FFXIII ships 1.8m for Japan launch

By Robert Purchese Published 17 December, 2009

Game goes on sale in the Far East.

Square Enix has dug deep and found another few hundred thousand copies of Final Fantasy XIII for the game's launch in Japan earlier today.

A healthy 1.8 million copies of the PS3 game have been trucked off to shops around the region - a figure that includes console bundled copies.

Prior to this revision, Square Enix had said that 1.3 million copies of the highly anticipated PS3 RPG would be available during the game's first seven days on sale.

Final PS2 instalment Final Fantasy XII stockpiled two million copies high for launch day alone, although the console had a comparably larger installed base.

Still, the wait for Final Fantasy XIII is finally over - at least for PS3 owners in Japan. The Xbox 360 version is reserved exclusively for the West.

Thankfully, anyone adept at Japanese may import without a care, although we'd urge caution to anyone new to the language as the game relies heavily on text and spoken dialogue.

The US and Europe will receive Final Fantasy XIII on 9th March, simultaneously on PS3 and Xbox 360.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • pacrifice #1 2 years ago

    gjkbm

  • MORZTAN #2 2 years ago

    PS3 will kill the Wii in Japan this Christmas. Nintendo doesn't stand a chance.

    So not a hattrick for Wii :(

  • davisorle #3 2 years ago

    Im just curious as in what deal is made w2ith Sony - Square Enix - MS about this title. MS, if possible, would even pass around there a collectors like they did with MW2 I bet on this game yetits not released there at all. Personally i dont care, I just dont know who paid whom. Sony to keep the title half exclusive or MS to get the half exclusive? lol

    At least around here its at the same time frame release so no frustrations to ppl that know they have to wait extra on their console I guess. Me, Im glad that ill be getting this but when I think that Im way more hyped about ME2 it sounds weird to my own ears. I just hope the gameplay delivers big time like we all want from a FF title.

  • VicViper #4 2 years ago

    @davisorle

    I have to agree with you there, I guess ME2 just appeals more universe and character wise. Don't get me wrong I'll be buying FFXIII when it hits as I always enjoy my FF games. Well from what they have shown far its looks like it will be an excellent FF game.

  • Goodfella #5 2 years ago

    I'm really rather envious the Japanese are getting it shortly, expecially as I have nothing new to play until at least Bayonetta comes out.

    Oh well could be a lot worse than waiting only another 3 months. Unfortunately a motherload of potentially great games are coming out in the first 3 months of 2010 so my wallet is going to take a hammering!

  • davisorle #6 2 years ago

    @VicViper
    Exactly. FF will also be a purchase for sure. Might be cause the ME2 hype and expectations havent wore off and been building up for such a quick release and improvement when FF took for ever and many good games have been released in between. Cant defy it but I think its many factors. One way or the other ME2 + FFXIII is a killer combo. Great couple of months there for gamers that apreciate quality RPGs.

  • MuchoPies #7 2 years ago

    wish I could understand Japanese right now, lucky buggers!

  • Pedrolot #8 2 years ago

    Does this mean they can finally get on with Versus?

  • M_of_the_sys #9 2 years ago

    I wish I hadn't read this. Anyone know a really quick way to learn Japanese? A la Matrix type download perhaps?

  • Darren #10 2 years ago

    Why bother importing the Japanese game when the English version is just over three short months away? It's not like there's a shortage of games now or even post-Christmas (Bayonetta, BioShock 2 and Mass Effect for example). The European/US release date looks perfectly timed to me plus we'll have three months to soak up all the import reviews to get a better idea of just how good the game is. :D

  • Darren #11 2 years ago

    Oh and I'm going to guess at FFXIII being exactly the sort of game that the Japanese love which was lead to a huge increase in sales of the PS3 hardware. I would have also included the Xbox 360 but Square-Enix have bizarrely excluded it from Japan when it is probably the only game that would have absolutely guaranteed a large number of extra hardware sales. Stupid, stupid people. Tut.

  • davisorle #12 2 years ago

    @designerheadache
    I understand the way you see it but I willhave to dissagree with one or two invalid points, which is what makes me wonder the exact same thing i asked earlier. When you say about the development time , there isnt such thing when its eeitherway being worked for EU + US. Its the same thing, different region. Its not like they would need to do anything more than have jap menus.. Seriously nothing more than that. All are done for the PS3 version and ready for them so still they would have income and no damage. One way or the other itwould make more money than any other game on the 360 over there if you think about it.. lol

    Yeah, it would sell like 1/10 from what the PS3 would or even 1/100 but still.. Do you see what Im talking about? :p Will be weird to see the sales numbers here though on each platform. Anyhow.. I'll be buying the European version, I just was curious. MS Paid half title or Sony half exclusive? :) Nothing important I guess.

  • actionfitz #13 2 years ago

    /sigh.
    if only they would provide english language options for the text and keep the voice work in Japanese :/
    then we could be playing it now too
    QQ

  • mkreku #14 2 years ago

    It's looking pretty neat. I predict this to sell shitloads in Japan:

    http://ww w.engadget.com/2009/12/16/limit...

  • kingcrude #15 2 years ago

    If I die between now and March, I'm gonna be pissed off

  • jag10 #16 2 years ago

    @Pedrolot

    hopefully, it looks much better than 13.

  • sneetch #17 2 years ago

    Stupid Japan, making us wait. Why I oughta!

    @farticusmaximus

    /finishes making notes

    Good tips there. Thanks. :)

  • spookyzombie #18 2 years ago

    This makes me so unhappy. March seems a long way away.

  • JinTypeNoir #19 2 years ago

    I think one reason why they won't release it on the 360 over here is because they don't want to hurt the brand anymore. As more and more spinoffs have been released, they are starting to sell less and less, and a main series game selling "eh" on the Xbox 360 no matter how well it sells on the PS3 would damage the series' mystique of being of impervious to wages of time in its invincible popularity. I can't say exactly how that works out, but that's brand for you, it's all really vague in the first place.

    Of course, later on with some sort of International version, I can see a 360 release here.

  • VMerken #20 2 years ago

    I guess three months is acceptable.

  • trip919 #21 2 years ago

    I haven’t been following this game and have absolutely no expectations for it whatsoever (which may ultimately work in its favor).

    The series has been off the boil for too long now and I can’t really generate any enthusiasm for it.

    I’ll play it eventually and who knows I may even be surprised by it.