North America? Check. Europe? Check. Japan? We'll come back to that one. Microsoft can now add Taiwan to its list of territories to have Final Fantasy XIII grace the Xbox 360. At a game exhibition in Taipei (via GNN Gamer), Microsoft executive Grace Chou announced the Chinese territory would be getting the Xbox 360 version, although she said it was currently undecided which localized variant (i.e. Japanese voices, English voices or both) would be used. Also unclear is what other Asian countries, if any, would get the Xbox 360 version.

Our fingers are crossed that this news matters at all before the Mayan-predicted "spiritual transformation" (read: potential apocalypse) of 2012. Seriously, this game isn't coming for a long time.

[Via Kotaku]

Note: We'd like to show you images from the session, but as is typical of Square Enix events, no photography of any sort was allowed.

Isamu Kamikokuryo discussed the process of making art for Final Fantasy in a crowded Q&A panel at this year's Game Developer's Conference. At first, Kamikokuryo reminisced about how he got his job at Square Enix. It wasn't particularly romantic: he followed a simple call for applicants, and submitted a resume with a photograph of one of his oil paintings. He got a call back, and got a job that many fanboys would kill for.

Eventually, the discussion moved on to the high quality graphics that Square Enix has been able to produce in its pre-rendered movies. Asked how the team copes with "the uncanny valley problem," Kamikokuryo noted that it's something everyone on the team is constantly thinking about. "In terms of the uncanny valley, that is something we have to fight against. We can't go there -- that's basically how we feel about it. For all the things we create, many of the section creators get together and we make adjustments so this uncanny valley phenomenon doesn't happen. We don't usually use that phrase, because all the staff has this in mind while we do our work."

According to German gaming site Gamefront, the Japanese publication Nihon Keizai Shimbun is reporting that Square Enix will not release any games for the PlayStation 3 until the start of the new fiscal year, April 1, 2008. In other words, keep waiting for Final Fantasy XIII. This is backed-up by an earlier statement from the company's president Yoichi Wada that FFXIII would not be released this fiscal year. Assuming the game hits Japan shortly thereafter, factor in translation, localization, and the hiring of bad voice actors, and we could be facing a North American and European launch in 2009 ... or later (cue spooky noises).