Sony 'disappointed' by FFXIII for 360 announcement

by Randy Nelson on Jul 16th 2008 5:00PM

SCEA president Jack Tretton has aired his feelings on Square Enix's decision to nix PS3 exclusivity for Final Fantasy XIII. During a roundtable chat this morning, Tretton said that he was disappointed by the decision, but not exactly caught off guard.

"Am I disappointed by it? Yes," Tretton told us, adding: "Am I surprised by it? No." He was quick to stress that the game remains a PS3 exclusive in Japan, but that "seeing as there isn't that big of a [PS3] installed base in [there], I don't know how big of a coup that is for us."

Speaking to the concept of paying third parties for exclusives, Tretton said that Sony has "invested so much money in the [PS3] hardware" that it simply "can't write checks for exclusive software."

Echoing statements made by Sony Worlwide Studios head Shuhei Yoshida prior to E3, Tretton said that Sony's is more focused on exclusive titles from its own teams. "You've got to create platform-defining franchises that you own," he said. "It's the only way you're going to guarantee exclusivity going forward."

Tags: breaking, breakingnews, E3, e3-2008, final-fantasy-xiii, jack-tretton, PS2, PS3, PSP

Reader Comments (171)

[sniffles]. Poor Sony. Just when they become competitive with a $100 price drop, they lose the only good reason for buying their console.

xbox hit 299

sony still loses

Theres like at least 15+ reasons/games to get the system for, but its ok if you wanna bash Sony with no reason what so ever.... waaah

Sheesh, you're an idiot.
First, it's not the only good reason to own a PS3. There are plenty of other great games, and I could play listwars with you, but instead, I'll just say that all the consoles have very good games. Now if you are too young or too poor to afford more than one of them, that's your business, but to say another system is crap because you don't have it is just biased and stupid.

@ Dan

What are you talking about? Everybody knows that the only exclusive SYSTEM SELLERS are Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid, and the former somehow failed to light the world on fire.

Can this stupid argument die already? If you don't find games to play on the PS3 you aren't looking, 22 something exclusives shown on the E3 floor and somehow this is the only one worth playing? Why are people looking at just one game to buy a console for in the first place?

1. MGS4
2. Home
3. Little Big Planet
4. MLB the Show (yeah, I said it)
5. Blu-ray
6. Warhawk
7. Free PSN
8. Upgradable HDD (that is not proprietary)
9. Free wireless
10. >99% failure free

@ Jakka
you mean the latter....
if you are going to attempt to be funny and a smart... you know what the least you could do is be intelligent enough to do it ;)

@Jak851

Hahahahahhahaa!

"Why are people looking at just one game to buy a console for in the first place?"

Because they obviously cant seem to find ONE.
now vote me down because you're butthurt

Even the sony fans agree. You can still hear their cries
"just wait until..." insert announced exclusive here

Sony I have a tiny violin, you can have it!

The PS3 version of FFXIII is still going to be vastly superior, as it's had 3+ years odf focused development (compared to 3 weeks of 360 planning), it's gonna come on 1xBD, not a 7 disc box set. It's also gonna be available 6 months earlier. SquareEnix clearly stated the order of work: Finish PS3 Japan version, do PS3 Euro/US translations, do 360 work. (of course Microsoft pretended that it's going to be an "day one" release, just so people scatched their heads and assumed that meant simultanious PS3/360 release.)

"The PS3 version of FFXIII is still going to be vastly superior, as it's had 3+ years odf focused development (compared to 3 weeks of 360 planning),"

- It uses the Unreal Engine. That'll speed things up nicely.

"it's gonna come on 1xBD, not a 7 disc box set."

- Because audio/video compression technologies don't exist? OK.

"It's also gonna be available 6 months earlier. SquareEnix clearly stated the order of work: Finish PS3 Japan version, do PS3 Euro/US translations, do 360 work. (of course Microsoft pretended that it's going to be an "day one" release, just so people scatched their heads and assumed that meant simultanious PS3/360 release.)"

- And yet... PS3 fans are so happy about getting games like Bioshock after similar, sometimes longer, delays.

Personally, I play video games, not barely interactive extended cutscenes like this and Metal Gear Solid 4, so the news doesn't affect me.

I do, however, find the defensiveness very amusing.

@Coluthard

Lets be accurate. PS3 and 360 versions will release on the same day in the US.

Unless you want to learn Japanese, those 6 months of Japanese exclusivity are pretty much meaningless, as Jack said.

@ Dale

FFXIII and versus both use the Crystal Tools engine, not Unreal 3.

Atleast Jack didn't try to spin this as being good for Sony somehow. All the PS3 fans in Japan were going to buy it on the PS3 anyway, so this is really hurting PS3 sales in the US/Europe , and not helping Sony anywhere.

I like my PS3 as much as the next guy (I wuv joo Blu-Ray) but even I know that the loss of exclusivity is HUGE as a ton of FF fanboys were waiting on buying a PS3 just for FF, just like a ton of people were waiting on buying one for Metal Gear Solid 4. Now there is very little reason to pick up a PS3 instead of an Xbox 360, if you are a J-RPG fanboy. If I didn't own one, I'd still pick one up just for Little Big Planet, but even so, this will probably damage PS3 sales in the short term.

Oh and the SDF was completely butthurt after this announcement. Don't try to hide it kids, I'd feel the same if...say...Gears of War 2 went multiplatform (and I didn't own both consoles).

@ Dale

Unreal Engine?

I could've sworn it was being developed on the White Engine...and that the Unreal Engine license Square Enix got was for other not-yet-announced titles?

"Ya cut me deep Shrek, ya cut me real deep that time."

I think this pic from Shrek sums up Squeenix getting caught double dipping
http://graphics.jsonline.com/graphics/owlive/img/may04/shrek_table_051904_big.jpg

cry me a river

Actually, Jack Tretton sounds very realistic and mature here. He's not whining or boasting, and he knows the Playstation brand name by itself won't guarantee exclusives any more.

This is a long, long way from, "I'll pay you $1,200 if you can find a PS3 on store shelves." Good job.

@copa

I agree. His comments are suprisingly honest and straight forward.

i can certainly respect the way he handled it. doesnt seem like he's crying at all. just understanding of the situation.

I don't get it. It's 360. Why is anyone still playing those anyways? Aren't they all in the mail to/from the Red Ring Repair factory?

Actually, I believe Mr. Tretton is one of the few genuine executives in the games industry right now. When he says he's excited for a game, he means it.

You know, now that I think about it I've noticed a bit of a flip-flop for this generation of games. Last gen, Sony was the behemoth gathering all of these great exclusives and Microsoft was the one playing to the people and were honest and genuine in their thoughts. But recently MS has gotten fairly conceited and is more disconnected from their customers than ever (good examples are the Avatars and the new Dashboard). But Sony is doing a much better job with the community this time around with the introduction of the PlayStation.Blog with frequent updates and conversations with their customers.

Something else that disappointed Sony, People not willing to pay $600 for shit console

Excellent picture. Dr. McNinja rocks.

Oh and Sony? Pwned.

Its $399, but I forgive you for not doing your hw son.

old argument.

Hey moron, it's not $600. It's almost the same price as yours (actually cheaper, if you add up all the crap you had to buy). The big difference, isa PS3 purcahse of $399 actually gets you a quality console, not a white turd.

Moneybags mc microsoft will buy this war out

very american of them

bwahahaha. you obviously know very little about the corporate history of Sony and what they have done to their competitors or what they have done to buy themselves into markets.

Sony's total assets, equity, and revenue are all much, much higher than Microsoft's. You make it sound like a bully is kicking the sand into the face of some 98lb weakling.

Oh please. Look at Grand Theft Auto, the Sony fanboys said the same back then, claiming that Microsoft was simply buying up all these games, when in truth it was Sony. The only reason the GTA series remained exclusive to the Playstation for so long was because of SONY, they were the ones paying for exclusivity, not Microsoft. Even when it finally became multiplatform, it had nothing to do with MS, Rockstar simply realised they could essentially double their profits, by releasing the game on two platforms.

At that point, no amount of money Sony threw at them could keep it exclusive. I'd wager the same thing is going on here. Why would Square NOT release a game as big as FF on the 360, when they can make so much more money from it this way?

Blaming MS for this is just ludicrous. Sony have always been far worse for paying companies like this to release games exclusively for their system.

I do remember how sony is still in massive debt due to FORCING blu ray upon the world and going in WAY over their heads for this generation.

If they don't have the cash to hang with the big swinging dicks (microsoft bought said dicks) then they should have gone into casual competition with the Wii.

Nintendo made the right move. They're laughing while MS buys out the hardcore market and sony executives whine. (refer to the above article for teh whines)

Buy? We (americans) invade, we don't buy.

@Gronk,

Just because you're a fanboy doesn't mean you have any idea what you're talking about. According the the Forbes Global 2000 business index (which you can access at forbes.com... and I would recommend you do in the future before you pretend you know anything about financials again) MS' market value is $253 billion with $16.96 billion profit, vs Sony's market value of $48 billion and $1.08 billion in profits... care to try again?

I'm sorry Gronk, but I believe that Microsoft's net worth is much higher than Sony's.

http://knowyournetworth.com/sony_net_worth.html
http://knowyournetworth.com/microsoft_net_worth.html

Bummer Tretton. All i can say, this also delays the release for US for both versions. Sucks for all us over in the West.

poor sony....sad e3

waaah we wasted so much money on blu-ray diodes now we can't write checks waaah

Tee hee!

I do want a blu-ray player tho...I feel another price cut coming for the PS3 this Xmas!

You have to admire his candor. He is disappointed and even minimizes the fact that the 360 won't have the game in Japan. I guess that can also be said to mean Sony crushed MS there. But they guy is being honest in a tough situation. Maybe MS can hire him away....

As exclusivity goes, so does increase business woes...

It really does suck that they didn't win that exclusivity, but think about it this way: PS3 owners still get Versus. There are still many games to get the PS3 for, and many more people will enjoy this hopefully amazing game.

I think Versus has become a DS exclusive XD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfrTAt_m1po

CRY SOME MORE!

This indicates an interesting role reversal from the previous generation (PS2/xbox). Microsoft (and aligned studios) had to create most of the standout titles for that system while the PS2 enjoyed huge 3rd party support and success.

This time around the xbox360 is becoming the platform with deep 3rd party support. Can't say if this is because the 360 is the lowest-common-denominator system (games can be leveraged on 360 AND PS3) or if the 1st to market platform of XX million consoles is critical mass for 3rd parties. Overall though, it is a dramatic change from last cycle.

What a whiner. It's not microsoft's fault that Sony spent an assload on cell processors and blu-ray's that they can't afford to buy exclusives. If Sony had a bigger install base in the US, I'm sure that FFXIII would've stayed PS3 exclusive based on one principle or another. But Square/enix is a business just like any other, and companies can't afford to stick to one console anymore. They're getting into the hundreds of millions to make, they gotta do what's necessary.

I think Tretton is right on that they should focus on making more exclusive on their own. We see 3rd parties making more and more multiplatforms now and with next-gen more money will be spent and they would have to make multiplatforms unless M$ pays them a boatload of money. By next gen Sony will have many 1st party exclusives to differentiate themselves. Of course M$ could just buyout companies to do that too....

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Reader Comments (171)

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