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E3 2008: Final Fantasy XIII 360-bound, Last Remnant dated

Square Enix's formerly PS3-only RPG epic will launch day and date on Microsoft's console in North America and Europe; 360 exclusive hitting US November 20.

LOS ANGELES--At the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo, Microsoft presented what it thought was a major announcement from a top Japanese developer, Square Enix. Unfortunately, the "news" proved a tad anticlimactic, considering that the game in question was Final Fantasy XI, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game previously released on the PC in 2003 and the PlayStation 2 in 2004. Despite a sizeable PR push, the 360 edition of the game was lukewarmly received by critics and consumers, who barely bought 213,000 copies of it in the US.

Over the next three years, Microsoft would announce several more Square Enix games for the Xbox 360, including the exclusive Star Ocean: The Last Hope and the timed exclusive The Last Remnant. However, in many gamers' minds these projects were dwarfed in importance by the stature of two other Square Enix games: Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII Versus, both PlayStation 3 exclusives...

...until today.

This morning at its press briefing at the E3 Media & Business Summit, Microsoft stunned many in the audience by announcing that Final Fantasy XIII is now in development for the Xbox 360. Not only is the game coming to the console, but it will arrive on the same day and date as the PlayStation 3 edition of the game, with no timed exclusivity of any kind. However, when exactly that is remains a mystery, given that the graphics-intensive role-playing game still has no firm release date.

"We believe that releasing an Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XIII will allow us to provide the game to even more fans in the two regions of North America and Europe," Square Enix boss Yoichi Wada told a stunned audience. No mentioned was made of Japan, where the 360 is far less popular than the PS3.

Wada also used today's event to announced the release date of the timed 360-exclusive Last Remnant as being November 20 in North America. (It will arrive on the PS3 in 2009.) Square Enix's 360 exclusive, Infinite Undiscovery, will ship in North America on September 2, Europe and the UK on September 5, and Japan and Asia on September 11.

Check back throughout the week for previews and impressions of Square Enix's game lineup from E3 2008.

2909 Comments

  • empath22

    Posted Jun 1, 2009 11:56 am PT

    I wish nintendo wii had this title,but they will never go in that direction.

  • SquareEnixFan13

    Posted Feb 18, 2009 6:48 pm PT

    Theres a lesson in this Gryphon700 don't buy a sytem for a game that has no release date. Sorry man, life sucks.

  • SquareEnixFan13

    Posted Feb 18, 2009 6:47 pm PT

    Im very glad they're making it for the 360 its the only current-gen console I have besides the PSP.

  • SliceSlice

    Posted Oct 9, 2008 3:53 am PT

    a bad move by sony on their part, FinalFantasy has'nt been on xbox b4, so it should be interesting to see how it copes on a 360

  • joe_ender

    Posted Oct 3, 2008 7:19 am PT

    cannot wait to play this i want it now

  • Gryphon700

    Posted Oct 2, 2008 9:47 pm PT

    oh wow....why do all the best RPG's go to X360!!!!! The main reason i bought the F***king PS3 is to play JRPG's which one could have assumed would be PS3 titles, perhaps even exclusively. WTF SquareEnix!!

  • neoxalucard

    Posted Sep 26, 2008 5:47 pm PT

    And btw, it is possible to port any game to any system. I mean M$ could port Halo to the Sega CD!, if they really wanted to LOL. It might not look as good and might need a completely new engine(yikes in the case of Sega CD), but it is entirely possible... LOL... sega cd....

  • neoxalucard

    Posted Sep 26, 2008 5:41 pm PT

    Hey guys arguing over witch system is better is pointless. They are all great for different reasons, and it really comes down to what games you enjoy. Halo 3, MGS4, Zelda.... all great games. Dont pick one or the other just b/c you think "Sony sux" or "M$ sux". What a waste of time.

  • amulbocus

    Posted Sep 17, 2008 8:33 am PT

    dbmcart - The PS3 is a PS2 and PS1 in one machine, wake up dude. Any, i mean any 360 game can be perfectly ported to the PS3, but not all PS3 games can be ported to the 360, thats the bottom line. Cell is twice mowerful than the 360 Xenon CPU, with RSX about the same as the Xenos. Bluray multplies this factor. This is the moment all 360 fans have dreaded admit it, PS3 has that extra 6th gear, whilst 360 only has a fifth gear lol.

    But the 360 is an excellent games machine to be fair, im no fanboy.

  • amulbocus

    Posted Sep 16, 2008 3:15 pm PT

    dbmcart read this - http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=225467
    this is an article found by another member. also read this and weep http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/53976

    im no fanboy, i have a 360, but know which is the better console, its a no brainer.

  • dbmccart

    Posted Sep 16, 2008 12:03 am PT

    Plz MGS4 not possible on 360. Thats just Sony talking, Actually PS3 hasn't beaten 360 in a competion since the two systems came out. Between the PS3 and the PS2 the PS2 was better. Geez man ur just a playstation fanboy. I didn't even like the original xbox and I know the 360 is better.

  • amulbocus

    Posted Aug 29, 2008 4:11 pm PT

    Skiggy80 - you need to look at the grand scheme of things mate, keep your PS3, MGS4 will never appear on the 360 as its physically impossible by hardware. Now that should give you a hint of things to come, and im sure the bit when Otacan literally takes the p%$s out of the 360 must make you think a bit. The 360 really and truelly competes with the PS2 now, as bluray has shot the PS3 into another market now, the big blockbuster games market of 30+ GB data. MGS4 audio alone is almost 6GB of dolby trueHD, does the 360 really want to live in the ps3's shadow by offering massivly compressed ports? Quality = £££, thats why the ps3 is more expensive and always will be, before anyone brings costs up. FF is gonna be a heavily compress port on the 360, again do 360 owners want a diluted version?

  • CTEmpire

    Posted Aug 17, 2008 5:45 pm PT

    I wonder if Square makes a main series title for the Wii?

  • bravesvarsity6

    Posted Aug 15, 2008 2:18 pm PT

    PLEASE MAKE A REALEASE DATE FOR FINAL FANTASY XIII!!!!!!
    even if its way off just give me something to look forward to...

  • RyonEnvalen

    Posted Aug 15, 2008 2:20 am PT

    "Square Enix's timed 360 exclusive, Infinite Undiscovery, will ship in North America on September..."

    Hey, what is this? IU timed-exclusive?? Then where it will go? PS3?

  • Skiggy80

    Posted Aug 12, 2008 11:54 am PT

    Ha HA!! I knew this was going to happen. Look back in any of my posts from 6 or 7 months ago and when DMC4 came out also for 360 I predicted that FF would also. WOW, Sony is really crapping down the throats of their fans. i am a Sony fan and I own a PS3 but now I may sell the damn this because there were 2 games I wanted for it that were "supposed" to be PS3 exclusives. DMC4 and FF. Now that they are on my favorite system, i might sell my PS3 to get rid of my wire clutter. Damn, what a surprize!! Sony better hope God of Wart, Socom and Resistance 2 are any good. God of War will be and I really look forward to that, but then Microsoft has this Too Human game that I tried which is just like God of War and could possibly be better. Who knows, all I know is this generation is nowhere near last generation and Sony is "just another console" now. 360 is the console of choice for hardcore gamers and it would only have been a stupid move for Square to make it exclusive to Sony. Now i will sit back and wait for a MGS4 to arrive on the 360 and if its not MGS4, it will be some kind of MGS. i have MGS4 for PS3 and it is a great game, not the best by far!! Lots of pointless features. Anyway congrats 360 fans and bummer PS3 fans!

  • homestarmy6 posted Aug 4, 2008 11:25 am PT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    homestarmy6

    Posted Aug 4, 2008 11:25 am PT (hide)

    Since when does it matter which system has the best game?

  • jandogg

    Posted Aug 3, 2008 10:50 pm PT

    Guess We have to enjoy this game in a bit sized version
    of it's full potential.

  • leoleez

    Posted Aug 3, 2008 12:23 pm PT

    saddens me greatly why not make a Wii version then?

  • FathaLove

    Posted Aug 3, 2008 4:10 am PT

    Who cares. Squaresoft is dead anyway.