If you listen closely to the lifestream you can hear Square Enix's legions of fans singing in unison as company president Yoichi Wada recently confirmed an aim to make simultaneous worldwide game releases "the norm."

The timing of the comment, made to Japan's Nihon Keizan Shimbun daily, is particularly interesting following reaffirmation of the company's plans for Western expansion. However, it remains unclear when the RPG powerhouse plans to put Wada's plan into effect, or if his ambition even includes the company's two most hotly anticipated releases in Final Fantasy XIII and Dragon Quest IX. Still, assuming that he'll be able to make good on his claim, role-playing enthusiasts will have to find something else to complain about other than Japan getting to play everything first.

Boy, this is awkward ... After "certain videogame websites" reported last week that Final Fantasy XIII had been promised for 2008, Square Enix has issued this sobering statement: "Any reports of a confirmed release date are erroneous and should be disregarded. Square Enix will make an official announcement in the future concerning the release date when it has been determined."

While we had corrected and reclassified our post as a mistranslation before the release of this statement, we felt it important to highlight Square Enix's official response to the misinformation, despite again acknowledging our error. Is an "our bad" enough of an apology? If not, feel free to take a few shots at us in the comments section. (Hint: This is the one time you won't be banned for it!)

We know that Final Fantasy games, much like fine wine and Radiohead albums, take some time to come together nicely -- still, it's hard for us to believe that Final Fantasy XIII (in all its shapes and forms) will be dropping any time soon. We've had our hearts broken so many times by delays for hotly anticipated titles that we've sadly come to expect them.

Fear not, for the long wait for the Fabula Nova Crystallis collection will be over soon enough. According to FinalFantasyVersusXIII.net's translation (there appear to be conflicting versions), game director Motomu Toriyama teases that a playable demo for FFXIII would be arriving in 2008 to show off the game's revamped battle system. So don your steepled hat and cuddle tight your cactuar plushie -- your chance to sit down with the unluckiest chapter in Square Enix's seminal RPG franchise may have just gotten a teensy bit closer.

[Update: We originally posted an incorrect interpretation of the original translated comments. The post has been corrected and Joystiq apologizes for the error.]

[Update 2: Square Enix has released an official response – and we eat more crow.]

Remorselessly ripped from the special features of CLOUD, a Japanese DVD named after Final Fantasy VII's spiky-haired protagonist, these extended trailers for Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII Versus (waiting just behind the jump) are pretty spectacular. We're willing to look beyond the lack of pointy hats and crystals, as we're aching to play the system's first offering from RPG powerhouse Square Enix.

Does it look like 13 will be your unlucky number? Don't worry, the next Final Fantasy franchise is just a decade away.

Whoever writes the press packages for Sony is either Rainman-good at math or just a big pile of sarcasm. The Tokyo PlayStation Premiere press conference was recently held, and according to Sony's press materials, Final Fantasy XIII is now 13% complete, while Final Fantasy Versus XIII sits at a rather exact 1.3%.

Hmm. XIII, 13, 1.3. That's an awful lot of the same number. We get the picture: stop bugging Square-Enix about releasing the games and just sit back and let them work. To help tide us over, two new images have been released, one from each game. They're obviously trailer grabs, but we'll take what we can get for now. Hit the jump for the other image.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

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).

A NeoGAF forum member has put together a collection of quotes from interviews with Square-Enix developers culled from the latest issue of LEVEL magazine. Motomu Toriyama, Tetsuya Nomura and Hajime Tabata, of Crisis Core, Final Fantasy XIII, and Final Fantasy Versus XIII all have something to say about the three-game Fabula Nova Crystallis set.

The biggest nugget of info comes from Toriyama who says the games in the Fabula Nova Crystallis series will be kept separate. The teams are working independently of each other and don't share so much as a water cooler, meaning no cameos, cross-overs, or other links between the titles. Bummer. The only thing binding them is a "vague crystal theme", which also connects them to every role playing game created since the beginning of time.

Also touched on: next-gen Final Fantasy games on consoles other than the PS3. The developers seem smitten with the horsepower under the PlayStation's hood and insist they couldn't re-create the experience on other systems. Guess that rules out an EVO: Phase One port.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Following a financial briefing in Tokyo today, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada gave clear indication of when to expect Final Fantasy XIII -- er, rather, of when not to expect the fair-haired rpg. "[The game] will still take a bit more time. At the very least, [a release] this fiscal year is definitely out of the question," said Wada. Square Enix's fiscal year ends March 31, 2008.

Wada's forecast comes just a day after Konami indicated that Metal Gear Solid 4 would squeeze into stores before the end of the fiscal year.

Square Enix is planning to make Final Fantasy XIII a decade-long franchise, according to FF Versus XIII producer Shinji Hashimoto. We already knew Square Enix was planning on spanning FFXIII much in the way it revisited Final Fantasy VII across multiple years and multiple consoles, but now we have a tentative timeline for how long the company plans to focus its effort on the series.

"Different from something like VII, which we expanded upon afterwards, with Fabula Nova Crystallis FFXIII, we've thought about an expansive world setting from the start," said Hashimoto in an interview with Nintendo Dream translated by IGN. "Under the idea of wanting everyone to be sucked into the world for 10 years, we're preparing a number of categories."

Hashimoto also classified four groups of developers working on four distinct aspects of the Final Fantasy series: the Nova Crystallis group, the Ivalice Alliance (Final Fantasy Tactics, Revenant Wings), the Crystal Chronicles group (that works "exclusively on Nintendo hardware," according to Nintendo Dream) and the MMO-centric Final Fantasy XI group.

Does this mean we'll be waiting until at least 2017 for Final Fantasy XIV? It's unclear, but regardless, we'll have to play nicely with XIII's characters for many years to come.

Square Enix director Motomu Toriyama hasn't told PSM Australia anything other than what we've already known: Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy XIII is a collective of projects that has never been declared exclusive to one platform. Yet, when Toriyama suggests that Fabula Nova Crystallis "isn't just limited to three titles" and that "it's not simply exclusive to the PS3 and mobile phones," so many of us are willing to take a leap of faith, heralding these words as a death knell for Sony, and as a confirmation of FFXIII on Xbox 360. Before you join the feverish mob, remember to draw a distinction between the primary game, currently exclusive to PlayStation 3, and the general series, already totaling three titles (Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, and Final Fantasy Agito XIII) and at least one loose logo, Haeresis ("Dissidia" is also possibly linked to FFXIII).

Toriyama has merely reaffirmed that, like Final Fantasy VII, the FFXIII brand will be spun into an array of disparate shards, conveniently linked by a popular title. We may yet see a spin-off on 360 -- or even a port of the PS3 games -- but don't jump to that conclusion based on the PSM interview. Yes, we've still got Haeresis (and possibly Dissidia) without a home, but either DS or PSP, or dare we say Blu-ray, DVD, and UMD, are just as valid destinations as Xbox 360 -- don't count out PlayStation 2 or Wii either. Given all the fuss that Final Fantasy rouses, Square Enix would do best to deliver on all of 'em.

The moral is: Final Fantasy XIII -- the game -- is still exclusive to PlayStation 3.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

PlayStation Universe is reporting that Final Fantasy XIII has been confirmed for release in 2008. The news is based on an interview with Tetsuya Nomura (Director of Final Fantasy Versus XIII), which appeared in the January 19 issue of Japan's Famitsu magazine (the cover of which we've photographed here to make Joystiq prettier).

Closer inspection of the interview reveals that Nomura simply made the following statement with regard to Versus XIII:

"We're planning to have the final in-game graphics prepared at some point during 2007, so please wait for that -- and then we can speak about Versus XIII in more detail."

In light of that, a 2007 release for Versus XIII does seem unlikely, we admit, although not impossible. Release timings for Final Fantasy XIII and Agito XIII are not mentioned, though, and in the latest issue of Famitsu (February 9) all three games are still listed as having "unconfirmed" release dates.

Though you might be inclined to give Square Enix president, Yoichi Wada, an incredulous stare as he discusses the merits of innovation before the release of Final Fantasy Thirteen, a recent interview with Nikkei Business Online points to his fairly levelheaded approach to the topic. "If we don't see some [next-generation] titles that differ from traditional games, the industry is in trouble. Nintendo's DS lineup gives you an idea of the potential..." However, Mr. Wada goes on to say that immmediately tossing out all previous conventions and concepts isn't necessarily the best solution.

"We must change. But if we change all at once, the system will collapse, and since our profits are built on that system, it's a difficult question. So you have to introduce change from a completely unrelated direction within a separate budget framework. This is something all the companies are worrying about right now. Fortunately, we're financially prepared to handle change." It raises the interesting point that change may be easy to trumpet but difficult to usher in, requiring gradual steps and some assistance from current franchises. The earlier point regarding the DS' success is an interesting one, since Nintendo's many franchises and characters were arguably instrumental in introducing a different way of playing games.

The ability of unique hardware to funnel innovation in certain ways also intrigues Square, which is why "Square Enix will collaborate with Taito, a company that produces physical hardware. In our talks with Taito, ideas for an actual physical product have come up. In any case, we will be releasing some 'thing.' It's interesting in that it's not the sort of thing you expect from Square Enix." With that in mind, we now can't wait to play some sort of Final Fantasy game on a Square Enix thing at an undisclosed time in the future.

[Via Gamasutra]

As we just reported, Final Fantasy XIII has been announced for the PlayStation 3 (and, so far, only for Sony's console) -- showing that Square Enix is still supporting Sony. According to Chris Kohler at Game|Life, the trailer "looks amazing. Female main character. Looked like prerendered video, except it was realtime. Dramatic action-packed battles with crazy camerawork."

The title is being produced by Yoshinori Kitase (Final Fantasies 5-8 and 10, Chrono Trigger) and directed by Motomu Toriyama (FFX, X-2, and the Final Fantasy VII tech demo shown at last year's E3).

As far as we know, this is a PlayStation 3 exclusive. While no love was shown for Microsoft, the Xbox 360 does have three RPGs on the way from Japanese developer MistWalker, formed by Final Fantasy veteran Hironobu Sakaguchi.

Update: Gamespot reports that there are actually 3 different Final Fantasy XIII titles. The second title, featuring more spiky-haired madness, is also bound for PS3 and is directed by Advent Children's Tetsuya Nomura. The final game in the XIII trio is destined for mobile platforms.