Japanese Final Fantasy XIII release date, bundle confirmed

by JC Fletcher on Sep 8th 2009 12:00PM

It's official! Square Enix will release Final Fantasy XIII on December 17, 2009 in Japan, unless it decides not to between now and then. Square Enix president Yoichi Wada announced the release date and the price (8,800 yen, or $95!) today at its Final Fantasy XIII Party in the Miraikan museum (via 1UP).

Kaz Hirai then took the stage to announce that of course there will be a PS3 hardware bundle containing the game. He didn't mention any details -- no price nor release date, though it's sure to be day-and-date with the standalone software. When Square Enix does show it off, it'll be hard not to hear about it.

Final Fantasy XIII (GamesCom 2009)

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Tags: bundle, final-fantasy, final-fantasy-xiii, rpg, square-enix, yoichi-wada

Reader Comments (84)

CONFIRMED: Over a a TRILLION PS3's will be sold

Really? When did they announce Halo for the PS3?

The estimated population of Japan, according to Wikipedia, is 127,590,000. A trillion in the English language typically signifies one million million - 1,000,000,000,000. For sales to hit one trillion in Japan, each person in Japan would have to buy over 7,837 PS3s.

Now, before I cast complete doubt over your prediction, what's the average space of a Japanese closet?

@ worm

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=hyperbole+definition

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=no+shit+sherlock

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=you+can+post+links+too?

Point is, you didn't have to go through all that trouble, it's obvious that Solace's prediction won't come true even though the actual number of PS3s sold in Japan will be huge when FFXIII is released.

Do I have to beam smileys and LOLs from the skies to show that I was being facetious? Was it not at least revealed in part by the end of that post? Whoosh, bro. Whoosh.

if you could somehow beam a LOL from the sky you would be able to rule the interwebz

Not a trillion, but a massive amount will be sold.

Massive Christmas rush for FFXIII PS3 Bundles...confirmed. (I guess, if they celebrate Christmas at all.)

All bundles and game copies must go before Christmas Eve!

As a point of reference, how much does the average new PS3 game sell for in Japan? I want to know if this 8800yen/$95 is really high.

I'm in Japan right now and I just bought KoFXII last week. It was only 3,680 Yen, so 8,800 Yen seems pretty high to me. Though, I can understand the price difference there.

I smell Square-tax personally, but I also don't know what they normally charge for games over there.

I'm sure the budget on this game must have been pretty immense, but are markups like this common on games they know are going to be huge?

I mean the closest we have to that here is the games that come bundled with a hunk of plastic, and that's kind of understandable.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/26/square-president-doesnt-expect-big-impact-from-ps3-price-cut/

I think Yoichi Wada needs to get fired.

Well, last I checked the japanese yen is still going quite strong which causes a problem for Japanese companies who make a good part of their profits overseas. So, they need to pad the bill somewhere.

Are the euros getting jealous that some other country is being fisted with gaming prices?

@Ballistic H

I agree... also IMO they haven't really done much over the past while the PSP FF game is nice but .. that's it ? too much Online time for them. i call them Square suck for a reason .. not only cause they took my hope for them doing things for FF13 on the PS3 that's incapable on the 360 ( which means it would still stay exclusive ) their games for the past while have been not good at all .. Sub-Par at best. till FF Dissidia ( hope that was spelled right ) came out but if they re-make classics like what they are doing with GOW 1 and 2 ..i wanna see a Vagrant Story ( which i played some of but loved ) and Chrono Cross ( which i seen played and got my interest ) remade in HD with trophies.

As expected. But no word on the American release yet?

The English voice work is done, so probably around this time next year.

April-June 2010, most likely.

The official word is "Spring" for the "International" release.
It's on Kotaku.com.

I knew Japanese paid more for games on the conversion scale (especially since yen is stronger now), but damn.

Of course, it is their Modern Warfare 2, so Square Enix knows they can get away with it, and still make bank.

Square is ALSO doing MW2 for overseas.

So technically, THAT would be their MW2 :P

http://www.modernwarfare2.jp/

Square is only doing MW2 for Japan.... They have to convert the menu and subtitles into Japanese.

But I don't think there is a plan for C.O.D. World At War release in Japan, point being the Japanese were featured as the enemy in that one. Much like Japan's version of Fallout 3 has the Nuclear Detonation option cut out in one of its missions....

I happen to read Japanese, and should point out that it looks like they've also just announced FFV MMMDCCC and FF MXCCXL. COUNT ME PUMPED!!!

Wait, which part was I supposed to take as the joke?

The part where you thought we'd believe that you'd know a second language, or the stupid roman numeral joke...

In my expert opinion, the joke lies in the irony of life.

I think....

So Ummmmmmmmm Yea...My Guess is PS3 Sales in Japan for the Month of December will EASILY Break 1 million...

In almost 3 years, it's sold just over 3 million. It's not gonna sell another million in a mere month.

It Sold damn near half a million the month the damn Demo was released......or was it a quarter of a million?? Hell I dont remember....point is it sold a SHITLOAD off the strength of the demo alone....

I don't know about a million when the game hits, but because the date is official now, it'll almost surely sell a million within the next 4-6 weeks.

There's some massive hyperbole hate occurring today.

As a casual fan of the series, if the game is more than $60 here in the states, I'm not buying it.

I am a very big fan of the series (played and beaten all of the main "numbered" ones), and if it is over 60 dollars I'm definitely not buying it. However, the price-point of video games in Japan is not as standardized as it is here in the US, so I do not think this is cause for alarm that the game will cost more than $60. I am not familiar enough with the pricing in other regions to guess what it means for them.

It will cost the same as other games, obviously...

I hope there will be an audio option on the english version when it comes out =)

I've forgotten, is FF 13 exclusive to PS3 in Japan? Not that it bothers me either way but it would be a big advantage for Sony in Japan this winter

It is. Yes.

Yes, it's exclusive in Japan.

Wont people shut up about FF XIII already, FF always sucked and XIII wont be any different.

If you want people to shut up about it, why are you talking about it?

Gamer4Life, sorry that everyone doesn't have the same opinion as you. I'm not too interested in this game myself, but I'm sure if it was coming to PC, my interest meter would rise. : )

Why is it when someone has a username like "gamer4life" or "truegamer", their comments are always filled with complete bullshit?

Really? Cause I've never played an FF game that I didn't like. You must be one of those "gamers" who only plays games if they have blood, gore, and big tits.

Woah, double post, don't know how that happened.

It's OK Traceur, he needed to see it twice.

I needed to see "big tits" twice.

There could actually be a shortage of PS3's in Japan.

if that's $95 for regular edition...
wait till capcom and activision hear this!

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Japanese Final Fantasy XIII release date, bundle confirmed

Final Fantasy XIII (GamesCom 2009)

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