Sony Losses a AAA title exclusive - Final Fantasy XIII on the 360

[Freddie]

Square Enix boss Yoichi Wada was on stage at Microsoft's E3 briefing, confirming that Final Fantasy XIII will be released, on day one, on the Xbox 360. That covers both Europe and North America, folks.

Microsoft are clearly hoping this major new deal will help them crack Japan, while it will clear ruffle feathers at Sony.

"This year more than any other, Xbox 360 has something for everyone - whether you love playing games with friends or are simply looking for the best in entertainment," enthused conference host Don Mattrick.

More on the newly confirmed 360 version of FFXIII as we get it.

Link

That's a bit of bomb shell.

After Grand Turismo, Final Fantasy is the Playstations biggest title I would have thought Sony would have had assurances and deals in place to keep the Final Fantasy series of it rivals system.

As for cracking Japan.......I'm not sure just having the FF on 360 will be enough to convince Japanese buyers to got and start buying 360's. Sony has a very loyal following in Japan which is hard to break. However Europe and the US are the major markets in the gaming industry and along with the recent price cut to the 360 Sony will be under pressure to respond.

So far the Xbox 360 has sold 19 million units (as of April 08) and the PS3 has sold 12 million ( units shipped as of March 08). As a side note it’s interesting to note that Microsoft has the same number of live subscribers as the number of PS3 numbers manufactured a lot of whom are paying customers yet it’s Sony who has adopted a ‘profit strategy’ as opposed to the largest install base.

Now do 360 owners care that you will be able to play one the biggest RPG franchises in the world on your 360?

[ajm317]

...Really? Is this some sort of April fools joke?

[Ahiga]

...Really? Is this some sort of April fools joke?

Nope.

This is the typical behavior of Microsoft, they've always been eager to throw money at getting access to a game. In addition, this is the way of the future.

• No loyalty
• No exclusives
• Lots of casual mini games
• Multi platform release only

Final destination

[numerosdecimus]

Business wise, S.E. move makes sense, although there may be more than we know at the moment.

From what I undestood the game will be released worldwide on both consoles at the same time except in Japan where it's going to be released first and only for the PS3.

[Kennylz]

If true, this would be pretty devastating on a system war type forum. I used to be into that, but not so much any more. I'm not too crazy about JRPG's, as I've yet to get even 5% into Lost Odysee, but it is always good to have a choice.

Would have preferred Metal Gear...

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

Still the question is, how many disc will it be on the 360 ??
Lost Odessey had 4 discs.
Anything less would be a shame.

[ajm317]

Well heck, now if I can just get MGS4 on my 360 (I know, I know, but I can dream) I'll be all set.

System fanboys are kind of silly. Anything that brings the game to more people is a good thing.

[The Black Reaper]

i loved lost odyssey and the disc changing had no affect on how much i loved that game.. i can't wait for FF XIII and all the other major jrpgs Square Enix is releasing on the 360..

[Kanaric]

Makes sense, 360 is the more popular console. I was expecting this from the beginning as it was. I remember saying this on the forum when the PS3 came out.

Expect MEtal Gear to be on the 360 as well as a cross platform game and at release for the next one.

[NaptownKnight]

Well, only fanboys would hate S.E. for it, it makes more sense to reach a wider audience than to maintain "loyalty" and earn less.

[blank]

Well, only fanboys would hate S.E. for it, it makes more sense to reach a wider audience than to maintain "loyalty" and earn less.

Yep, it costs a whole load of money to make games nowadays.

Sony fanboys will shed a tear and rant about the glory days of PS2 probably.

[Hookah Smoking Caterpiller]

by the end of this generation i think only Nintendo will have exclusives due to their inhouse game development. all the third party devs will be multi-platform

[God-Emperor of Mankind]

by the end of this generation i think only Nintendo will have exclusives due to their inhouse game development. all the third party devs will be multi-platform

No doubt and is the best choice really.
Never understood the point in alienating people.

[Hookah Smoking Caterpiller]

No doubt and is the best choice really.
Never understood the point in alienating people.

why do Sony and Microsoft do no inhouse dev? it seems such a sensible thing to do...

[craziii]

360 is also losing exclusives it isn't news. unless sony can pay for the lost in revenue to square with the exclusive game, then only a dumb game studio or publisher will do exclusives.

[VOP2288]

This is good news - not just b/c I'm somewhat of a fan of the FF series (but really only played thru VII and tried out X before the disc I had rented failed on me) but also b/c I'd love to see games as a whole go multiplatform in general. I think console makers should devote themselves to making their CONSOLE better and better as opposed to relying on exclusive titles to sell their machines.

[Confederate Jeb]

Final Fantasy and Microsoft together? Are you serious?!?!

[NaptownKnight]

^^
Also, not only will the consoles be better, but the pressure Sony/ M$ put on the devs would be lessened, meaning less rushed titles.

[Kanaric]

IDK why would anyone be a sony fanboy? Their entire product line is overpriced chinese garbage. I laugh at anyone who buys a Sony TV or Sony PC pointing at that is half the price but twice as good in every respect.

Sony is a company that needs to shape up or die.

For as much as people flame MS they at least released a quality console with a decent game lineup and as a result got sales. People don't buy and the PS3 proves that. MS has ALWAYS as far back as I remember been a quality game company. I would prefer them running the industry than EA or Atari. They make some mistakes (killing the mechwarrior series) but overall make good choices.

[Chuffy]

For as much as people flame MS they at least released a quality console with a decent game lineup and as a result got sales.

Interesting point of view. I don't see how a 33% failure rate is considered quality but that's American engineering for you.

The PS3 has actually sold better than the 360 did in it's equivalent lifespan and it's done it being far more expensive and having to go up against two major competitors. The reasons are probably:

- Sony can use it to push forward Blu Ray and entice some people with the prospect of a substantially cheaper Blu Ray player.
- Many people do have some sort of loyalty to Sony for some reason and others have fond memories of the PS1 & 2.

I own a PS3 because both systems have basically the exact same games, it's just the PS3 has one or two exclusives that I want to play and many of the 360's exclusives can also be found on the PC. And I'd much rather play them on that. Also the 360's failure rate has not given me much faith in it, a friend of mine has a 360 and it's borked out on him 3 times. That's probably unfair though because all 3 consoles are utter crap. I own a Wii as well and I hardly use it. In short; this generation sucks.

As for FFXIII, well, great news for some people bad news for others I guess? Only fanboys will care. It'll be interesting to see how well it can do on the 360 since RPG's haven't exactly been selling great on the system, Lost Odyssey's sales were rather disappointing (although by no means bad) and I think it looks more interesting than FFXIII. But maybe a big name RPG, in fact THE biggest, will change this.

Of course ever since Sakaguchi left and most of Square's stuff has been left in Nomura's hands they've produced varying amounts of mediocrity or just plain crap. Probably why they want to release it for the 360 as well, there's been a lot of reports about how worried Squeenix is about it's sales and financial situation. Maybe the yaoi fangirl dollar isn't as profitable as it once was?