FFXIII to hit Europe in under a year

By Oli Welsh Published 6 May, 2009

Square looking to cut translation time.

Square Enix has said that it's hoping to release Final Fantasy XIII in Europe "sooner than a year later than the Japanese release".

Producer Yoshinori Kitase told Videogamer that the publisher is aiming to cut the traditional year-long wait for Final Fantasy games to appear in Europe. FFXIII will be released in Japan at the end of 2009.

"Obviously we would like to release it over here as soon as possible," Kitase said. "Traditionally the Final Fantasy numbered series, it takes about half a year between the release in Japan and the release in North America, and another half a year before it's released in Europe. But we would like to minimise this this time."

He explained that Square Enix has already started localising the title, something it used to do only after the Japanese version was finished.

"We have already started recording English voices, and also the text localisation has been in progress, too. Normally we complete the Japanese version first, then move on to the US and EU versions, but this time there are some tasks that are happening simultaneously. So this time we're hoping to release sooner than a year later than the Japanese release."

However, there are other possible reasons for a delay to the FFXIII's release in Europe and the US. The Japanese release is a PS3 exclusive, while it's also appearing on Xbox 360 in the West - and last year, Square Enix said it wouldn't start work on the conversion until the PS3 version was finished.

God speed, Square Enix coders and translators. Final Fantasy XIII looks rather good, and we don't want to wait too long.

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About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • Darren #1 3 years ago

    Well the terrific thing about the PS3 is that the games are not region-locked so anyone from the UK can import the US version in June 2010 if they want to rather than wait another three to six months for the UK version. I know I will be. :)

  • OnlyMe #2 3 years ago

    Tsk, if the european version takes longer than 1 months after the US release, I'll import. The first sign of a version with english menus and subtitles will make me import.

  • Tyranix #3 3 years ago

    ONLY a year? Wow, that's okay then.

  • JohnnyWashnGo #4 3 years ago

    The good thing about demos is that you can judge whether or not to buy the game based on the time spent playing them.

    After playing the FFXIII demo, my desire to play the game kinda vanished.

    Unless they pull something out of the hat and make the game play well, I doubt I will be playing it. The fight system was a giant step back from FFXII and the control of the main character seemed jerky and not as fluid as previous games.

  • XdarXideX #5 3 years ago

    Good to see SquareEnix are miles behind the rest of the world in developing.

  • retr0gamer #6 3 years ago

    How come it took 3 months for microsoft to localise and release Lost Odyssey in Europe after the japanese release yet it takes you clowns 1 year to release games over here?

  • Doctor_What #7 3 years ago

    But the fight system in XII was pants. Bring on the retro system. Hooray!

  • TheBiGW #8 3 years ago

    Surely this delay could be fixed if they started localising the content sooner in the development cycle?

  • menage #9 3 years ago

    @Darrren

    +1

    Hope it's better than the previous FF games though, but stuff looks good.

  • alimokrane #10 3 years ago

    What a bunch of idiots!!! seriously..... Surely them acquiring Eidos could make the job a LOT more easier now shouldnt it ??

  • Daikon #11 3 years ago

    Why don't they get that most folks would be happy with the Japanese audio with English subs.
    Or am I mistaken?

  • viper_h #12 3 years ago

    Doesn't look like 360 owners in Europe will be getting this til 2012 then...

    SquareEnix really are a joke. I mean come on, what takes so damn long??

  • aguaporf #13 3 years ago

    I really wish people would know what it takes to translate and test the localization of a game so huge (text-wise) as a FF title, especially considering the extremely high standards Square-Enix has lately.
    There's not only English guys, I'll import the US version too, but other non-native English speaker would want to have the game localized in their own language, and that really takes a shitload of time... unless you prefer having all the bugs and mistakes of a FF7-quality translation.

    Regarding Lost Odissey... the game was paid for by MIcrosoft, an American company, it wouldn't surprise me if they delayed the Japanese release on purpose just to release the American one shortly after that.

    In fact, I'd prefer to wait even more, starting the localization process before the Japanese text isn't final could create huge problems.

    Remember peeps, not everyone is a native English speaker.
    Edited by 1 at 06/05/09 @ 12:09

  • Widge #14 3 years ago

    and localising language isn't a simple case of find and replace text either.

  • M_of_the_sys #15 3 years ago

    @Daikon

    I'm happy with no voices and only text but if I had a choice between English and Japanese audio then I'd choose the language I can actually speak and understand.

    As long as they make a quality game, I'm happy to wait for this. There's already a lot to look forward to this year. I'm kind of worried about the new direction they've taken though. I don't like change. I'm scared of change...

  • Collymilad #16 3 years ago

    I cant believe the number of sites trying to spin this as a positive.

    It's a joke. Instead of "FFXIII to hit Europe in under a year" how about "FFXIII going to take nearly a year to hit Europe"?

    More like it. F*** you SE.

    Makes me laugh as well at all the idiots who just flat out cannot accept that MS might have done something good. "Delayed the Japanese release"

    Yeah, sure, get a grip eh? Sony are still waaaaay ahead of MS on the Europe screwing scale.
    Edited by 2 at 06/05/09 @ 12:38

  • alimokrane #17 3 years ago

    @M_of_the_sys

    What new direction ? you mean going back to what made FF what it is ?? I hated the guts of FF12!!!! I am soooo relieved they went back to turn based.
    Edited by 1 at 06/05/09 @ 12:37

  • M_of_the_sys #18 3 years ago

    @ alimokrane

    Naw that's not what I meant at all. I love turn based. I'm just a bit worried at the futuristic Killzone 2ish look of it all. I mean, it's always had a nice blend of fantasy and futuristic edge to it but it seems... different.

  • JediMasterMalik #19 3 years ago

    It's pretty pathetic really, Kojima managed a worldwide release with MGS4 perfectly fine, but SE can't do it? Stupid.

    Very much looking forward to it though, it looks amazing.

  • Steroyd #20 3 years ago

    It better be under a year, SE make Sony look like they translate games quickly.

  • Schiraman #21 3 years ago

    They've been saying this kind of thing for years and seem to have made zero progress so far, so I won't be holding my breath.

  • geeza2020 #22 3 years ago

    "Square Enix in continental raping shocker!!"

    Surely these guys have written a script etc and finalised it before they start making the game. Well once thats done, start recording and translating all languages AT THE SAME TIME. Jesus.

  • Kikizosan #23 3 years ago

    I wouldn't mind the extra 6 months between a US and UK release if the game was actually localised into ENGLISH, but we still get the American script and voice acting.

    So I might as well get the US version - it's probable it won't be region locked.
    Edited by 1 at 06/05/09 @ 13:06

  • aguaporf #24 3 years ago

    @Jedimaster: MGS4 is probably one tenth of a final fantasy game text wise, even considering the hours-long cutscenes, and its localization in the various European languages is not on par with SE's.

    @Collymilad: I never said "omg they totally done that Microsoft iz teh evul" I said that it is possible, it has happened before (Vampire 2 used source, Valve forced the deal that said they couldn't release the game before HL2, HL2 code was leaked, Valve delayed the game of a year or more, also Vampire 2 had to shift and the developer went bankrupt because of that, just as an example of a marketing issue affecting a release).

    I also never said that it is a good thing, of course we all would like to have all versions released at the same time, but the only way it is physically possible to do that is to delay the release of the Japanese game, the developers and the writers are Japanese, they write in Japanese, the Japanese text is ready earlier than the others, some publisher do world launches, some others release the different versions as soon as they are ready, that is just the way things are.

    Also, did you play Lost Odissey in Italian? In French? In Spanish? In German? Lost Odissey's localization was a far cry from, for example, FF9 in at least two of those languages. Most companies just take the American version to UK, the real troubles are the other European languages, again sorry, UK is not the only country in Europe.

    Aaaand also speaking of Sony screwing up Europeans more than Microsoft... at least, thanks to Blu-Ray, if I buy a PS3 game with a lot of text and dialogues in Germany, I am 99% sure I'll find the other European languages in the disc, not so for XBOX.
    Then there's the LITTLE issue of the PS3 not being region locked, while the XBOX is, I'd call that a MILD advantage for European PS3 owners over XBOX owners, but that's just me (I own both consoles, I'm not a sony fanboy, I just know they got different pros and cons).

    Also did you move in to Europe yesterday? You speak like this never happened before... it has always been like this we get even the consoles themselves one year after their Japanese release, that is why people import stuff, that is why entire websites like playasia have a market at all. Every main Final Fantasy game takes a year before it comes to Europe, as this article reminds us and the fact that THIS is an exception is why the article was posted at all.

    The fact that it sucks won't change it, just buy imports.

    Lastly a bit of netiquette, gratz on insulting people sharing their opinions over the internet, that's like really cool and mature.
    Edited by 1 at 06/05/09 @ 13:24

  • retr0gamer #25 3 years ago

    Then why is it that only Namco, Square Enix and the odd time Sony are giving us 1+ year delays in games when other companies are managing much quicker turn arounds. They could also just give the localisation work to a third party to provide translation and voice acting. It would turn out much better than what those clowns at Square Enix usually give us. Small companies like Atlus and Koei are managing to bring text heavy games over in a reasonable time without anything close to the resources of Square.

    And if Vampire 2 was held back from release for a whole year why was it still a buggy mess when it was released with a whole years extra development time.

  • Klayman_k #26 3 years ago

    If the games eventually hit Europe from Japan...
    How many "Tales of" and "Shin Megami" never arrived here (and even to US) only because they didn't want to afford localisation costs?

    Then, Okami too wasn't localised in European languages and, well, this is most probably one of the reasons of low sales.

    Audience is getting wider and new videogamers who might try a "hard-core game" out of curiosity would place it on the shelf if it's not in their languages.

    Come on, let's try to think a normal employee coming back from work... do you think that he's going to spend energies to dig out English memories from high school when he can play another game without such effort?

    I'm sure that publishers are well aware of the fact.
    Edited by 1 at 06/05/09 @ 15:35

  • retr0gamer #27 3 years ago

    Why can't they do each loacalisation at the same time? Anyway for the US release they need to have Spanish and French language options on there anyway. The only other option they bother with is portuguese and Italian.

  • Klayman_k #28 3 years ago

    Speaking about Atlus... a simple Baroque took 4 months after Japan and 3 after US without even having a localisation, Persona 4 took 5 months for US and other 3 months for EU.
    It saved 3 months on SE times... And I guess the text is significantly smaller than a FF.

    Koei... big amount of text in a Koei game?
    Sorry, I can't find any... Opoona maybe?

  • aguaporf #29 3 years ago

    Vampire 2 was a buggy mess because the developers went bankrupt, no money for extra development, no money for patching, the game was submitted to the publisher, the publisher halted the game until HL2 was released and when the game was actually out the developer didn't exist anymore since months .

    You have to consider the quality of the localization, Square Enix is one of the companies with the highest quality standard in the world regarding translations, one of the hardest to get hired for as a translator, their testing (the localization testing, which is separated from functionality or system testing) lasts much much longer because they want to be sure to have the best possible quality.

    for example, Oblivion (undeniably a great AAA title with enormous amounts of resources invested on) played in Italian is a nightmare, you can find a quests that have one sentence in Italian, another that is half Italian and half English and another that is in Spanish! And that wasn't even translated from Japanese! This can only be avoided by lenghty testing procedures and by not rushing the translation and the whole localization process.

    By the way a good quality localization has different versions for Canadian French and "French" French, Latin America Spanish and "Spanish" Spanish, and there's the "little" market of Germany to be taken into consideration, then there's the localization of the manual and packaging into Dutch/Finnish/Swedish/Norwegian/Russian/Czech/Polish etc. etc. etc.

    The reason why many don't translate simultaneously is that is easier to find good European translators from English, definitely harder from Japanese, so most translate the game into English first, then the other languages use the English version.
    This is not the case of Square Enix though, but it still takes longer for the European Languages because there is ONE development team even though there are MANY localization teams.

    I already wrote too much about this (mainly cause I haven't got much to do atm :D) and believe me, I don't think that Square is the best company ever and everything they do is perfect, the last remnant and infinite undiscovery are crap in my opinion, but I think I know something about game localization and I'm sure that their quality is matched maybe only by Nintendo and Blizzard.
    Edited by 1 at 06/05/09 @ 15:03

  • retr0gamer #30 3 years ago

    I actually find that Square Enix's localisations to be some of the worst. Terrible voice actors and relly poor dumbed down scripts. Only when they get in Alexander O. Smith to do the localisation are the results good, exceptional even when he has the lead. Other than that the only other good localisation they did was Dragon Quest VIII which was handled by a third party. I thik Atlus do a much better job of making believeable scripts that don't dumb them down when they have trouble getting across the original japanese meaning into english.

  • Bigglesworth #31 3 years ago

    @retr0gamer
    Only when they get in Alexander O. Smith to do the localisation are the results good, exceptional even when he has the lead.

    But that covers about a 10-year timespan. Localisation wasn't a serious consideration much further back than that; for some publishers it still isn't - a quick run through the Babelfish Japanese->English process seems sufficient.

    Btw, are you seriously comparing the kind of localisation work that went into FF XII with anything that has come out of Koei??

  • retr0gamer #32 3 years ago

    Well I have to admit that FFXII's localisation was exceptional, but then again Alexander O. smith was involved then. However the vast majority of even the recent releases from them have been pretty poor.

    Eh, yeah the Koei translations can be a bit off and the voice overs unintentionally comedic, I might have been wrong there. I still stand by what I said about the work done by Atlus and some of the small publishers that specialise in bringing over quirky japanese games and RPGs seem to do it a lot faster.