FFXII holds off Crackdown Comments by Robert Purchese

Final Fantasy XIII will end up being released for the Xbox 360.

Final Fantasy XIII is actually being developed for the Xbox 360, RIGHT NOW!!! But the developers can't "officially" say so, because of licensing restrictions that they originally signed with Sony.

This is the same thing that happened with "Mercenaries 2," which has now been announced for the Xbox 360...and the same thing with Assassins Creed, Fight Night Round 3 (which was released nearly a year first for the Xbox 360 even though it was originally announced as exclusive to the Playstation 3), Unreal Tournament 3, which we now know will be released first for the Xbox 360 and the PC, and then for the Playstation 3.

So...I can tell you that reliable sources have confirmed that Final Fantasy XIII and Metal Gear Solid are in development for the Xbox 360...but they just haven't been "officially" announced yet.

The poor sales of the Playstation 3 in Japan are one of the reasons why SquareEnix decided to also develop FF XIII for the Xbox 360...that is the same reason why Sega decided to release Virtua Fighter 5 in Japan, too.

The second reason is because Blue Dragon has greatly increased the popularity of the Xbox 360 in Japan. Sales of the Xbox 360 when Blue Dragon was released actually outsold the Playstation 3 that week by 3,000 systems!

The popularity of the Xbox 360 in Japan will also greatly increase when Lost Odyssey is released shortly.

Perhaps most importantly, the worldwide success of the Xbox 360 is the #1 reason why the Xbox 360 is receiving such an incredible amount of third party supporty...that, along with its excellent development environment that is easy for game programmers to make games on.

The important thing is that Xbox 360 has the largest quantity of high-quality games available for any system...many of which are now Platinum Hits or Best-Sellers that have had their prices reduced to $29.99.

If you have been following the world of videogaming over the last 1.5 years, then you will really appreciate the website hyperlink at the bottom of this post: it is awesome because it sings a song and shows a music video about all of Sony's mistakes and it points out the fact that the Wii and the Xbox 360 have completely taken advantage of the fact that Sony’s unlimited number of mistakes has killed the Playstation brand-name, just like IGN said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R98qC0fd_1w

Wow, I didn't expect my fanboy-baiting to net a rabid Xbox360 fanboy!

Mr Zoran, you are seriously deluded if you believe that Square Enix are developing secretly for 360. If anything, the virtually-zero sales of FFXI will likely have put them off.

Xbox 360 pretty much does not exist in japan unless (a) a developer is being paid directly by MS to make a 360 game (Mistwalker) or (b) the publisher intends a title to net large sales in the US and Europe (Capcom).

Never has an Ignore been so well-earned, Mikey!

Hey, Metalist (air),

I am going to take the time to reply to what you had to say.

First, take a look at the games currently in development at SquareEnix. There are MORE Xbox 360 games currently in development at SquareEnix than their are Playstation 3 games!!!

Second, when the Playstation 3 launched in Japan, it only sold 87,000 systems that week. Microsoft deliberately scheduled the "relaunch" of the Xbox 360 in Japan for that week, when the finally released the Core system in Japan, and packed the game called Blue Dragon with it. Blue Dragon is developed by the man who created the Final Fantasy series, and he is a legendary Japanese game developer. When Blue Dragon was released, 90,000 people bought the Xbox 360 system!

During the next two weeks, the Playstation 3 sold only 40,000 more systems. Microsoft was able to ship 35,000 more Xbox 360 systems packed with Blue Dragon. Also, a huge percentage of the Xbox 360 owners in Japan purchased the game Blue Dragon; that is why it was a best-seller.

Third, in case you haven't been looking at sales figures, the Playstation 3 is selling VERY poorly in BOTH North America AND Japan!!!

The Playstation 3 is sitting on store shelves collecting dust in BOTH of those sales markets!!!

In fact, the Playstation 3 is doing even worse in Japan, because in Japan the retailers are allowed to lower the prices if they want to; the Manufacturers Suggested Retail Price policies are not as strict in Japan. Many retailers have lowered the price of the 20GB Playstation 3 to only $329, which is $100 less expensive than the $429 that it launched with (which was $70 less expensive than the $499 that it sells for in North America).

Even at a price of only $329, the Playstation 3 does not sell in Japan; it sits there on store shelves collecting dust!!!

The Xbox 360 has had quite a few games in the best-seller Japanese lists, recently. Games like Blue Dragon, Gears of War, and Lost Planet have been very popular in Japan. And that is amazing, because third-person shooters traditionally have not been popular genres in Japan...but when the software is as GREAT and FUNT TO PLAY as what is offered in Gears of War and Lost Planet, then strong sales are obviously going to occur.

Finally, do you realize that Sega said that Virtua Fighter 5 was an exclusive game for the Playstation 3. Sega said that because they felt the Playstation 3 would be most popular in Japan, and Sega was fully aware of the fact that the Virtua Fighter series is much more popular in Japan than it is in any other market.

The reason Sega decided to bring Virtua Fighter 5 to the Xbox 360 was not just because of the far superior worldwide sales of the Xbox 360; it was because of the very poor sales of the Playstation 3, especially in Japan! Thus, Sega decided to do the smart thing from a business point of view, and they decided to release Virtua Fighter 5 for the Xbox 360, too...and the Xbox 360 will get a better version! The PS3 version was based on the "b" arcade version, while the Xbox 360 version is based on the "c" arcade version, and the Xbox 360 version will include online play, which the Playstation 3 doesn't.

SquareEnix considered those same things. Playstation 3 has sold very poorly in all parts of the world, including Japan. That is one of the three reasons why they will also release Final Fantasy XIII for the Xbox 360. The second reason is because of the strong worldwide sales of the Xbox 360. The third reason is particularly because of the much improved Xbox 360 sales in Japan, ever since the release of Blue Dragon, Gears of War, and Lost Planet. W

ith Lost Odyssey soon to be released, and Biohazard 5 (called Resident Evil 5 here) is also due to be released sometime in 2008, similar to FFXIII, then you can see why Square Enix believe the popularity of the Xbox 360 will continue to grow in Japan...but the worldwide sales are what primarily has the attention of SquareEnix. That is why they have more games in development for the Xbox 360 than they do for the Playstation 3, just like how IGN pointed out that the Xbox 360 has always had more third-party support from North American and European third-party developers, but at this point in time the Xbox 360 now has more Japanese third-party support than the PS3, even from companies like Capcom, Konami, Namco and SquareEnix.