Slashdot Mirror
FFXIII Exclusivity Under Discussion
In an interview between a French-language newspaper and Sony Computer Entertainment France president Georges Fornay, he revealed that FFXIII's exclusivity is still under discussion. Gamespot reports, and attempted to check with Square-Enix about the reality of this situation. If the high-profile RPG's exclusivity is not a lock for the PS3, it could be a crushing blow for Sony's future plans. "The development costs of games have exploded, and it has become more difficult to have exclusives, outside of our own games. But we have for launch day [in France] 30 games, including MotorStorm, Resistance: Fall of Man, and Virtua Fighter 5. Moreover, we are expecting 200 games [for the PS3] by the end of 2007...As far as Final Fantasy XIII goes, I can tell you that the exclusivity is in discussion."
I think Final Fantasy is still very relevant. It's the watermark for which system will be the "J-Rpg System". That's a big deal to a large variety of gamers.
This news, of course, comes as no surprise. Sony doesn't have the financial or install base to finance AAA+ super-titles like Final Fantasy. They're going to want a piece of 360's fat North American/European/Aus market share. Final Fantasy has a massive following in all these regions.
You'd think that... but nope. FF12 was a huge success, wild acclaim, won many "game of the year" awards, and brought a lot of innovations to the genre. If you're not into JRPGs, it's kinda hard to understand, I know, but it's just the way things are.
I like to view video game sequels as more along the lines of albums by a band or composer [rather than like movie sequels]: some groups just keep getting better, some drop off, some come back again. I even know quite a few that, in their old age, release the most original stuff of their career (King Crimson, for example, whome are nearing their 40th anniversary). The Final Fantasy team(s) really have shown that they have what it takes. I expect them to continue making benchmark-worthy games for at least another decade. For one thing, they're not really sequels, in the traditional sense, as much as a mini-genre, since they have no connecting universe, story or characters, besides a few camios. So the developers can, and do, make huge changes from game to game... sometimes more than a whole genre will do in the same period of time.
Besides Dragon Quest, no single-player RPG has ever come close to the acclaim that the Final Fantasy series has. The "Tales" series is probably the next closest of the genre, which is getting more and more publicity in the US, but even that has a long way to go.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
That's strange, can you point me to a post anywhere claiming that DMC4 was 'gimped' looking prior to the announcement it would be on the Xbox 360 as well? In fact, I recall everyone claiming the game looked too good to be done on the 360!
j pg
I guess being a Sony fan these days is like being a Republican. Every 5 minutes you need to revise past statements and claim that you new belief has always been your belief.
Oh, and just try and call me a fanboy:
http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/8692/00001re2.
- "Scientia non habet inimicum nisp ignorantem"
...nope, that was Sony stock falling.
But seriously, I'm not in the least bit surprised. In fact, I've been expecting FF13 to go cross-platform for quite some time now. Square has more reason to go cross-platform, now more than ever before. When they were with Nintendo, they were pretty tight, and were more intimately familliar with their hardware design. They switched to Sony only because Nintendo screwed them with the N64. FFX came out long before the XBox or GameCube, and even FF12 was in progress while those consoles were in their infancy. And up until now, there hasn't been any direct competition with Sony that revolved around the exact same user-base. That's changed... and we have two very similar consoles, with similar (or at least potentially similar) install bases. The fact that Square has already jumped ship on many other titles, makes me think they're not adverse to doing so with any... and it just seems the safest, and most ecconomical, to do so.
There's only one line of reasoning as to why they would be better off remaining exclusive. That is that if the PS3 were to fail, the resistance to the 360 in Japan may not simply go away over-night... meaning NO ONE would have a system capable of buying and playing FF13 on. If they were to port FF13 to the 360, the Japanese may simply ditch the series as well as the PS3, and go completely over to the Wii. Still, in the US, where Final Fantasy is the strongest, porting FF13 to the 360 would generate enormous sales, enough to counter any strange occurences that Japan might provide.
I gave FF13 a 75% chance of going over to the 360, back in November... this news raises that to about 90%.
It's going to go, let's just sit back and watch the fireworks.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
I would summarize it as: - Nicer battle system (more interactive, more realistic) - Lots of eyecandy - Poor transitions (from in-game to pre-rendered video, for example many boss attachs) However, it has these certain MMORPG overtones - Lots of repetitive tasks - Sidequests don't add much to the overall story value - Grind... And the plot is a bit lacking - Underdeveloped characters - Less believable characters - Pretty, but fluffy... However, the environment itself was rather nice. In the english version, the use of somewhat archaic language added somewhat to the game IMHO
Not in the slightest. Square would have no way or reason to go multi-platform until now. FFX came out before the GameCube and Xbox even launched... what would they have gone to... back to the N64? No way, that's the one they ditched in the first place. The PS1/N64/Saturn generation was no contest, either. The N64 didn't have the media they needed, and the Saturn didn't have the robust 3D graphics processing they needed, Square had no choice. FF4, in its infancy, was designed with a patched NES engine. The SNES gave Square everything they needed in hardware. I guess they could have gone Sega... but their relationship with Nintendo was at their absolute peak.
So no, there has never even been a choice, due to technical or marketing reasons, up until now. There would, therefor, be no reason for Square to "threaten" anyone to go multi, since noone would believe them.
I can just hear the interchanges:
Square: "Sony, give us a good deal on PS2 exclusivity"
Sony: "or what? You're gonna go back to the N64?"
Square: "...."
Square-Enix: "Sony, give us a good deal on PS3 exclusivity"
Sony: "or what? You're going to move over to the 360"
Square-Enix: "That's about right"
Sony: "....."
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
I don't think I need to tell you...
that the end of Motorola processors would pretty much be the end of the Macintosh.
Different argument, same logical fallacy. There is more to the PS3 than the exclusivity of a single title (or set of titles), and if FF___ is multiplatform then buyers will simply use other metrics to make their decision. I don't particularly care about Halo - Combat Rehashed, so that wouldn't affect my decision. I wouldn't want to have to buy a console AND an HD drive, so that's a strike against the 360. I want a console with enough power that it still looks relevant in 2-3 years. I like that I can run Linux on the PS3. Of course, I'm not everyone, but those are some examples off the top of my head. The point is not that the PS3 is better/worse than the 360, merely that title exclusivity is not a console's only merit. Personally, I buy on hardware features/overall capability rather than a given title's availablility, but that's why I'm a PC gamer (when I game).
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere