Square to squeeze FFXIII onto 360 with little compromise

by Randy Nelson on Jul 17th 2008 5:00PM

When it comes to porting Final Fantasy XIII to Xbox 360, Square's of the opinion that it's not the size of the disc that matters; it's how you use it. FFXIII producer Yoshinori Kitase says that his team will "work on trying to find ways to compress the pre-rendered movies and voice that take up a lot of data in ways that don't affect the final product."

Kitase is also looking to the arcane arts of graphics programming "to ensure that the quality [of in-game visuals] remains the same between the two versions," as well. We suggest he trademark the name "Squeaze" for whatever method the team eventually settles on for cramming a Blu-ray based game onto (a number of) DVDs. Such a catchy name will certainly make the tech more marketable to other developers bringing their PS3 exclusives to 360.

[Via X3F]

Source

Tags: E3, e3-2008, final-fantasy-xiii, square-enix, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (139)

I don't think it will cost Square more to produce on multiple discs because blu-ray discs are significantly more expensive. I don't think this game will take up more than 2 discs. I personally feel they will fit everything on 1 because these game companies employ highly advanced compression techniques. GTA IV fit on 1 disc.

yea because gtaIV was built for 360 then ported over to ps3.... thats why there was a delay. everything that has been multiplatform so far has been built on 360 then ported over.

By the time blu-ray vs dvd-dl disc space becomes an issue, Xbox 720 will be out. Disc space is a mute issue, a Sony fanboy issue.

this is true

Come on if nintendo can do things they did with carts and the gamecube disks then sony can do it also.

It just requires them to actually use there brains and be GOOD Programmers and not to be sloppy.

Why they hell are they still using pre-rendered videos? From what I've seen of ACTUAL gameplay footage(not the above screenshot), it looks really good, and would stand fine on it's own for cut-scenes and such.

I'll never understand these people.

http://www.gamestooge.com/2008/07/17/e3-metal-gear-solid-4-on-360-inevitable/

Would anyone be surprised? Really?

I would be surprised. Didn't Sony partially finance the development of MGS4? Those are the only exclusives left these days: ones where Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo can demand that the game remain exclusive and have a contract to back them up.

I just hope they put it on multiple disks for the 360 and don't screw over both versions by compressing everything. Like the 360 guys have said, disk swapping in linear RPGs isn't a big deal. What would be a big deal is compromising on quality to reduce the number of disks.

square to ps3 owners : the game will be the same, dont worry, full quality, best thing you have ever seen.

Square to programmers : squeeze that thing, mp3, avi, low res , the goal is 8gb, hey you ! cut the game in half we are changing the ending, new ending, lighting betray all her friends and suicide, sweet, microsoft gonna love it.

Square needs to stop using prerendered cutscenes. It's just impractical and unneccessary.

Why? I prefer prerendered cutscenes.

The mind boggles at the possibilities if XIII had stay PS3 and its' 50 GIGs of space.

Before GTA4 went multiplat, I still wonder what it could've been. Maybe San Andreas in Next Gen tech with all the stuff you saw in GTA4? Where you travelled from city to city with the same density experienced in GTA4? Thinking about that makes me a little sad to what now will happen to XIII. The Versus is still exclusive to Ps~*HAH!*.. couldn't finish that line. I expect some XBox-rep rolling up his sleeve with that logo next E3.

An aside; that "new" E3 video Still doesn't show anything outside what was mostly shown at the TGS where I saw the first video of it back in '06. It also ended with -ONLY ON PS3-.. sad indeed. White Knight come forth and wipe this nasty memory away so that I can finally say to hell with squaex and hello to the Future!

I'm not sure the the move to multi-platform affected GTA4 that much at all; Rockstar said from the offset that they wanted a smaller, more atmospheric environment.

... and wasn't the delay blamed on the PS3? (I know that's a programming issue and not a storage issue, but still it just goes to show that no single format offers huge benefits over another for developers).

Fanbois are hilarious. When FFXIII was a PS3 only game, 360 users would scoff at it and pretend not to care. Now that it's being ported, they love it.

When the Xbox 720 comes out with Blu-ray (or whatever), they will praise MS for their wise choices and pretend they loved Blu-ray all along.

@ 4MyFriends

That was different though. Squaresoft (at the time) stopped making new Final Fantasy games on Nintendo's platform completely. They only made games for the the Playstation. The betrayal was much greater then.

Sony fans would know how Nintendo fans felt back then if Square-Enix canceled FFXII on the PS3 and started making games just for the 360.

FFXIII I meant.

If you guys don't mind 5 or 6 DVDs, then they wouldn't even have to compress anything. A dual-layer Blu-ray disc holds as much data as about 5.5 dual-layer DVDs.

I have the Gamecube version of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. They compressed things to get it to fit on the Gamecube's smaller discs. It's certainly noticeable, but also more than tolerable.

i think its gonna be a bit of a struggle for them to get it onto DVD from blu-ray - its not like its been done before, theyre the first company making agame for the ps3 bluray,not realy having to worry about space and then porting it over to dvd, which they are going to have to cut corners to dowell i think the ps3 one is going to be the more complete game in squares eyes, while the 360 one is going to be quite widdled downwas going to get the PS3 version (obviously) and am stll going to - when it will noweventually hit PAL teritories -anyway im off to play some more naruto demo :D

sorry, my computers being a bit terd - you might be able to make some of it out :P

To all saying that a developer can't fill a 50GB Blu-Ray without filling it with crap then you haven't played MGS4 (which uses very very little prerendered scenes, if any). They actually had to cut stuff to make it fit on a single 50GB Blu-Ray and it still had installs.

Im sure Square could easily fill a DL Blu-Ray since they are FMV whores. I mean they were one of the few companies to fill DL DVDs on the PS2. Imagine now in the nextgen with higher res graphics and videos...

Sucks that because of this theres no chance of us getting a Japanese dub with the game. =\

I wouldn't be surprised if it was on multiple discs, just like Final Fantasy VII, VIII, and IX on the original PS1. Sure times have changed and a dvd holds a lot more than a cd just like a blu-ray holds a lot more than a dvd, but still I think the basic concept's the same. Of course with the game installs on the 360 comming, there could be a couple installation discs and one game disc. Any how I trust Square, they haven't let me down let...more than I can say for MS, Sony, and Nintendo at E3. :P

By the way, I am not a fanboy for any console, I just buy whichever console I think has better games. Like right now I have a 360, and a Wii, the only reason I don't have a PS3 is I'm broke. (Anyone care to donate? :P)

Describe what "with as little change as possible " means, maybe they could make an automatic disk changer and make a few extra million .

You know while all the drama continues am I the only one who would like to see gameplay videos? The CGI is as always awesome but that’s FF trademark.

If they copy Oblivion or Diablo 3 I'm pre-ordering this right now on the other hand FF characters tend to be…um how I could put this nicely oh yeah very f*cking annoying.

The reason I’m saying this is because FFXI and FFXII took, if not copy, a lot from World of Warcraft and Guildwars.

Not even Square can be original all the time (On a second thought they have been using the same Turn based thingy for a long time).

No I'm sorry. You just cannot talk about the 360 and not compromising in the same sentence.

You compromise WHENEVER the 360 is involved. Let's run down the list.

You compromise:
-social life
-integrity
-sanity
-all around joyfulness
-the chance to enjoy any other soda other than Mountain Dew
-variety
-GETTING LAID

hahahahaahahahah!!!

Yea that's right i posted it again!!

And again you look like a douche.

I can see it now in order to play FFXIII you will need to buy the 60 or 120gig hdd's as the 20gig will not be compatible. another reason for ms to make more money in the end.

BTW the largest gamer base to play this FF game will be in japan where the 360 is NOT getting it. Had the ps3 had a bigger install base then the 360 overall i dont think the 360 would have got the game.

Why don't Square Enix just stop cramming loads of shitty pre-rendered cutscenes into their games? No-one's impressed by pre-rendered crap anymore anyway, and we're getting to the point where you can have in-game cutscenes that look almost as good anyway. If it wasn't for the cutscenes the game could easily fit on one DVD. All this stuff about PS3 games 'filling' Blu-ray disks is absolute rubbish

but i thought disc swapping wasnt a big deal for you guys

I don't see what the big deal is. Assuming that FFXIII takes up the whole Blu-ray disc, that would mean about 5-6 DVD9s. Compress that a bit and you get it on a few less discs. The video quality might be a little bit less than the PS3, but do people really care if their CGI cutscenes are slightly lower resolution, if it saves them from buying a new console?

However, I wonder how much data in FFXIII is actually for graphics, textures, and other real game data. MGS4 filled up the disc with virtually no FMV on the disc, so if FFXIII goes the same route it may be difficult for them to shrink it substantially.

I couldn't read all the comments but did anyone suggest them actually releasing a Blu-Ray Player by the end of the year to allow for a Blue Edition or package it in with the player? F-ing A that would rock.

confession. the reason i love my PS3 and being a fanboy is solely because of its disc capacity. thats the reason i support ps3 more.

this is THE reason im upset for it to go multiplatform. Knowing the fact that FF has to be made around the weakness of BOTH consoles, just makes it worse to bare.

Wouldnt have cared if the other had some sort of higher storge than DVD disc as game medium.
No more hd CG.

try fitting all the comments of any joystiq FFXIII thred on 1 page, now thats when it gets tricky!

I thought there was going to be no CGI in FFXIII and the engine was going to render everything in realtime?

I think some people are forgettin that the game will be in the process of being ported to the 360 once the localization of the US version starts. Currently, the 360 FF13 is only for the European and US markets.

In other words, I doubt that square will alter the game's storyline or whatever so that it can be the same on both systems.

WOw.....you think that companies will actually re-discover the idea of video compression again rather than being lazy as hell??

what pisses me off. I now have to wait because of the 360. I might get a compromised game because of the 360. What if this was gears of war, and you guys had to wait for the Sony port and some other annoyance might pop up to accommodate ps3 users. Hope fully the Japanese version will have subtitles. I wont be purchasing this for my 360.

I don't care if it is released on Xbox 360, PSP, DS, etc. as long as the version for PS3 is not compromised. What is the point of having superior technology when a software developer opts for lowest common denominator.

Square knows which side of their bread is buttered. In this case, it's the 360, which reaches a wider audience than the PS3. It has also eliminated my sole reason for getting a PS3. This is likely the first move in shifting focus from the PS3 to the 360.

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Square to squeeze FFXIII onto 360 with little compromise

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