Ben-DutkaSquare-Enix certainly has been in the news a lot lately, but they haven't been saying anything too exciting. All we really know is that Final Fantasy XIII should be at this year's E3 and at the publisher's private party event in August. However, the game won't be playable at either venue, so it has been up to Internet gossip to get the rumor mill going.
Thanks to a supposed EA employee posting over at the NeoGAF forums, a number of rumors have popped up concerning FFXIII, and if they're true, the news is significant. First up, the game actually has an approximate Japanese release date of December, which we find hard to believe and would be way ahead of schedule. Furthermore, we keep hearing about how Square-Enix wants to expand westward and appeal more to the Western gamer; what's the point of repeating the past by releasing your biggest next-gen title only for Japan this year? Well, anywho, the other rumor is that the game will finally be playable at the Tokyo Game Show in September, which again, may or may not be true. We'd love to get our hands on a playable demo, but it appears we're definitely going to have to wait either way.
According to the EA employee, FFXIII won't release in North America or Europe until "later in the fiscal year due to localization issues." That's all very well and good, but we still don't understand how this gels with Square-Enix's clear business stance for the new generation. Then again, maybe it's all true, which means RPG fans might try their hand at importing FFXIII this Christmas…
Related Game(s): Final Fantasy XII
