FFXIII demo, special edition 160GB PS3 coming April 16 to Japan

That's not worse than the Grand Turismo 5 Demo that came out, didn't the charge full price for it?

Well we are talking about Square here. The only company that can release the same game 4 times with marginal improvements and sell every copy.

I had thought about importing it as a birthday gift for my daughter, but I think I'll just get something else for her. As a matter of principle, there's just no way I'm paying extra for a demo.

the demo for gt5 was free, prologue was $40

"Well we are talking about Square here. The only company that can release the same game 4 times with marginal improvements and sell every copy."

Nintendo.

"That's not worse than the Grand Turismo 5 Demo that came out, didn't the charge full price for it?"

It's called Gran Turismo Prologue, they charged $40, and it's pretty much a full game, just not as much content as Gran Turismo 5 will have.

but in comparison, Gran Turismo does that with almost every GT game they just dont normally release them in the states. so im guessing this entire practice is pretty normal in Japan, which is where this FFXIII demo is dropping and being charged for.

I'd usually see things like that as a joke and move on, Vidi, but I remember a couple of the games you've called 'marginal improvements'...

I don't follow where you're going with that.

"Well we are talking about Square here. The only company that can release the same game 4 times with marginal improvements and sell every copy."

Add EA to the growing list...

Just ignore me, I'm having a hard time shedding my ol Ninty fanboy ways

Vidikron,

You are wrong...Nintendo re-releases the same game MORE than 4 times.

Wait for the Super-Duper Mega Awesome Edition for the actual release of the game.

I think Sony is just desperate to sell some bundles.

Sony Desperate to sell bundles!>>!

In JAPAN!?!?!?!

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!

Special edition bundles come out all the time, bro, and I doubt the purpose of this one is strictly to get the demo out there.

Laughing Target beat me to it.

Then what's the purpose of this Bundle?

To cater to the Square fans, who'll eat it up in droves. The demo is simply a bonus; a way for the Square fans to justify the huge price point in their minds

like they've been doing for every Square release since FFX

The Demo can't be a Bonus since they are charging for it, heck when you read the article it's say the demo comes with the movie not the other way around and to commemorate the release of the Demo Sony is releasing the Demo,movie and especial edition PS3 in a bundle.

it's still rip-offtastic but it will had sell well on EBAY.

I agree that it's ripofftastic, but in the eyes of many Square fans, I'm sure the fact that this is a limited edition FF branded PS3 is enough to secure a purchase - which is why I called the demo a 'bonus'.

They arent Charging for the Demo Really....I mean They are Charging for Advent Children......and The BD Disc that the FF13 Demo will be on.....lol

"ACC is also coming sans hardware for ¥5,900 (US$65) with the demo and ¥4,900 (US$54) without ..."

They're charging ¥1,000 for the demo bro, around 11 bucks.

no no no...dint you see what I said??...they are Charging for the DISC they put it on.........LMBAO......sssssshhhh **whispers** Dont Tell nobody!!!

Same thing bro

God you just like killing my fun dontcha???

hell to me its no worse that giving away demos for pre-order bonuses...only difference is you can cancel the pre-orders.....

the point of the bundle is to get Advent Children out to Final Fantasy fans with a special addition Final Fantasy PS3. you act like you've never heard of Sony bundling the PS3 with Blu-Ray movies before. dont remember the Talledega Nights edition or the Spiderman 3 edition (they use the same font for the movie and PS3)? in the bundle, the demo is extra but your not paying extra for it. you only pay extra for it if you get it separate from the bundle.

Holy crap Fatass, how explicitly is he going to have to tell you that he was joking before you figure it out?

Haha, I'm not good at detecting internet jokes, I thought everyone knew that.

lol......OBVIOUSLY.......sheeeeeeeeeeesh

"Sony needs to acknowledge reality, and stop trying to convince themselves they have a strategy to fool everyone into paying more for a machine that is less fun."

Dude seriously, all fanboyism aside: 360=PS3

The difference is price. You get a great video game experience on both systems. Only the PS3 has the benefit (or I guess detriment depending on who you are) of blu-rays.

Personally I think considering the PS3 packs the next generation of movie viewing, the price is warranted.

However like millions of other gaming aficionados out there, I don't give a shit about HD movies. DVD's are fine for me. Which is why I don't own a PS3.

You DO Realize this is Japan Right??? its not a Higher Priced System from Sony per say........yet a SPECIAL Edition 160GB FF7:AC bundle....it has a movie and a Demo.......the Movie of which cost $54 for JUST the movie......so ummmm yea......get your head out your ass.......

Aggie, I can barely follow your spin. At 10:48, you defend the cost of this bundle by pointing out the really expensive movie that you get with it.

Then I scroll down, and at 10:49 you are expressing outrage at how overpriced this movie is.

Sony needs to focus on providing lower-cost SKUs to consumers, not higher-cost SKUs that have "a whole lot of value!"

Copa, Aggie is quite possibly one of the biggest Sony fans that post on this blog. Just take a look at his post.

I pretty convinced if Sony released a deadly virus, Aggie would think it was for the best.

This is pretty standard for Japan. They have hordes of bundles and special editions for pretty much every system on the market. Not sure this is really worth yet another cut-n-paste Sony rant.

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!

Aye......so what I said the MOVIE cost too much.....the point is its a SPECIAL Edition PS3 WITH said movie....Who cares what YOU think Sony should be focusing on.....meanwhile In Japan this thing will Sell like Hotcakes.......it wont be released here because most of us could care less about it......

ROFLMBAO@ Buying a Deadly Virus from Sony......truth be Told the ONLY Sony Products I buy are PlayStation......the rest if far overpriced for what it does......

The overall value is meaningless. Two major aspects when pricing and selling a product are economics and psychology.

Economics - A simple $100 price increase can put out of reach millions of potential customers. What Microsoft has done, priced the Arcade model at $199 and selling a hard drive and wireless adapter at $99 each taps into the economics equation. Microsoft has a brilliant marketing department (not the ones that come up with commercials, the guys that dictate product specifications and price). By making the 360 a modular unit, they tapped into the consumers that had lower disposable income from month to month.

The strategy is brilliant. Sell the $199 Arcade unit. The $199 price point is well within a huge range of potential customers. Next month, the consumer got his paycheck and can now drop the $99 on a wireless adapter to play online with friends. He notices he wants some stuff off of XBLA, so now he goes out and spends $99 the following month on a hard drive. Microsoft just sold the consumer a $400 console that's inferior to the $400 offering from Sony. The way the 360 is built is because of the marketing department, not engineering.

Sony, which was heavily driven by engineering and not marketing when the PS3 was being designed, decided to create a unified structure, not a modular one. You can't change out or upgrade anything on a PS3 without some know-how. By doing this, Sony is forced to sell the package unit at a higher initial price point. The current $400 price point is out of reach of a large segment of consumers simply because they can't drop $400 right this second where they could do so over the course of three months. This design flaw (it's a flaw where marketing is concerned) has cornered the marketing group, which was treated as just those guys who make commercials, in a corner to try and sell it. Thus we get the whole "it's a good value" line.

If Sony were to remove the wireless and hard drives from the unit and sell them separately in the same manner as Microsoft, you'd have a $199 core PS3 with two pack-in games to go up against the $199 360 Arcade with two pack-in games. At the same price, Sony can NOW argue the value line. More features at the same price is far more attractive than more features at a higher price. Sony can then sell back the hard drive and wireless adapter for $100 a pop and they just sold the same PS3 they were offing up as a unified unit piece meal for the exact same price.

To add to the hit, offer BluRay movies at the EXACT same price as DVDs across the board. New release BluRay at $15, older films as low as $5. The fact that BluRay has a slightly prettier picture isn't worth $15 more. Like the PS3 over the 360, offer a superior product at the same price. With that, Sony has a chance to at least keep pace with the 360. They've completely lost their momentum at this point and the PS3 will forever remain behind the 360 (I won't even talk about the Wii, that's beyond either the PS3 or 360 to match, even if you add the two together). Don't even talk Japan. The lifetime lead the PS3 has over the 360 there was wiped out in December alone in the USA.

Then on to psychology. Simply pricing a unit at $399 by itself looks worse than selling the same priced product at smaller parts. Just like how diamond dealers cut up larger diamonds into smaller ones and an actually sell the smaller ones for more than the big one was worth by itself, Sony needs to tap into this psychology. Cut up the PS3 into pieces and even though the whole unit will still cost the same assembled, it looks better.

The 360, even if an Pro model is purchased with a wireless adapter, looks better to a consumer when they see $299 and $99 together as opposed to $399. $399 looks expensive, $299 and $99 don't look as expensive comparatively, even though they're pretty much the same price.

One thing I forgot to add. The 360 is cheaper to manufacture because it is modular. For Sony to offer different models, they have to put them through different manufacturing lines. Microsoft just builds one Xbox 360 and slaps on a hard drive for the higher end models. This allows Microsoft to get the price down quicker.

"If Sony were to remove the wireless and hard drives from the unit and sell them separately in the same manner as Microsoft"

They can't do that, especially not now. Since some devs are either incapable or don't bother taking the time to get streaming working off BR properly. So now there are games that require installs. And, honestly, MS probably should have never sold units without HDDs. I personally much prefer the way Sony handled HDDs, but I agree with the wireless. Sony could easily cut that out.

They better milk it, in my controversial opinion, i didn't not like FF12 and its "MMO style". The blue and red ghostbuster streams were pointless and distracting, taking away from the RPG feel.

The character & level design was bleh(Too medieval looking). In all honesty, FF12 was the first out of the many i have played and not wanted or cared less to finish(which i didn't). Reason for this rant is...

FF13(not graphically)reminds of FF12 for some reason. It will be pretty, but the story is looking a little too techy(FF7 on steroids). They can keep ACC and the demo. Who knows? I haven't played it. Some of you want change, fine. I don't mind a little but hopefully SQNIX doesn't try and reinvent the wheel. If there is no one in the game named Cid, its going back. :P

"The blue and red ghostbuster streams were pointless and distracting, taking away from the RPG feel."

Those could be disabled.

"The character & level design was bleh(Too medieval looking)."

*sigh* So you'd rather have another cliche spiky haired shat out character roster? I thought the character and level design was pretty good, but that's just me. Maybe I was just dazzled by the fact that the men actually looked like men for once.

I loved FFXII, but that's just my opinion.

"FF13(not graphically)reminds of FF12 for some reason. It will be pretty, but the story is looking a little too techy(FF7 on steroids). They can keep ACC and the demo. Who knows? I haven't played it. Some of you want change, fine. I don't mind a little but hopefully SQNIX doesn't try and reinvent the wheel. If there is no one in the game named Cid, its going back. :P"

As heavy as this game appears to be on the sci-fi tech, it also looks as though they're bringing in a lot more fantasy than the previous title - every trailer I've seen so far points in that direction, and I think that they may have found a happy medium. In FFXII, it sometimes felt like the game had two wholly different art styles that clashed at points - this looks like it may be avoiding that by making both the fantasy and the scifi elements equally fantastic.

Actually im not looking for another "Cloud-Sephiroth, cliched looking FF. 8 & 10 were my faves, with 10 being liked more. All jokes aside, anyone that has played FFs and liked them, knew who the males, were from females. The bosses(enemies) were the effeminate ones. I knew about the disabling of the streams as well..

I don't know, FF12 just did not grab me like any of the others. I also thought the way to distribute your talents, with the chess like board was also uninteresting, but thats just me.