Reuters: Final Fantasy XIII coming to Japan 2009, overseas after April 2010

by Ross Miller on Jan 15th 2009 5:22PM

Square Enix President Yoichi Wada (via Guardian) has told Reuters this week that the long-awaited Final Fantasy XIII will be hitting Japan in 2009, and overseas (on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360) in the fiscal year beginning April 2010. Of course, that's still a pretty vague answer and we expect there's plenty of time for both release windows to be pushed back ad infinitum. After all, this whole situation feels like déjà vu ... from 2007.

Wada also addressed economic concerns, stating that operating profits for this fiscal year were likely going to fall 21 billion yen (US $236 million) compared to last year, or 2.4 percent. We wouldn't worry too much about the company, though, since the money-printing Dragon Quest IX is invading Japanese retail in March.

Note: It's worth mentioning that we can't seem to find this article -- sent out via RSS -- anywhere on Reuters' own page and have only seen one other source (Forexyard). Did it slip out too early? We've contacted Reuters to confirm the validity of the interview. Update: It's legit.

[Thanks, Emperium]

Source

Tags: final-fantasy, final-fantasy-13, final-fantasy-xiii, PS3, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (81)

Revolution!

Sky pirate!

someone has been watching Not-The-Final Fantasy XII.... =P

...Well, I was just saying it cuz the word sounds cool but, ok sure whatever. yay.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/435574

well...that scratches that from my list of 2009 games :/

Not if you're a PS3 fanboi. True, we can't play it unless we can speak Japanese, but we can boast about it being released in Japan for Japanese people to play on the PS3s.

Yeah, take that, yeah...

... (sighs)

Subtitles in english would be so nice for the JP release, i'd import it.

same here

That would never happen unfortunately.

While 2010 seems like a far far away date time passes so fast I'll probably remember the day I posted this like it was yesterday when I got it.

Well of course you can always Import the Japanese version. I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to just add subtitles to the Japanese version especially because the dubbed versions are always well they are not very good.

No good, I've known too many Spaniards.

I'm surprised it's that soon.

they've had more than enough time to finish and release this game now. they just decided to put all their man power to work on DS games to get quick cash. i don't really blame them, but i do think it sucks that FFXIII was announced so soon in relation to when SE was targeting a realistic release window.

I seem to remember SE saying they were going to seriously cut down on the long times it takes to release their games in the West...

... then they announced the 360 port.

Still, they've been true to their word with all the other games they developed and published this gen, with Western releases coming just after the Japan one. Shame they've all been on the 360, and not the PS3 though.

/bitter fanboi.

bitter ps3 fanboy you mean. If you were REALLY a square fanboy, you'd have a 360 by now... I call shenanigans.

That's what I meant.

I'm certainly not a Square fanboi. Hah, perish the thought. I've only liked three of their games (FFVIII, X, and X-2) and played four in total (the fourth one being FFXII, which I hated).

even if you had a 360 you can still be mad
for the fact that so far the SE 360 games have been subpar
as a TRUE SE fan has all the systems but the Wii

Dude... what are you doing right now? If the answer is not playing Final Fantasy VII, then you are obviously wasting your time.

How could someone have played VIII and not VII???????

I just sort of never got round to it, and I'm now at the point where A) the graphics are verging on unplayable, and B) I already know one of the game's biggest twists (that chick's death).

Oh, and C) I'm pretty PS3s can't play it, and I don't have a PS1 or PS2 any more.

it's a ps1 game, i'm sure any ps3 can play ff7. the rest i can't help with

I dunno. I know PS3s can't play FF8 because of the weird copy protection the disc has, and I'm pretty sure I read that 7 has the same issue.

(Before someone corrects me: the platinum edition of 8 can be played up until the fourth disc. The regular edition cannot be played at all.)

Don't fret it Hyams. FFVIII was my favorite FF (I played FFVII for a couple hours and never played again. The god-awful dialogue and unnecessary cursing just made it seem like it was written by a 5th grader for a 5th grader.

FFVIII had a much more mature theme and artistic style. I didn't care too much for Squall's emo attitude, but all in all, it was a very moving game and Square has yet to put out another one which hit me on such a personal level. Well, except for Lost Odyssey. I nearly cried when you know who died.

I was playing FF7 in my PS3 a month ago, so yes, the discs do work for it.

Well, fuck it.

I still have to play a whole lot of games from last year.Tomorrow I'm gonna ste...borrow Fable 2 of my m8 as I regret not having played it for so long.

-_-' another year of waiting again.

dammit SE. i guess i'll go back to ff12 and hoping WKC gets here soon

Sucks that it won't come out this year. Not that I really expected it to come out this year. But since I have a pile of backlog games spread across 3 systems, I should be kept busy enough until it comes out.

Why won't it be ready day and date with the Japanese release? Just the English voice acting? Why can't these companies be better about having their games localized during main production? This is an industry leader here and they've continually dropped the ball for over a decade.

the delay is to port the game to the 360
they told us last year that work on the port
will start after its out in japan

What does that have to do with the PS3 version though? My question was why are they delaying the PS3 release in English? I'm fully aware that it takes time to port the title to a different platform, but that's a seperate issue.

well at the last E3 SE at the MS press event stated that
it will come out at the same time

*sniffs*

can you smell that? that the smell of my sweet region free ps3, that will be playing FF13 in 09

Unless you can speak fluent Japanese, I wouldn't bother. The game almost certainly won't have English subtitles.

I think Hyams is probably right - if it had English on the disc, they wouldn't wait a year to release it here.

I can't believe people still care about this at all, but I guess that's my own personal taste. They took forever to release 12 too and ended up releasing it not long into the 360's life where I'm sure most gamers were too busy playing that to be concerned about FF12. If they're not careful they could end up doing the same thing again.

Final Fantasy XII sold 5 million, despite being a (IMO) crap game.

That seems really low for a FF game. And yes I agree it was a terrible game, and the main jrpg that helped me shrug off jrpgs forever. Dunno if I should hate it or thank it for that.

Well, it's lower than VII, VIII and X, but similiar to IX and X-2.

(I should also probably note: these numbers are from VGChartz, and they can get this sort of thing wrong - especially with old games.)

I don't see why so many people didn't like the game. I liked the battle system; it wasn't "TOTALLY HOLY SHIT AMAZING" but it was certainly a fresh breath of air - at the very least it wasn't "THE SAME GAME YOU PLAYED TWO YEARS AGO, BUT WITH AN EVEN WORSE CAST OF CHARACTERS!" that all of the past FFs (with the exception of XI, that game was cash) were.

I liked the story. Took a little while to build up but once it did, it kept me hooked.

Battle system? What battle system? You sit there and watch the game play itself for you.

Hyams...

Dude, you haven't played through the game if that's your argument. I didn't like the game as much as I wanted to. It was definitely a fersh take on a tierd battle system, but it did fall short in some ways. The gambit system was not one of them. Without it, the game would be impossible. I've found many of the boss battles to be very difficult WITH the gambit system active. Probably because I didn't bother with most of the side quests.

I didn't like it that much when all is said and done, but I don't think it's a crap game. My biggest gripe with it is that the new battle system was closer to MMO style, which created boring, meaningless, grind-driven side quests. THAT's why I didn't like it. With other FF's, if you were side tracked, there was a side story to go along with it. FFXII's side quests reminded me of WoW. Go here, kill this thing, come back for a reward. Yipdee fkin doo.

The main storyline had a bit of depth to it though.

Still, you need to go play 7 if you haven't. It's my personal favorite. X was good, but VII is definitely better.

I guess I might as well jump in here. I thought FFXII was the best game in the series since VII, and certainly the most fun to play.

The story was a bit too impersonal, but it was competent in a way that game stories rarely are. And Balthier is pretty much the best FF character in history.

Because pressing "x" on the "attack" option is so much more interactive? Let's not pretend like the gambit system planned and organized itself. It just eliminated a lot of the most tedious, repetitive actions associated with RPGs.

I do know several people that feel more empowered by the step-by-step, "manual" approach though.

I can't be the only one out here who thinks FFIX >>> FFVII?

I went back and played FFVII a few weeks ago and while it is a lot better than I remember it (I'll credit that to the atmosphere, the music, and the overall art direction... the story is pretty good but not amazing and the characters are cookie cutter two dimensional crapolah), but FFIX will always be my favorite. Just had more personality.

Ludwig:

I hear that argument a lot, and I disagree.

I like to decide, each turn, what move to do, not have the game auto-play a preset one. Even if I only ever select 'attack', I still find that more satisfying that FF12s battle system.

Whilst playing 12, it actually got to the point where I would just give the attack command over and over for the same enemy (ie. I would hammer X ramdomly) just to give some illusion of control.

Basically, yeah, I like the 'manual' approach.

(Does that make me a control freak, I wonder?)

if you don't like the gambit turn it off, and you can still override it when it's on.

I tried that, and it still wasn't fun, though. The battles are too fast for you to realistically be able to control all your characters without the use of gambits.

The Quickenings were a joke as were the summoned guardians (or meat shields). The best weapon in the entire game couldn't be obtainable without a walkthrough. The characters well, had no character. I slept through the ending because the gambits took care of the last boss for me.

Gilgamesh was awesome and so was Fran's ass. And that's my FF12 review in a nutshell.

@ Ivory Tower of HighHorseness
"I can't be the only one out here who thinks FFIX >>> FFVII?"

You're not alone. I also think the best traditional FF of the PS1 is IX. IMO IX > VII >>>> VIII. My favorite FF being VI btw.

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Reuters: Final Fantasy XIII coming to Japan 2009, overseas after April 2010

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