News

Not many tidbits to be had currently, now that the Tokyo Game Show has ended, so we won't strain you terribly this week. First, note that Square Enix has set a target of six million copies sold of Final Fantasy XIII in order to consider the game a success. In Japan. Apparently, Final Fantasy XII only managed to sell that many copies globally, and Dragon Quest IX has shipped only about four million in Japan—good numbers, but not quite to the scope of this new number. Note that this goal doesn't appear to include Versus, either, only the core game.

Why is this contradictory? Well, while the company aims for blockbuster numbers, they're also laying off a bunch of folks in Japanoville. The rumor is that between two and three hundred folks will be out of work soon; however, this has yet to be verified and it also could be people under the Square Enix banner who were only brought in via Squenix' recent spate of acquisitions and mergers. In any event, it's interesting that they plan to sell massive amounts of their next flagship game but yet are cutting back inside their own offices.

Finally in terms of Square, a kind soul has subbed the Tokyo Game Show trailer for Final Fantasy XIII. As you might expect, the translation isn't the best English you're ever going to see, but if you're in the strong majority here at CoN who does not have a conversational command of the Japanese language, it's probably all you're gonna get until the game's localized and out in the West next year.

I also note that the next set of quizzes are now up. If you haven't taken any quizzes yet, why not? There is still a prize to be won! And maybe a surprise after you take one, hm?

Source: Kotaku, GameTrailers

The Tokyo Game Show provided us with plenty of news to roll up into a ball for this Friday's tidbits; unsurprisingly, it's heavily weighted towards the new games dropping in the very near future. Sony announced a special Final Fantasy XIII bundle for PlayStation 3; it appears to be a creamy white with a screen print of Lightning on the top in a rosy shade that fades to white. Of course, this is only going to happen in Japan, so if you're one of those nutter Otakus and really need this kit, better get in line with your favorite importer now.

Squenix also brought a new trailer for Final Fantasy XIV to TGS this year. It features some fairly clumsy text in English, some strikingly pretty cutscenes, and a lot of people who one would assume to be player characters milling about and doing things that player characters do. It's pretty much exactly what you would expect from a Final Fantasy trailer in Tokyo.

If you needed any further proof that Square is craving the Yenjamins, Yoichi Wada made more news this week when he noted that a new billing model, creating a revised revenue stream for game manufacturers, will be the next big gaming innovation. Sure, I guess if motion control is now on the table for all the big players, why would there be more technological or creative innovation coming up? Let's pour all of our resources into brainstorming the cash flow, eh, boys? I kid, a bit; while microtransactions and handling of digital distribution will be critical for the next decade of console gaming, it does seem a bit harsh to make that the priority, in my opinion.

Also, hot on the heels of Final Fantasy Tactics in the US, another PlayStation One-era Final Fantasy has launched for the Japanese PlayStation Network. For those of you who immediately hoped it involved a protagonist with a tail, sorry—it seems Square is going in order and giving the Japanese gamer Final Fantasy VIII first. There's been no announcement as to whether the game will eventually make it to any Western PSNs, but I would say that this release lays the groundwork for both that to happen sometime in 2010, as well as for Final Fantasy IX to follow soon after.

Finally, my favorite news tidbit of the week, detailing an unlikely partnership; Square-Enix is doing a puzzle RPG, a la Puzzle Quest. And, if you were going to do a puzzle game, and you had the resources of Square-Enix, with whom would you make this game? Yeah, that's right, PopCap. The creators of smash casual games for a decade now, most recently the tremendously successful Plants vs. Zombies, are bringing the mechanics of Bejeweled Twist to Square's Gyromancer, where they'll be connected to a good versus evil battle punctuated by spinning jewels on a board. Not only does this sound like a pretty clever idea in theory, it makes me smile because now the company I work for has something in common with the big daddy—connections with PopCap. It's almost like I have a direct line to Wada-san now, you see?

Source: Kotaku, IGN, Feed Your Console

The Tokyo Game Show and Yoichi Wada
Begin to bring all of us news fodder
He rumors a new Wii
And shock, in HD!
Note now that this limerick's... okay, forget it. I don't have footbigmike's boundless energy for goofy.

Long story short, Yoichi Wada, president of Square-Enix, is using his press time pre-TGS to postulate on the next generation of consoles, implying that the motion-sensing applications of PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 will have a small impact at best. Seems that Wada either doesn't think they can do it better than Nintendo, or that nobody will actually care, particularly when the next Wii comes out (for which, not coincidentally, Wada also has theories - mark your calendars for sometime in 2011 and buy a HDTV if you don't have one, says the Man). The gist is this—in a couple short years the console market could look very much like three identical entries in different colors.

Source: Joystiq

With Gamescom underway off in the wilderness of Europe (read: Germany), it shouldn't be a big surprise that there's some Square Enix tidbits coming out. We've been following the stories all week and are rolling them up right here for those of you who might have missed them. I like these roundups, personally; you can catch up on a lot of little things without cluttering our news section with tons of little posts, you know? However, you don't care about my philosophy, so here we go into the hard data:

Final Fantasy XIII
As has been the standard for this game, things are leaking out just a bit at a time. This week brings yet more character names for this upcoming release, as well as new screenshots of HorseOdin. Both names apply to more "rivals" for Lightning; no big surprise that the protagonist of a Final Fantasy game has a lot of folks that don't like her, right? The new male rival is named "Yaag," apparently; the female is, in a surprising turn towards normalcy, apparently called "Jill." You can see Odin in the same magazine scan that shows Jill—it remains to be seen whether they'll actually call the horse form of the summon Sleipnir, or ignore that part of the mythology altogether. Thanks to Yelanates for throwing the Yaag story our way.

As a final note for thirteen, The Escapist tells us that the dev team for the 360 version is aiming to get the game to us on three DVDs. Brings back memories of the Playstation era, does it not? This information is not concrete yet, as the development is not far enough along to be considered final, but Yoshinori Kitase says that three is the goal. He also says that the way things are looking, the number of discs might be the only noticable difference between the two console versions, so that's pretty good news for those of us who don't rock the Playstation 3. Now, if only Squenix would reneg on their exclusivity deal for XIII Versus...

Final Fantasy XIV
Kotaku brings us a series of Final Fantasy XIV video clips this week, by way of GameTrailers. It's mostly demo stuff, but hey, tech demos are cool. There's a demo displaying how each race runs through a variety of facial and body expressions, an archer getting pummeled by some fairly large chickens (with some low-fidelity battle music in the background that still sounds good), and a couple other attractive but not particularly inspiring gameplay videos.

Nier
As Square Enix try again with an action-oriented genre, it appears they're going a bit more towards God of War and Dante's Inferno with "mature" content, say Kotaku. The newly-debuted-at-Gamescom character Kaine appears to have a bit of a potty mouth and a fairly-standard-for-Squenix-women risque costume. Combine somewhat-inappropriate clothing with a foul mouth, and what do you get? Well, maybe something kinda hot, but just as likely something that might look like they're trying too hard to, as put by Nier's producer, expand beyond the existing Square Enix image. We'll see in 2010 when the game drops.

Source: Kotaku, FF Insider, The Escapist

Earlier today Kaz Hirai confirmed the upcoming release of the long-suspected new, slimmer model of the PlayStation 3 arriving soon in stores worldwide. The new model contains a 120GB hard drive, maintains all the features supported in the 80 and 160 GB versions, and is approximately 30% smaller and 35% lighter than the current models. The slender new version also has a new, modified PS3 logo etched on the side, and comes standard with the new PS3 firmware v3.0.

Sony also confirmed that the $299 price drop will apply to all PS3s, namely the 80 GB and 160 GB units still on the market. There are also rumors of a second slim PS3 with 200 or 250 GB of storage space, but these are only rumors at the moment.

The new Sony PlayStation 3 will be available worldwide during the first week of September, at $299 in the United States and 299 euros in most of Europe.

Sources (with pictures) courtesy of Kotaku:
Original announcement
Price points
Bonus information with pictures

Earlier this year, Final Fantasy Legend II, also known as SaGa II, was announced as being the next in a series of remakes on the Nintendo DS. What with the upcoming 20th anniversary of the series, Square Enix decided to put the SaGa names all over a shiny new DSi. All of the names. Unfortunately no word on a Stateside release, but the official SaGa II site is up, running, and pretty. If anyone who speaks Japanese can point out where it says "This is our game, and it will never ever be released internationally, HA!", please let the rest of us know.

OFFICIAL SITE

Source: Kotaku