OrtizGames

Yesterday, during the E3 Microsoft Keynote presentation, we heard Yoichi Wada, president of Square Enix, give an announcement that broke millions of hearts.

Final Fantasy XIII no longer a PS3 exclusive. An Xbox 360 version will be released in Europe and North America on the same launch date as the PS3 version.

I think I’m justified in feeling terribly betrayed right now, since time and time again the world was assured that Final Fantasy XIII was to be a PS3 exclusive–the trailers had logos on the end that read “Exclusively for the Playstation 3 System”, the rumors were quelled time and time again, really–we all thought we could trust Square Enix. They have Sony’s back, we thought. Sony saved them when they were drowning after FFX-2 and Spirits Within. They gave them a huge chance with Kingdom Hearts–it’s the only reason they’ve been able to explode back up. And now this.

I can’t imagine the amount of money that must have exchanged hands for this to have occurred–Xbox 360 must have realized they didn’t have all that much in their 2008 lineup and called up Square Enix, begging for a slice of cake. I do, however, get the feeling Square won’t be having to merge with any other company anytime too soon.

To give some good news, Final Fantasy XIII Versus remains a PS3 exclusive, and XIII itself will of course still be released on the PS3. But Square has wounded me this time. I’ve been able to forgive and forget time and time again. But this? This is betrayal. I’ve been stabbed in the back. And not only me–I get the feeling Sony didn’t know about this announcement either. Nor any other Playstation advocate out there.

Square Enix, you’ve got to win back my respect and my approval. Both are gone for now. You have one more chance: make these two games so spectacular My eyes pop out, or become dead to me from here on out.

Let’s hope you make the right choice.

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The full quality scans of the FFXIII screens have been released, and can be found here. Every time that game is mentioned, I feel myself squirm in desperation. I’m so excited about it–my hopes have risen to climactic peaks for it, and I’m so anxious to see the demo I could pop.

No news on when the battlesystem demo might be headed our way, but FFXII’s demo was a very good indicator to me of what I was to expect from the game–if FFXIII’s is miraculous, I can rest assured the game will be just as phenomenal.

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And indeed, there are more FFXIII screenshots available.

I have to say, this game has me the worst kind of excited. The kind of excited where you’re so excited you barely feel it any more and any more news is just adding to the load of anxiety you have because you want to be satisfied so badly. But as it is, it doesn’t come out till December. Until then, I’ll be suffering from my Final Fantasy blueballs and losing myself in Assassin’s Creed.

Here’s a recent hi-quality scan of a couple of pages of the mag–the rest can be found by following the link. It’s exciting!

Final Fantasy XIII Magazine Scan – Click for Full Size

PS

I beat Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Honestly, it was such an awesome, fun experience. I recommend it to everyone who’s bought a PS3–no matter what genre you like. That game is solid.

Now I need to get all the achievements.

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Here’s a quick blurb on he news:

So there’s all this news this morning about various interesting things. We popped out of the dark ages of waiting for Rock Band, it seems. Anyway, Brenda Brathwaite already beat me to the punch for writing about a report put out by the University of Michigan. Only I read it on Gamasutra, so I feel special, and here it is.

As I have nothing more interesting to say on the subject than what has been said (by Brenda), let’s look at what Nintendo says about Western development and how they’re not planning on increasing it. As a Western-based game designer, this sucks for me. There’s a lot of untapped resources in the West, too–plenty of able and capable designers that can be just as effective as those found in Japan. It’s a little painful to see Nintendo limiting its resources and letting third-party games handle targeting the western market. Especially when you look at the top Wii sales, and see what developer is behind each game…

1		Wii Sports	Nintendo	53	421,419	6,695,293
	Super Mario Galaxy

Nintendo 2 417,301 1,106,571

Wii Play Nintendo 41 155,795 3,037,050

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Activision 4 110,685 549,276

Mario Party 8 Nintendo 26 71,749 1,458,651

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Nintendo 3 70,403 210,904

Link’s Crossbow Training Nintendo 1 66,758 66,758

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles Capcom 2 65,078 183,187

Soul Calibur: Legends Namco 1 48,761 48,761

Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 Ubisoft 2 44,921 94,015(http://www.vgchartz.com/aweekly.php?date=39411&console=Wii&maker=&boxartz=1)

I’d like to point out, slots 1-7 excluding Guitar Hero III which is a console of its own (what with that guitar) are all made up of Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo.

It’s my theory Nintendo titles will continue to sell the Wii–and Western talent at NOA will never get a chance to develop for that audience.

Also, Final Fantasy XIII. Maybe the best yet? It sounds like a refined FFXII, which I approve of. I think FFXII could have used a lot of work.

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