photos also shows how Square-Enix uses the Crystal Tools to render cutscenes. The Crystal Tools logo was also revealed.
News Added:23 Feb 2008News Category:Square-Enix NewsBy: Kitmitsu
1up.com have done quite an in depth interview with Square-Enix's research and development manager, Taku Murata concerning the newly named Crystal Tools Square-Enix have developed. The interview explains issues like why the White Engine was renamed, how easily can games be ported to other platforms and if the development of the Crystal Tools has effectively delayed the developmnet of FFXIII and Versus.
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