Well, it looks like Microsoft has struck again! This time it has affected the playable demo of Final Fantasy XIII that was supposed to be in the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Blu-ray release due out in June 7th, 2009. The Japanese version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children has the playable demo, obviously because Final fantasy XIII is an exclusive title in Japan and the deal that Microsoft has struck with Square Enix has slowed up the development of the game in general, which is the obvious reason for the game not even being out in Japan yet.
However, this has also affected the localization of the game which should have been in progress by now and would have allowed every version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children to include a Final Fantasy XIII demo instead of what appears to only be game footage that is already available on the internet instead of a demo that would cause sales for the Blu-ray release of the movie to soar. Thanks a bundle Microsoft…and even more-so, Square Enix who has spent this whole generation making a decision that leads to them dropping the ball repeatedly.
That is still no excuse for there to be such a change in plans for the US and Euro versions of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children to not have this demo available after stating the complete opposite a year ago. I just don’t understand why can’t they provide localization for the demo after all this mess, how much time would it seriously take?
There is however, an alternative for PS3 owners outside of Japan so do not worry!, Play-Asia.com has Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children on Blu-ray for $53.90.…….without the Final Fantasy XIII playable demo, however if you want the Blu-ray version with the playable demo then you’ll only have to fork over a measly $69.90. Alright, maybe it’s just me but the first price scared me away regardless if the playable demo was included, but $70 for a mediocre Anime including the demo of a game that I am souring more and more on by the moment is just ridiculous.
Original sources said a year ago and as early as Christmas that the US version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children would be getting the Final Fantasy XIII playable demo and I assumed the Euro version would receive this as well. This is proving how much Microsoft is screwing up plans by throwing money around instead of letting the gaming world evolve. I don’t even hate Microsoft, even though I disagree with their practices and also shoving out an incomplete console that is called the XBOX 360.
On top of all this mess, this is one scenario where the 360 version of a game WILL hold back the Playstation 3 version due to it being on DVD9 compared to Blu-ray. I mean look at how cheap Lost Odyssey was made and it was on 4 discs. In the era of HD gaming, you just simply need more capacity than the 7GB of space that Microsoft uses for games and in the RPG genre, space is a must if you are going to have the game in HD. Period. Let alone the fact that Square Enix is just losing more and more fire after each release they come with, and as a PS3 owner, only White Knight Chronicles even counts as a real RPG for me when it eventually releases outside of Japan because Level 5 has become much more reliable than Square Enix at this point.
I know Microsoft is trying it’s best to keep up with Sony’s lineup of games, because that’s where they failed during last gen, but they just need to come with their own exclusives and their own way of combating Sony and Nintendo without trying to buy up all of the3rd party exclusives. Which is fine, but the part that puzzles me is paying for a “Timed Exclusive”, I just don’t get that tactic and so far it has failed because despite all of this and the Playstation 3 being twice the price of the XBOX 360 for 6 months now, they still have been pretty much selling at the same pace since inception and this plan only works for them on paper because they try to make it look like the XBOX 360 is killing the Playstation 3…when they in fact are not.
I look at it like this, the first XBOX came out a year after the Playstation 2 and put the XBOX 360 out a year before Sony did with the PS3, and Sony is still making money off the Playstation 2 while the XBOX is nowhere to be seen. Are they in this for putting out the best gaming experience possible or are they just trying to capitalize like they did in the PC world which they have also lost a grip on as well.
I don’t know what to make of this mess right now and maybe it’ll make more sense later this year when Square Enix starts shedding some light on where they plan on going in this generation, but it looks like they have made one poor mistake after another.
Expect this discussion to take place on our podcast, Vice Weekly which is available every Sunday.
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hahahah thay think thay are smart you can make a japanese psn account didint think of that did u ms
Yeah, they think they’re smart. Thankfully the PS3 is region free. Dumbass Microsoft.
Big D, you don’t understand. The demo is not downloadable from the PSN. It is contained on the blu-ray version of Advent Children, so a Japanese PSN account will have no effect.
I think SE should just stick with the devil they know (Sony). There was much less tears shed during those days.
Micro$oft is really desperate, the PS3 is going huge and huge every year and the 360 is showing its true limits, M$ will do ANYTHING to lose attention.
Kind of funny how you say Microsoft is responsible for the delay of FFXIII in Japan when work hasn’t even begun on the Xbox 360 version. Get educated and read interviews with Square. They will begin work on the Xbox 360 version once the Japanese version is complete. Even someone like you should be able to find the interview. The delay couldn’t be because of GASP, the difficulties of making games on the PS3 could it? Maybe that;s why we haven’t even seen The Last Remnant in sight. Maybe that’s why so many games are often delayed on the PS3 or games like GTA IV that are held back on the Xbox 360 until they finish it on the PS3.
Oh and ask Sony how well it worked out for them by having GTA timed exclusive last generation.
thanks for the response levelhead, but localization still won’t be done for the PS3 version in the US or Europe until after the 360 version is complete…
and just because they say they haven’t worked on the 360 version yet doesn’t mean it’s true…they just want to temper expectations for the release date which seems to be after the end of the world according to the Mayan calendar
thanks for the feedback, it is much obliged..
SE is not who they used to be. The quality of ff13 will probably be somewhere near the level of their recent games.
People it’s not worth worrying about anymore. Stick a fork in them.
Stop bitching FF13 is coming to the Xbox 360. This article is complete bullshit. I cant believe people are still complaining about FF13 going multi-plat. Damn, didn’t know their was that many PS3 fanboys crying over that still.
White Knight Chronicles is the only PS3 rpg? What about Valkyria Chronicles, Disgaea 3, Cross Edge, Eternal Sonata, Demon’s Souls? I agree completely that Microsoft is fucking everything up (although there is no way the game would be out yet without MS involvement), but don’t be so ignorant about the rest of the JRPG world.
@Andy
Valkyria Chronicles is beast, I just picked it up at gamestop for $30 (on sale) and I suggest that anyone who doesn’t already have the game to do so immediately…
and White Knight Chronicles is my most anticipated RPG at this point…period…
the rest of the RPG’s you listed don’t interest me at all though…
360 killing console gaming, one year at a time. At least next gen these idiots will try to compete for casuals with nintendo and maybe leave the core market to sony.
“The first XBOX came out a year after the Playstation 2 and put the XBOX 360 out a year before Sony did with the PS3, and Sony is still making money off the Playstation 2 while the XBOX is nowhere to be seen. Are they in this for putting out the best gaming experience possible or are they just trying to capitalize like they did in the PC world which they have also lost a grip on as well.”
Agree… and yes they are using all dirty tricks to capitalize gaming industry cause they are losing fight in PC world.
I’m one of those who bought the first xbox late in it’s short life cycle… and no new games released for it because Microsoft killed xbox instantly when 360 came out :/ well that was one reason why i hate Microsoft more than ever.
Now im pround PS3 owner
and i know sony wont kill ps3 for years!
You have a lot of run-on sentences, making your entry very difficult to read.
But I agree, MS needs to change their storage format on their 360.
than simple if you realy want the demo so badly just buy advent children of ebay.
simple no?
the fact you say you need blu-ray for a HD game just goes to show you no nothing about games at all. The only thing blu-ray will allow is more HD video which should be 1080p on the PS3 but 720p or less on the 360.
The game is not done yet so they have not started on the localisation or the 360 version. They even said the other day that the demo is not using all of the features that they want yet.
Come on PS3 fanboys get your f**king head in the game, if all you can come out with is shit like this that is full of holes you just make you and your system look bad.
people read what they want it seems…
Blu-ray’s capacity dwarfs the DVD-9….
the reason why you need Blu-ray is the same reason the 360 needed to put a HD DVD drive into the 360…
not because of movies but because of the capacity and the bandwidth that the technology offers…
this isn’t a fighting game or a racing game we’re talking about….it’s a well detailed RPG game that has 50 GB to work with on the PS3 with the Blu-ray technology as opposed to DVD-9 which Microsoft only uses 7 GB of for the game and 2 GB for copyright protection….
it’s not just the fact that you are switching out up to 6 or 7 discs, it’s the bandwidth and lossless audio that is capable with Blu-ray…..there is so much to work with in regards to Blu-ray for a title like this and the DVD-9 technology offers so little…
You don’t need to put a larger drive to run your games at HD resolution its got nothing to do with the media its on, Yes you can put more stuff on a Blu-ray but its nothing that cant also be done on multiple DVDs. The read speed for both are about the same so going on about bandwidth is just pointless.
HD audio is the only thing blu-ray has done so far for this gen, and how many people can really benefit for that.
Why oh wy? Why do I end up reading lame fanboy articles full of lies…
1. The Japanese PS3 version is NOT delayed because of MS. And if you didn’t mean the Japanese version, you should doublecheck what you write before you post it.
2. In this whole article there’s not even ONE reason why MS is the cause of the demo not coming to the US and Europe. You just speculate and speculate. The highlight of that speculation is the following sentence : “Original sources said a year ago and as early as Christmas that the US version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children would be getting the Final Fantasy XIII playable demo and I assumed the Euro version would receive this as well. This is proving how much Microsoft is screwing up plans by throwing money around instead of letting the gaming world evolve.” I don’t even know where you expect to give us evidence??? You are speculating like hell in an official article on the internet. Maybe you should first think of credibility.
So all this article is is:
* ode to the PS3 and how it’s still better than people think
* dissing SE, because they’re not exclusive with Sony anymore and everything went bad at that time. Some news for you: SE’s best times were as Squaresoft and Enix on the SNES.
* dissing MS with their “incomplete console”, “throwing around money”, “DVD instead of BluRay”… BO RING
You have to accept two facts:
1. If you want to perform journalism you have to be objective. If you want to keep on producing this stuff start your blog and be sure to mention that it’s heavily biased.
2. Make your point without dissing stuff that A LOT OF PEOPLE obviously like and without understating achievemnts by other non-Sony companies.
Just goes to show how petty Microsoft is. Knowingly rushing broked up 360s out the door just to get a head start on the compitition. Forcing gamers have to replace one every 3-6 months because of RROD for the first 2 years of the console’s life. Now after countless RRODs they’ve finally ‘fixed’ it. After selling 10 million defective machines just to say, “We’ve sold 10 million machines! We have a much more user base than Sony.” Yeah, 10 million broken machines.
While Sony on the other hand took the time, and critism, on the developing the PS3. I’ve still got my 20 gig PS3 from launch. My brother has gone through 3 360s.
And guess what, if I want to play the FFXIII demo I can import it. Can’t do that with that rushed machine from Microsoft. If I want to play FFXIII THIS year, I can import it.
I’m glad Sony’s a Japanese company. They believe in creating quality products..most Japanese companies do. Why bribe a company for crappy games, i.e Enix and IU, LR & SO4, when those games haven’t sold anywhere near the amount of KZ2, LBP, Uncharted combined. The sales of Yakuza 3, and the PS3 version of RE5 should be enough to show that the 360 is the system that needs rpgs to sell in Japan.
Sony did the smart thing by investing in small studios instead of throwing money at every Japanese company for a 1 year exclusive, i.e, Eternal Sonata, and Tales of Vesperia.
Despite what the internet may say, the Wii ( which is a toy ) and the biased media, Sony is the company to beat. Microsoft knows it and they haven’t done it.
omg such a fanboyish site, which rock have you guys crawled out of?
Well, SE fucked up themselves with their prostitution….pretty low hug?
Jokes aside, MS and their deep pockets are fucking the gaming business is going as low as the first sentence in this post. Its true, but lets not fall that low into it.
Money speaks higher than quality, ant it shows: NIntendo is always right, because it sells more than every one, lets forget the trendy,casual garbage wannabe games they are selling. MS buys ‘exclusives’, robing Sony from its ‘natural’ games….and they end back with Sony a few months later, better and improved. And Sony let themselves being fucked because of its idiocy and arrogance (lets not forget the main problem: PRICE!)
This gen is just a huge fiasco from all parts involved….no one is perfect, and this fucked up fanboysm that rolls around the interwebs is just the results of it.
Your absolutely right. Only a hardcore MS fan fails to see how MS is messing up the evolution of next-gen games with their crapbox. The orginal Xbox was awesome but a rushed console with a 33% chanse to explode, no Blu-Ray and even worse no HD is just silly. Especially when it is the leading platform for developers. I dont mind if the 360 gets FF but I do if it means we will be getting a watered down version in the end. Off course they are developing it on the ps3 and porting it to the 360 but still they will need to make some cuts if they want it to run on the 360 without any noticable loss of content.
If FFXIIIvs stays exclusive then it will probably beat the crap out of FFXIII and hopefully we wont see any half baked products from them again. *cough* Star Ocean, Infinite Discovery *cough*.
Well it doesn’t matter anyway because XIII is going to be a piece of crap, if you guys are interested in a good Final Fantasy, check out Final Fantasy Versus XIII. But I don’t doubt that the 360 or Microsoft have had their hands in this little debacle. I think the only thing they’ve ever brought good to the table was the price drop of the Playstation 3. God only knows what life would be like if either of these two companies (Sony or Microsoft) were a monopoly, the systems would cost close to the thousands. Oh and for those who are claiming that it is difficult to develop on the PS3, give it up, if a lesser company (lesser to Squaresoft I should say cause Square Enix is garbage) like Capcom can make games for the PS3 without difficulty, why wouldn’t Square Enix?
You should have published this on April 1st, you would have been taken more seriously.
Dont worry mate, development on the 360 version will not start until after the PS3 version has been completed, therefore the 360 version will still look $h!Ty compared to the beauty that is blue ray x
LmaO! Awww poor little fanboys with their panties up in a bunch! Hey Author, how about you throw arounf some facts rather than nothing but speculation. You’re just adding fuel to the flames and at the same time losing credibility. LoL… “Micro$haft sucks!”
Thanks for the feedback everyone, your comments have been great and entertaining as well…
The fact still remains that there was a Demo announced a year ago to be included with Advent Children worldwide and now there isn’t…due to the fact that the localization process for the game hasn’t even begun yet…
And Square Enix saying they haven’t started the 360 version yet either means that there is a new XBOX console coming out in 2010 that will be able to compete with the capacity of Blu-ray or they don’t want to let on that the 360 version has slowed up the progress this much…
I’d like to point out where I am speculating…but I don’t see it since all I did was show evidence of what has transpired over the last year between Square Enix and Microsoft and while I could care less about the 360 getting this game, I do not like how they suddenly push the game back 2 years after saying that they are adding a 360 version of the game…and then state that the 360 version is not the reason why the game is not done yet…
anyways…thanks for the responses and keep em coming!
and don’t miss out on Vice Weekly our weekly podcast which will go into this topic as well as many others that will be interesting as well..
The part about Microsoft causing the demo not to be released here is only indirectly plausible.
Since they are only working on the ps3 version for japan at this point, if they release a demo in the US for the PS3 version it wouldn’t be fair for the 360 owners to not get a demo as well.
Also people talkin about importing isn’t an option for most American’s since they can’t read or understand Japanese.
With that being said I did preorder Advent Children complete with FFXIII demo. It’s a bit cheaper at cdjapan than play-asia.
@Blu-ray has nothing to do with HD gaming
Though it is true that you don’t need blu-ray to produce games in HD, the capacities on disc allows less compressed video and audio per-disc. Could mean more content or longer games. I’m sure a lot of people notice that a franchise from last gen had more play ours than this gen’s version, I assume because of the one dvd restriction (I could be wrong), one of my examples is the Resident Evil series.
@Decoy…well said..
but it’s not like the Demo is available on the PSN…you’d have to purchase Advent Children to get it….
people are confusing my point by assuming I mean they paid more money to have the demo restricted to Japan only until the 360 version is available…
this couldn’t be further from the truth…I am merely stating that development was slowed up by them having to create a 360 version as well… and I don’t believe that they haven’t begun developing the 360 version as I stated above…I think that’s just them trying to take some heat off the deal they made with Microsoft….
HOLY BALLS!!!, did any of you actually read the article? Great article and true too. It pisses me off that microshaft would really be the cause of me not getting a demo of FFXIII.Im angry that they have to be so selfish…The guys at SONY may be a bunch of DI**s but the queers at microshaft are worse.
And living in Seattle I know a LOT of peopel that work at MS.
@Don, when how and where do I get this podcast you speak of?
@ Don
We’ll see, it does depend on how soon they release the US/Europe version of the game then. If its out in a couple months then either they did start workin on the 360 version or their crystal tools engine thingy works wonders at converting what ever they build into the right format. If it takes half a year or more then maybe they didn’t start work the 360 version… The fact is we’ll really never know if they did start workin the 360 version or not
it’s on this site…vice Weekly…
we didn’t have a podcast this week, but we’ll be back up and running this weekend…
I’m going to make my 1st appearance on the podcast this week and it should be quite entertaining..
” I think that’s just them trying to take some heat off the deal they made with Microsoft….”
I completely agree with this because after FFXIII going multi-plat shouldn’t it be apparent that SE is just in it for the money? for the most part…
@Decoy….very true…
it’s not in anyone’s best interest to say what is really going on and it doesn’t look like this game will be seen outside of Japan until 2010…
only time will tell..
Sweet, I’ll check it out, thanks.
yeah saminseattle…I mean I’m not entirely convinced that Microsoft is to blame here….it’s Square Enix’s fault for allowing this situation to transform into the mess that we currently see…
I just hate Microsoft for throwing their money around in a fashion that seems to be more interested in screwing things up for Sony rather than making their platform better…
” I just hate Microsoft for throwing their money around in a fashion that seems to be more interested in screwing things up for Sony rather than making their platform better… ”
WOW, exactly what I was thinking but put into words. Well put too. It does seem , especially from people working for MS (Valve/ArronGreenburg)that they’re more focused on screwing up sony as you said because of some hatred they have. It’s not a healthy competition anymore, it’s just becoming more of BI**H contest.
Awww man ya gotta love articles like these. Built by trolls for trolls, me included having now put my lot in.
I cringe when I read things like this and generally tend not to reply however I’ve felt compelled to this time.
Being fortunate enough to have both systems and can take both on there individual technical merits and limitations and I can see both sides of the arguement from a technical standpoint.
Whichever “camp” you sit in it really doesn’t matter what happens before the game comes out, isn’t it more important that the game is good when it does arrive? Does it REALLY REALLY matter if it’s on both systems and one looks or sounds better than the other. Isn’t it more important that it plays well and you enjoy the experience and gameplay?
Everyone is so caught up these days in who can stick their chest out further and whos got a bigger cock than the next guy. For f*ck sake man grow up. Soooo many people out there seem to have forgotten what makes games fun. Having been a gamer all my life it makes me more than a little sad.
No demo? Big deal I’ll still be buying FF AC on Blu-Ray and enjoy it more than I ever will have done with my copy in SD.
Bring on the real deal game of FF XIII when it’s ready and not before, I can wait because thats right I’m an adult and can understand that the good things in life take a little time to produce well.
The best things in life always do.
If there is a deal, what did SE get from MS? In any deal, both parties get something, so how does SE benefit from no U.S. demo? Seems like another person blaming MS for anything and everything.
I can’t believe N4G even picked up such a lame opinion. I would call this a story but it’s really just a fanboy’s opinion. Too bad there is no proof at all to back up this rant.
I also heard that Microsoft is responsible for coming to your bed late at night and cutting off your penis.
slickeeboy, as well as guy summed it all up perfectly….bravo gentlemen, bravo…
You blantantly obvious xbox supporters throw around phrases like, “ps3 fanboys get your facts straight yada yada yada”. If your gonna say stuff like that, throw some facts out there supporting your argument(exception to levelhead who didnt say that and actually defends his argument). Granted half the stuff I read (and im sure many others) about the development of games I don’t believe anyways, at least you’ll gain a little respect from people who have even the slightest bit of intelligence. That being said, regardless of what side you may be on you all need to remember that this game is still a long ways away from being released, so go out and enjoy life for a while and stop worrying about it. It’s only speculation, you see it everyday not just in gaming. Once the game is nearing its release date, then you can argue over why it was delayed or how microsoft ruins a good thing or whatever you feel like arguing about.
I really like your blog! I Will subscribe to your feed. Im trying to bulk up but reading all i can in the meantime.