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Final Fantasy XIII "coming 2010"

Pre-E3 billboard says so.

Final Fantasy will not be released in the US until next year according to a massive billboard advert thrown up ahead of E3 next week.

"Coming 2010", the poster yells at people in Downtown Los Angeles, unless they happen to be Japanese, in which case they should be able to play the PS3 version this side of Christmas.

Square Enix has previously said that it hoped to localise the latest in the typically expansive RPG series at record pace, with English voices already being recorded - but even so it's no surprise to be told it won't be out in the West until next year.

Although the poster's siting in the US presumably only covers the release date there, it seems enormously unlikely that Europe will somehow skip the queue and get it earlier - although we're checking with Square Enix anyway.

In the meantime, why not read through our Final Fantasy XIII hands-on to see what we made of the recent Japanese PS3 demo? The full game is due out for PS3 and Xbox 360.