Unless you have been living under a rock in the gaming world, Final Fantasy XIII is coming out for the PlayStation 3…and the XBOX 360. Gamers all around are trying to figure out how a RPG title that is supposed to offer so much could come out on two consoles with completely different storage limitations in the physical media department.
On one hand, you have PlayStation 3 owners who are worried that their version will be crippled to fit on the DVD-9 that the XBOX 360 offers, while stating that the 360 version will be limited. Then you have 360 owners who believe it will not matter, mentioning various comparisons to games that have either been equal, almost equal and even superior in some cases on the 360.
With the recent news of the 360 version not including Japanese audio which is a big deal to the die-hard Final Fantasy fans, this is a good way for the 360 version to cut corners and get around the DVD-9 limitations in comparison to the BD50 that this game can be on.
Below, I will list 5 ways that the 360 version can play just as well as the PS3 game by trimming certain things, or cutting more corners to make the difference in storage capacity not as big a deal here.
- Audio – This has been confirmed, but isn’t something affecting the gameplay. This is a feature that favors the fans who require this sort of thing, but for those who just want to play the damn game it is a minor hiccup. On top of this, the PS3 version will most likely offer lossless audio, which is another luxury that the 360 version can do without.
- Downloadable Content - While I’m pretty sure the 360 version won’t receive any exclusive content, they should try to offer features via DLC that they can afford to skimp on at a price that is as close to free as possible. Unless they can manage to get something exclusive out of Square Enix in this scenario, they can’t afford to charge more than $2.99 for anything that they would skimp on. The things that come to mind are certain weapons or extra characters possibly available in the game.
- Multiple Discs - Many 360 owners don’t care if this game is multiple discs, just as long as they can play it without any problems, that is the main goal here. If the 360 version can run well with multiple discs and compressing the game without crippling the load times, then all is well. It is just a matter of how many discs will they have to use after compressing the game itself?
- Graphics Quality – If the game is offered at a lower resolution and the graphics aren’t as good as the PS3 version, then I doubt the 360-only owners will care about that as long as the game runs smooth on their console. The thing that Square Enix wants is for as many people to play this game, and they really need to make their choices wisely in order to not make 360 owners feel as if they wasted their money. Top notch graphics and multiple audio options are something that can be excluded in favor of the gameplay.
- Length of Game – Lost Odyssey was around 50 hours and took up 4 discs, and Final Fantasy XIII appears to look stronger in the graphics department. Assuming that Final Fantasy XIII would be five DVD-9’s or more wouldn’t be out of the question here, but as long as the game isn’t 100 hours like your traditional RPG, this game should run smoothly on 4 discs.
These are the best ways for Final fantasy to work on the XBOX 360 and get around the limitations of the physical media that the 360 offers. The idea is to have this game run as smooth as possible regardless of what extra features you have to exclude.
Some people are probably now calling me a 360 fanboy, even though I only own a PS3, when the fact is that I know the Blu-ray technology up and down and what it can offer. In this case, the last thing Microsoft can afford is to have a game they spent this much time and effort into acquiring just simply pale in comparison to the console that they took exclusivity from in the first place.
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Why would I call you a 360 fanboy? All you say in your article is how inferior the 360 version will be xDD.
well, not all, but you put a lot of emphasis on that.
Master of obvious is obvious.
that’s more like 5 reasons for not buying it for the xbox
you have got to be the worst xbox fanboy ever 
Lenght and (realtime) graphics quality have little to do with disc space. I thought most “gaming journalists” already knew that by now. (seems not though)
What WILL be affected by the limited disc space on the 360 is the quality of the CGI videos we know the game will have. With this comes another problem, and that is how the game will be distributed on multiple discs on 360. If the game will have more than 3 hours of unevenly distributed CGI then the Xbox players will find themselves in the situation of having a certain disc filled with nothing but CGI.
We’ll have to see though, but i hope the PS3 version’s pacing and design will not be affected by DVD9 limitations.
Your last comment about game length seems to suggest that you are telling Square Enix to cut out content from the game/make it shorter in other ways… in which case you’re asking that Square downgrade their original vision of FFXIII to suit the limitations of the 360. Many PS3 owners ought to feel rightly pissed off at this because FFXIII can no longer be the game it would’ve been if it were taking sole advantage of what the PS3 offers, unless you’re suggesting that they only cut gameplay length content out of the 360 version thus making it inferior… in which case any FF fan honestly should just go with the PS3 version…
Let’s be real. No matter what even with the multiple disc the xbox 360 will be the same as far as content and length. It will be equalilent to the ps3. 3rd parties developers make the mulitplatform games the same. Name one multiplatiform game that the ps3 version was far superior. Including graphics. The 360 difference will be switching the discs, which is not a problem. 360 owners will not have the worry. The versions will be the same. IMO
thanks for the replies everyone…
let me start this off with….if you think that high quality graphics and 60fps don’t take up space, then you’re kidding yourself…
and Johnno…I am not saying to cut down on the space, I am saying the game would have to be about 50 hours in length…..I have no idea how many hours the game was originally supposed to be, so I don’t know if they have cut down on the length of game…
my whole thing was…(as I said in this weeks podcast) is that I have a feeling that both FFXIII and FFvsXIII will probably be about 100 hours combined because there aren’t as many lengthy RPG’s as there used to be….
so imo, for them to pump out two RPG’s a year apart, I don’t see them both being the usual 100+ hours or so that Square is used to doing..
Who publishes this worthless garbage?
Worthless information that a 10 year old argues about in school, during lunch
Hey how about create something like, 5 ways to be a fuck&&¨%$ Vg nerd
1 – Make an “5 ways” of every Stuped think about Vg
The xbox360 version will be ridiculous..uaheuaheua
xbox360 can’t support the Last Remnant….
FACT…
Kitase Interview
“When I first saw the quality of Sahz’ afro, I thought to myself that the PS3 really is different (lol)”
I don’t know anything about the gameplay in FFXIII, but I wouldn’t be so quick to say that loss in audio quality doesn’t matter. Most of the storage of MGS4 was taken up by audio. Play MGS4 on a good sound system and you’ll see why, it makes a huge difference.
That said, MGS4 is a stealth game, so the audio mattered because if you had surround sound you could listen for footsteps and whatnot rather than looking at that ring. It may not matter for a JRPG like FFXIII, but who knows what they plan on doing.
You are saying if they reduced the graphics quality on the 360 so it would fit on a reasonable number of discs that all would be ok? You realize that hardcore gamers are graphics-whores, right? For all the Wii bullcrap about gameplay over graphics we all know that graphics matter, and when comparing a game on 2 competing systems that will be one of the first attributes compared. Reference gametrailers.com and just about every flamebait graphics-comparison article written and tell me that 360 fans won’t be pissed with purposely inferior graphics.
Have you seen the massive downgrade FFXIII had thanks to the xbox 360?
el oh el @ list. The reason lost oddesy took 4 disc is the same reason blue dragon took3, Uncompressed cut-scene not game legth. I.E elderscrolls 200+ hrs and it fits perfectly on 1 dvd. This is also one reason Konami said MGS4 would be difficult on 360 , audio not grphics or legnth, email me if u want the link. and finally Though FF13 looks good, there are toom many better looking games out right now that fit on 1 disk with space to spare. If worse comes to worse they’ll have the nihongo voices on Live for free, like theyh did for Naruto rise of a ninja, ect.
According to early interviews concerning FFXIII, the game length is supposed to be very lengthy, apparently the game will span long time periods in the character’s lives. Granted this could just mean we may jump from one point in the characer’s life to another, but I’m guessing Square Enix is really trying to push it with this one and pull out all the stops.
And game content does take up space, depending on how detailed Square Enix makes things, this could amount to more in game dialogue which may be spoken and not text, plus additional animations, maps etc. if cutscenes are in game for additional missions etc. It all really depends on how much work they plan on doing on this game. In which case the space available on blu-ray would help. Also audio quality would be a concern, for MGS4 even Kojima found a 50GB blu-ray not enough and had to cut content out… such issues are likely to occur with FFXIII as well even on blu-ray. Hopefully Sony manages to get those 200GB blu-ray discs going into mass manufacturing by next year.
there has been no downgrade SE stated that they were developing on the PS3 first, then port -360. why would ur precious black idol have the inferior graphics?……../………………………………..*cricket cricket.*……………….oh i thought so
I WANT MY PLAYTV! IN THE U.S.!…. thats my 2 cents
great responses here fellas…keep em coming….regardless if you like what is said or not in the article, the response’s are great…
and be sure to check out our Vice Weekly and GeET HYPE! Podcasts…..the last Vice Weekly we just did this week finishes off with a lengthy RPG convo…..overall it’s good shit..
What?! No Japanese audio for the 360 ver? well i guess it’s time to buy a ps3
they will probably release the jap audio for the 360 version as DLC so it takes up space on the hard drive, not the disc. I know they said they wouldnt make DLC but this is kind of an exception i think they would consider. I also dont think it wouldnt be to far fetched if they took out a couple of big side missions and offered them as DLC (again unlikely). but that would probably cost to much cuz those m$ pigs love making money while square enix will probably try and make it free. Im an m$ fanboy but i definitely think the PS3 will b the ultimate FF
my complaint would be (if I were buying it for 360), if these things are cut for the 360, but the game at retail is the same price, then I would feel i’m paying the same amount of money for an inferior product. if this hypoethetical were to be true, there should be a 5-10 dollar price difference between the versions, 360 of course being cheaper. But in the end I’ll be getting it for PS3, but that’s my two cents.
Dam it..if my ps3 games gets crippled ima go around blowing up 360’s…stupid weak microsoft $hitbox…
@ RaduN
“Lenght and (realtime) graphics quality have little to do with disc space. I thought most “gaming journalists” already knew that by now. (seems not though)”
To correct you, while you are correct on how realtime graphics don’t affect disc space, but the RESOURCES USED DURING REALTIME graphics is another thing. The game has to load models, textures associated with models (whether textures/shaders), actions attatched to the models, and other resources, like animations all take up space on a disc. So while rendering them has nothing to do with disc space, what it USES in the render is something else.
You have no idea what you are talking about. How in the world would you know what it would take to port FF XIII to the 360? Heck do you have any developmental experience? Its more about disk space and a compatable engine. Dispite common misconception, even with a fully compatable engine, every game has to be built around the console in-dev to preform optically, and furthermore get your facts straight before posting your so-called news. Its has been stated that the Ps3 version will be completed first and will not be “crippled”. Followed by the development of the 360 version to be released in the US/EU.
Im never going to N4G.com again for news. Too many opininated and fanboyish articles.
i think the 360 version will cost more if its on 5 plus disks.disks cost money u know
lol rockman…thanks for the response….I’m assuming you read the article so thanks for that as well…
be sure to check out our podcasts as well….that goes for everyone..
as for hp, thanks for the response as well…and the BD50 probably costs more than a 10 pack of DVD-9’s…
keep the replies coming, it’s what we put our time in for and for everyone to listen to our podcasts….
and check us out during E3 as GamingVice.net WILL BE THERE…LIVE!…
Well, in reality, it would be a perfect world if the developer developed the game as best they can for the ps3, and then as best as they can for the 360 and not try to get them both on par but, money talks i guess.
@Don
I believe that there are extra fees for having over a certain number of DVDs, I think it might have been the Rage team who said that.
Not that I think the 360 version will cost more money anyway.
STOP!!! The devs already came out and said “The game will be first finished for the Japanese audience (i.e. PS3) and after that will do what’s needed to be done to finish the 360 version!” So no PS3 owner needs to worry about what we’ll get as we’ll get exactly the same thing the Japanese version will have. For the 360 your 5 points would be more like… as long as I can play it I don’t mind it been inferior!!!
I’m more worried about the quality of the game on the PS3. So far SE didn’t manage to finish a PS3 game, and their latest attempt (Last Remnant) is in development limbo.
How the heck you people know about programing and development. How will you know if anything gets stripped or not, obviously, not, because if you people did you know damn well their not going to make 13 DVD’s or even 8 for Xbox 360 FFXIII release. They are going to program and code it compressing the audio and video, it can be done trust me. Most games are compressed to a certain size, why do you think when you install something it expands bigger on a pc. Why do you think after Vista is installed it ussually is 7 gigs. I’m sure if SquareEnix thought this would be a hassle they would disregard releasing it for Xbox 360 because a lot of gamers are not going to mess around with many DVD’s without complaining. Perhapes the demo of the game they are releasing isn’t fully compressed, and was just put on the disc as is, no one knows, unless you know programing and C++ and technically work for SE and know what goes on, you have no hear say… Games like Phantasmagoria (1995) and Gabrial Knight II are good examples, the disc audio, video weren’t compressed because coders didn’t know much about the ability to do those things in the past and these games ranged to 6 discs, now they have power to compress and make into a smaller size, otherwise you would see games today in 20 – 50 cd range, and 10 – 15 dvd range. Pretty pointless to not have this compression technology and the ability to fit it on one disc….
Sorry but i want to ask the ps3 fanboys something?Have they ever complained about ps1 ff games.Have they ever said anything about the four disked ff viii.
Shut up ps3 fanboys make video games look like a warzone.The game will be exactly the same.If you knew anything about computers you would knew that ps3 and 360 are exactly the same.It’s like having a radeon 4870 and a radeon 4890.
LOL @ ABOVE!!!
you idiot, that’s like saying an American Muscle car is the same as a Japanese tuner, yes they are both cars, do the same thing, but in so many ways they are completely different technologies. It’s like saying, ok, here, buy a 1978 Trans AM muscle, go 180MPH, or go for this honda.. goes 100MPH but is still a car.. and then gettin the honda and saying yeah… i can’t go as fast, but i still can drive..
while it might not matter to you in general, how many people (xbots) say omg your graphics arnt better HAHA
and then PS3 fans will gett better graphics and then xbots will say BUT WE CAN STILL PLAY IT, no offense guys, but your kinda hypocrites (XBOTS) sozz sozz
i got a 360 when it first come out i thought it was awesome then ps3 come out and for about a year i thought 360 was better or the same then i got ps3 and a hd tv and thought shit this is true next gen console hardly used my 360 since its seems clumsy and outdated its still got some good games tho. Theres shit ive played n seen on ps3 exculsives that 360 games just dont have like extra effects that make the game world more alive or really long cutscenes like in mgs4 some last over an hour and they look awsome they just seem to be more full of content and i find it easyer to use all its features which i think ps3 has more than the 360 and they still making more its the true next gen system of this generation its a whole nother level of computer entertainment system.
Well thats what i think and i own both consoles.
I hope it bein on 360 dont effect the ps3 version. i think 360 has and will damage quality of games like gta4 it was good but think it would have been better if it were a ps3 exclusive i think tekken 6 going to suffer to
FFXIII will be better on the PS3… why are we even having this conversation?
Geeze… get it on the PS3 people, don’t waste time with the 360 version. seriously
No @ 33. The Xbox 360 and the PS3 are totally different from eachother. Have you ever checked the peripherals to see the difference. The Playstation 3 has 8 SP cores, while the Xbox 360 has 3 Core Duo’s. PS3 also has blueray and the Xbox 360 has the standard DVD dual-layer player, which may be obsolete in 10 years from now depending on the consumer. Now graphic wise, there is little difference between them both unless you have an HD compatible TV, than the PS3 can easily beat Xbox 360 by a little difference. And believe it or not, PS3 is a very powerful system, programmers just need to stop being lazy, like myself, and learn the new codes for it. Once programmers do, they can create games to do all sorts of stuff with the PS3 and soo much more. Programmers are also trying to see how far the PS3 can go, but as for now, Xbox 360 dominates the market for games because it’s easy to code for just like with Wii. The scary part about is, like I said, as soon as programmers start coming towards PS3 and stressing the capabilities, the PS3 will be the ultimate system to get. Maybe we will see this happen once FFXIII is released, only time will tell.
is this battletoads?
Many people know the importance of macros however many people do not understand the importance of micronutrients or probably don?t even know what I mean by micronutrients. By micronutrients I mean vitamins and minerals. Vitamins and minerals are very important to daily life processes. They are used to speed up nearly every action of all the body systems. But I will not go into complete detail on what all the vitamins and minerals do. But I will suggest using supplementation to get your daily amount of vitamins preferably twice a day pills, I rather twice a day instead of once a day because it will give you a constant supply of vitamins and minerals. See drinking all of that water will flush out a lot of your vitamins and minerals throughout the day if you only take a one a day supplement. However, I will suggest introducing one mineral to your diet especially after your workout, magnesium it is used for muscle contraction, protein metabolism, and energy. Some professional football trainers even go as drastic