That’s that then, really. In gaining Final Fantasy XIII as an addition to their future lineup, Microsoft have very much scored a winning goal in the console war. With the console exclusivity gone and the game itself looking incredible (if that is on-the-fly rendered footage from an Xbox 360 we saw in the trailer just a few hours ago) FFXIII is looking a whole lot more interesting to not just the 360 owners out there who fancy a go of the world’s biggest RPG but to the general gaming press, who will be speculating how Microsoft and Square intend to pull off a game that’s appeared to be designed for PS3 from day one.
I’m not playing down the 360’s ability to render on the go (one only has to look at Gears of War to see how it’s possible) but when you consider that the game was originally going to be a PS3 exclusive, and when you also think about Square’s tendency to push hardware to the limit, you’re going to wonder if anything will have to be toned down or pre-rendered for the 360 release. Perhaps this is why FF Versus XIII is only being released on the PlayStation 3: maybe it’s just too much for the 360 to handle?
Regardless, you can be assured that Final Fantasy XIII is coming to the Xbox 360, no questions asked, no turning back now (hopefully). Microsoft have gotten themselves one hell of a sweet deal in obtaining the game and you can imagine that their (speculative) investment in Square will pay off in future, especially since it’s taken the PS3 down a notch. There’s still one question left to be answered though: how many discs, Square?
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“Square aren’t stupid, having already dabbled in 360 RPG territory with Blue Dragon”
Problem with that line. Blue Dragon was done by Mistwalker. Not Square-Enix.
I’m glad it’s gone for 360 as well, but as an owner of both consoles I’m heading straight for the PS3 display upon release. Aside from the meager point that the PS3 version will likely only consist of one Blu-Ray, there’s also (as you pointed out), the fact that it was designed for the PS3, and Square really do like to push playstations to their limit. This may end up straining the 360 consoles to the point of system crashes (not guaranteed by any means, but certainly a risk).
The only upside for a 360 version is the achievements. Admittedly this is a strained point for me since I love nothing more than proving to my friends that I’ve beaten the hidden bosses in Final Fantasy games, I showed off my Omega certificate in FF8 to everyone that entered my house. But with trophies now implemented to the PS3 and all new games virtually guaranteed to be compatible, I’ve really got to stay with the PS3 version. Gratz to the 360-only owners for scoring this opportunity, but anyone owning both consoles would be foolish to aim at the 360 release.
I would like to know how you can think that the footage we are seeing is from a 360? I thought he stated in his interview that the PS3 version still wasn’t complete, and they wouldn’t even start working on the 360 port until that point. Maybe I’m not seeing something (which is most often the case). So please, shed some light on this situation for me. I think that was video footage from the same PS3 trailers we’ve been seeing, just a different exerpt.
This is epic, now I don’t have to mooch off my friend to play FF13! incredible, and I hope it has lotsa discs, I miss the old feel of the FF games back in the day when you had to swap the discs hehe, fun.
How many discs? I’d rather have a few 20 second disc change rather than a 10 min install
@Daz
Microsoft announced they are beginning to do installs on thier games to “decrease load times”. Ala…new 60 gig model.
So maybe you can have all the fun of installs combined with all the fun of a disc swaping!!!!
If MS had a bigger discs, every game would need a install. It’s that simple. Sony also recently anounced that they are phasing out manual installs because they have discovered a better way to do get the data across.
Probably multiple instances of the data on each disk.
Glasspaper is right. The deal with Square-Enix was only wrapped up at the last minute before their E3 keynote. So they haven’t thought about “how” they are going to do it on the 360, let alone show any trailers running from one.
It’s a massive deal for Microsoft and to be honest, the way Sony have been doing things this generation they deserve this.
And who really cares about the number of discs really? Only fanboys use that as an arguement.