FFXIII Exclusivity Under Discussion 120
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 don't think I need to tell you... (Score:3, Interesting)
...that the end of Final Fantasy console exclusivity (FF titles are on Nintendo's handhelds, and there's been PC versions of some games, but in general it's all Sony) would pretty much be the end of the Playstation 3. It's already suffering in the corner. People follow both companies and games, but the latter is more important at the end of the day. If you can play the same game for $100 less and have the same experience, which console are you going to buy?
It seems to me that the two franchises that have been keeping Sony going are Gran Turismo and Final Fantasy. Turismo is their property, so they'll be able to hold that one. But if that's their only selling point, it's over. And since Sony is bringing out a $600 Blu-Ray standalone player, which is pretty much guaranteed to be a better player than than the PS3 no matter how good the PS3 is, that final non-game reason to buy a PS3 is going down the toilet if you don't also desire the gaming functionality.
This could mean a lot of things. (Score:3, Interesting)
1) FFXIII isn't exclusive, and Sony is now in talks to lock it in.
2) FFXIII was exclusive, but they're considering taking it cross-platform, and Sony is trying to get them to stay the course.
3) FFXIII is exclusive, but Microsoft/Nintendo are trying to convince them to port it.
4) Insert more here.
That being said, if they do defect, it would be a serious blow to Sony. Ace Combat has already switched over entirely (now 360 exclusive), and Devil May Cry is cross platform. The list of AAA exclusives is dwindling. I think they're sitting at, first party titles (God of War), Ratchet and Clank, MGS4, and FFXIII.
If FFXIII defects, then that combined with Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon might be enough to start swaying the Japanese market. It would be a very strategic title for Microsoft to acquire. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Microsoft has been leaving suitcases full of cash at Square's doorstep if this turns out to be accurate.
Re:Dream On Xbots (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:This could mean a lot of things. (Score:3, Interesting)
No, FF13 requires really really high resolution graphics, and even I am not about to argue that the Wii could handle anywhere close to that. With the lavish graphics we've been seeing (even if the bulk of which are pre-rendered), downgrading to the Wii's graphical capabilities would piss a lot of people off, and Square's long-time success has come from making fans happy. Now, it's not completely unthinkable that S-E might make a lower-res version for the Wii, as well. In fact, that makes some sense, since this may mean the end of the PS3, which means that the Wii automatically dominates Japan. Even if FF13 were to go to the 360, it isn't a given that Japan would start buying up 360s overnight... but they sure as hell wouldn't buy PS3s.
We're witnessing 1996 all over again, here: consoles hanging in the balance with a Final Fantasy. The fact is, even if Final Fantasy games are NOT sone of the all-time best selling games (outside Japan), the fanbase is so dedicated that it WILL sell many many consoles. It, and Dragon Quest, are really the only 3rd party series that really has the ability to pull the strings like this.
I know one thing, if I were a JRPG developer right now like Namco-Banai, I'd shitting myself waiting for the shoe to drop (Namco would most likely go Nintendo, as they've done in the past, especially isn't most of their series aren't based around eye-candy).
Re:I don't think I need to tell you... (Score:3, Interesting)
That, and Sony kinda sorta killed support for FFXI on current PS2 models. I'm not sure Square Enix ever really forgave them for that.
Plus FFXI is already cross-platform for the PS2 (with hard drive), Xbox 360 (with hard drive), and PC (with Windows). So they've had some experience going cross platform before. (Although given how crappy the FFXI port on the PC remains, I hope they've learned some lessons...)
In any case, I think there's a very real chance that FFXIII could be released for the Xbox 360. It wouldn't be the first time a Final Fantasy was released on the Xbox 360.
(Although, again, the FFXI port kinda sucked.)