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August 6th, 2008 @ 11:19
Kotaku’s rumouring that the next issue of Famitsu will contain the revelation that Microsoft footed the bill for Square Enix to break its Final Fantasy exclusivity contract with Sony.
From the piece:
According to the Famitsu piece, Microsoft is footing the bill for Square Enix’s FFXIII breach of PS3 exclusivity contract. No idea how much money that entails or the exact deal Microsoft worked out with Square Enix, but the fact there is not Xbox 360 version announced for Japan is telling. Square Enix does state how porting the game to the Xbox 360 should be easy.
More through the link.
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August 6th, 2008 at 11:41 am
I think that’s obvious.
If it were Square Enix’ decision, then the 360 port would not hold back the PS3 version in NA and EU.
Simple as.
I still can’t wait to hear (sarcasm) about complications next year, becuase announcing exactly what we’d get so early is such a big mistake. There’s bound to be some problems porting it, and EVERYONE will have to wait longer.
August 6th, 2008 at 11:45 am
lol… this was being talked about on *chan the day the announcement came. Way to go with your quick rumour reporting Famitsu!
August 6th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Kotaku is already rumouring that it’s only a rumour.
August 6th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Bit obvious this.
They pay millions for GTA exclusive content why wouldn’t they pay Square for FFXIII 360?
Square and R* laughing all the way to the bank maybe….
August 6th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Well… still my theory that the (predicted) market share they would have lost with the 360 had it stayed PS3 exclusive, was what kind of made it a mandatory exclusive to de-exclusify.
August 6th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Bill PAYED for this?
I can sort of feel the word “no”, the word “shit” and finally the word “Sherlock” coming together, although in what order I cannot yet be sure…
August 6th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Sherlock is not great a spelling apparently. Payed?
August 6th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Because of MS we’ll be playing vsXIII before XIII itself.
August 6th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
Ouch, schoolboy typo.
Leave me alone, I’m nursing a broken rib
August 6th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
HOW DARE YOU REPORT A RUMOUR, IT CASTS THIS ENTIRE SITE INTO DOUBT
August 6th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
@ Retroid
Things could be worse, this site could be Playstation Lifestyle (!)
August 6th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Oh, so the 360 version’s holding the game back now, is it? I see.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Blerk: You dense or something? In the US / Europe we always get JRPGs day and date with Japan.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
@Blerk
They are going to finish the PS3 version first then port it to 360… and still release them at the same time. Tall order if you ask me, but they claim it will be easy to port to 360… go figure.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Being serious for a minute, the game runs on their proprietary engine, which is already cross-platform. If they’ve been musing over this for a while then chances are they’ve already planned the content to fit on DVDs rather than Blu-Rays. So that leaves… localisation. I seriously doubt a 360 port is going to add much time to the project. Hell, they take forever and a fucking day to release the damn things anyway. Who’d notice an extra couple of months?
August 6th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
I can tell you it will be on more than one DVD.
If it isn’t, then it’s not even worth having anymore. The dev’s of FFXIII don’t really even have the 360 specifications without the dev kits.
So I am SURE there will be confusion come porting time.
August 6th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
What are you on about No_Pud? Square are already developing a game on the 360. Star Ocean 4.
That aside, Crystal Tools was built from the ground up to be cross platform. It would have been pretty clever doing that without knowing how 360s worked.
August 6th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
I believe the XIII team will have far less knowledge than the team on Star Ocean 4 when it comes to the 360, and they have been told to focus on the PS3.
I know the 360 is easy to develop for, but come porting day, I don’t believe it will go without a hitch. Just becuase the engine is multiplatform, doesn’t mean you can’t exceed other platforms while making your game.
You can even hold me to that.
I would say Square jumped on a LOT of money, and they will think about the porting later. Just the short notice on which the deal was made (a fortnight before E3) makes me cynical.
August 6th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
You’re right… they will have far less knowledge. They’re also going to be utterly buried in MS help whenever they want it, and that’s guaranteed.
August 6th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Crystal Tools has been designed to be cross platform. Even if they had not even known the 360 existed, just the fact that there should be minimal stuff in the code relying on PS3-specific hardware directly makes it “easily portable”, at least in a low multiple of weeks, as opposed to months.
August 6th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
Sorry, but it’s tri-Ace who develop the Star Ocean games, Squeenix are the publishers. They’re also behind Infinite Undiscovery (no matter how much it looks like FF XII) and the Valkyrie Profile games.
*takes off JRPG hat*
Does it really matter what they come out on, or when? I’d say we’re spoilt rotten at the moment games-wise.
August 7th, 2008 at 12:13 am
Xephon, SO4 is jointly developed. Of course, that could mean any number of things.
August 7th, 2008 at 12:22 am
Lol, true - tri-Ace do all the hard stuff and Squeenix take the credit!
Seriously though, as tri-Ace are working on Infinite Undiscovery, I’m sure they’ll share that knowledge of 360 development with the guys at Squeenix. Not sure how much difference it would make with the engine they’re using for FF.
August 7th, 2008 at 12:27 am
As with any big developer there’s likely to be a separate technologies team working on all of this sort of thing anyway. It will be down to the game devs to use the fruits of their labour and get to work on the specifics.
August 7th, 2008 at 1:16 am
I am sorry, but an engine is soemthing that can eb designed multiplatform, but it doesn’t mean you can’t excel on one, just becuase the other one isn’t as powerful…
Yes I am going there.
I honestly think hardware restrictions will play a part since they are developing the 360 blindly, by developing the PS3 version.
I am just not very optimistic, it’s all I can say. But indeed they will have Microsoft support.
August 7th, 2008 at 2:15 am
So you think the PS3 is more powerful, that’s fine. But one way or another it’s getting released on both consoles… and if the devs are worth their salt they’ll get it running nicely on the 360. It’s obviously not massively difficult, or at least a few of the multiplatform games with the PS3 as their lead platform would have turned out badly on the 360. To the best of my knowledge that’s never happened.
I don’t disagree with the fact a multiplatform engine can run better on one platform than another either. Look at Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 and Capcom’s Framework Engine running on the 360 as examples.