Here is an interesting, if not totally new article from the Official PlayStation Magazine concerning the forthcoming “FINAL FANTASY XIII” and the sequels with which it is associated.:

What’s the basic concept?

Remember the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII? Four releases, all centred on the lore of FFVII? The last piece of that collection finally arrives next year (Core Crisis), so Square Enix thought it would do a similar compilation for the next Final Fantasy title, Final Fantasy XIII. We have no idea of the meaning behind the compilation’s name, “Fabula Nova Crystallis” (other than it being Latin for “the new tale of the crystal”), but we can confirm that it comprises at least three titles: Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII (both for the PlayStation 3) and Final Fantasy Agita XIII (for cell phones, which are apparently way popular in Japan). Since FFVII’s compilation has four titles, we’re assuming that a fourth FFXIII title will be announced later.

Who’s making it?

Think of Square Enix’s two biggest PlayStation 2 games in the States. We’re talking Kingdom Hearts II and Final Fantasy X. Well, those two teams are each working on a respective FFXIII title. Yoshinori Kitase and his boys from the FFX team are tackling FFXIII; they apparently started basic work on the game after wrapping FFX and started full-on production after creating (and then shelving) the FFVII PlayStation 3 footage shown at last year’s E3. Tetsuya Nomura and his teams from both FFVII: Advent Children and Kingdom Hearts II are working on Final Fantasy Versus XIII.

What’s the big deal?

Er, the fact that the PlayStation 3 is getting not just one, but [at least] two Final Fantasy titles right off the bat. So far, Square Enix seems to be emphasizing FFXIII itself, as the company has shown the most of that one. Understandable, since it’s probably in a more complete state (since the team’s been working on it since FFX, as opposed to Nomura’s team, which probably started work on Final Fantasy Versus XIII after the recently released KH2). Not much has been shown of either game, but we can pick up a few details. FFXIII’s trailer featured a very sci-fi look with futuristic monorails and armour-clad soldiers wielding guns, as opposed to the more medieval-fantasy style of [many of the] previous games. Also, FFXIII seems to feature a female main character; most of the footage featured her taking down several soldiers with stylish gunshots and combo attacks. This footage looks like a typical high-quality Square Enix CG cut-scene until you notice the slight jaggies on her skin and the preponderance of numbers and onscreen icons, indicating that the battle is taken from real-time gameplay.

Other than showing a woman taking down dudes and wandering around some nice-looking environments, the trailer gave no details. Even less was shown of Nomura’s game, which only had a dude with black clothes (and a haircut suspiciously resembling Nomura’s) challenging a whole bunch of soldiers and then conjuring up magical swords to circle around him. Oh, and Nomura hinted that his title will feature “extreme-action gameplay.”

Is there anything to worry about?

The obvious thing to be concerned about is that Square Enix didn’t give any real details about either game. That, and the fact that the company still hasn’t finished the FFVII compilation. So who knows how long it’ll take to finish FFXIII? Or, as we see it, FFXIII, FFXIII-2, FFXIII-3, and so on…

Source: Official PlayStation Magazine, via Final Fantasy Net

Since the launch of the Nintendo 64 in mid-to-late 1996 (or early 1997, depending on whether you live in North America, Japan or Europe), Nintendo have repeatedly struggled in their attempts to gain their previous stronghold authority in the video game industry. The Nintendo 64’s sales were reasonable, but totaled in at less than one third (1/3) of the amount the, then pretender to Nintendo’s throne, Sony PlayStation managed to achieve in it’s lenghtly life span. Reaching around 32 million consoles worldwide, the Nintendo 64 only sold around 3 million more consoles than its predecessor, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (also referred to as SNES), and sold 2 million less copies than the 1989 SEGA console, Genesis (MegaDrive) which were released in a far less video game-orientated generation.

Realistically, the PlayStation (released in North America and Europe in 1995) was what saw off competition from SEGA, effectively killing off opposition from two of its consoles, the SEGA Saturn and the SEGA Dreamcast, thus ending SEGA’s time as creators of video game consoles.

With the Nintendo 64 failing to live up to the standards set by previous Nintendo consoles selling figures, the 2001 release of the Nintendo GameCube was clearly surrounded with anxiety from the Nintendo team, and astutely so. The PlayStation 2 was selling in a big way since the release in October, 2000, but not only this – there was a new kid on the block.

Microsoft were previously a company who made Personal Computers, and whose only foray into video games were limited to a number of small games were now to enter the big time, by bringing out their very first game console, the Microsoft Xbox. Not only was the GameCube desperately trying to compete with the PlayStation 2, but they now had a second opponent; an opponent whose financial potential was unlimited.

The GameCube’s sales figures showed a noticeable decline in the fortune of Nintendo, with the company at this point more than ever, being considered as the ideal alternative for people who loved Mario and Legend of Zelda games, rather than ’serious gamers’. Snobbery was such, that many gamers were put off the console as they felt it has an alienating ‘cutesy’ element to it. This was certainly not the case in either the Sony or Microsoft consoles, which boasted hugely popular titles such as Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec and Halo respectively. The GameCube was also unable to offer gamers the huge number of titles the other consoles catered for. With the total sales of the GameCube (to date) being approximately 20.85 million, the console faired unsurprisingly worse than the PlayStation 2, which has to date recorded a massive 103.6 million shipments, but also worse than debutants Microsoft, who sold in the region of 24 million Xbox units.

This brings us on to more recent times, and Nintendo are set to take the metaphorical battle fields once more, this time taking on Sony’s third gaming system, the PlayStation 3, and the now weighty opposition of the already released Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 is performing reasonably (at not far under 4 million copies sold thus far), but speculation is rife that the PlayStation 3 console is set to disappoint some fans in a number of ways. It seems that the cost of the PlayStation 3 is going to be between $499 and $599 (depending on the size of hard disk desired, the options being 20 and 60 gigabytes respectively), a fee a lot of potential purchasers are put off by. Moreover, the PlayStation 3 has seemed rather anti-climactic in terms of improvements since the PlayStation 2.

The criticisms of the next Nintendo console, the Nintendo Wii are far more limited than those that the PlayStation 3 is receiving. People seem highly excited about many of the innovations the console is making, not least the motion-sensing “Wii Remote”. Frankly, the main concern people seem to have about the console is the name, Wii.

As such, it seems that the console will have much more backing from game developers than previous Nintendo consoles have enjoyed. LucasArts, of Star Wars fame seem likely to jump the PlayStation 3 ship, and bring out an exclusive game on the Wii instead.

With all the speculation surrounding the release of the PlayStation 3 and the Wii, it appears that the balance of fortunes could be set to swing unpredictably in favor of the Nintendo system. Should more big name companies pledge allegiance to the interestingly named system, there could be a huge alarm bell ringing in the Sony headquarters. Game on, Wii.

Source for data, Wikipedia.

What we don’t know, on the other hand, is what exactly the plans are for the Nintendo Wii in terms of release date and there is yet to be any actual confirmation on a price we can expect to pay for the console, though the sum $250 is being bandied about on many video game websites.

What has been only too clear within the last day is that Nintendo seem keen on having (launch?) games ready for shipment in October of this year. Clearly games being release does not directly mean that the console itself will be put on shelves then, but it appears unlikely that software would be produced within that time period if the console were to be released later in the year.

Therefore, as the PlayStation 3 is scheduled for the mid-November, Christmas-rush period, it seems Nintendo are trying to force the release of the Wii before Sony, in attempt to oust certain sales. Given that the Wii is anticipated to innovate in exciting ways that the PlayStation 3 is perhaps failing to, as well as being available for an apparently much cheaper price – the news that the console could well be released 3 or 4 weeks prior to the PlayStation 3 could allow Nintendo an astonishing lead in the ‘battle of the consoles’.

“We don’t say it’s a game console. PlayStation 3 is clearly a computer, unlike the PlayStations so far.” — Kutaragi (2006)

One of the main reasons for holding this view appears to be the that the PlayStation 3 will allow greater modification than the previous consoles. As such, different generations will be likely to feature somewhat different specifications than earlier consoles. This can clearly be connected to the Revolved.net article of the 5th of June, where Izumi Kawanishi discussed the possibility of additional hard disks and network capabilites.

Kutaragi developed on Kawanishi’s interview:

“As the PlayStation 3 is a computer, it also wants to evolve. We’ll want to upgrade the HDD size very soon – if new standards appear on the PC, we will want to support them. We may want the [Blu-ray] drive to [have a writable version upgrade].” — Kutaragi (2006)

All the above indicates that while Sony are suggesting that they are confident that the PlayStation 3 will compete with the Nintendo Wii in terms of gaming capabilities, they are desperate to re-market and innovate in order to gain some of the various markets in which the Wii might lose out.

Not only is the Final Fantasy XIII compilation to contain several titles on multiple consoles, the hugely popular Final Fantasy VII series is ever expanding, with several off-shoot games and even a movie released. Then of course there was Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2!

While this seems like rather a handful of games already, one must bare in mind that Final Fantasy XII (that’s 12) is still not available in the Europe or Europe. It would seem rude of Square-Enix to create so many sequels for without considering the possibility of expanding the enigmatic Final Fantasy XII ’series’, would it not?

Final Fantasy XII’s character designer, Akihiko Yoshida, has now revealed that there is a possibility that Final Fantasy XII-2 (FF XII-II?!) will be released at some stage in the future. This adds on from Yasumi Matsuno’s discussion of the the possibility of adding a sequel from an interview in Famitsu.

Thankfully, the Square team are currently prioritising the first and main Final Fantasy XII game’s release in Europe and North America, so let’s try to avoid being too cynical and about the increasingly ironically named Final Fantasy series future plans. Let us be honest, they do make good games, even though Marx may very well be turning in his grave.

What this means is that the already incredibly high cost of production of the PS3 will be increased further by having to add an addition chipset to the console. Sony insist that this is a short-term solution to their need to generate backward compatability, while the long term aim is to add a sufficient PS2 emulator to later consoles.

As well as adding the emulator, Kawanishi has hinted that future consoles may offer different specifications in terms hard disk and network capabilities. One could almost take this to mean that first generation PlayStation 3 consoles should be avoided, in favour of waiting for less a BETA-staged console.

Source: GameDaily.com

The article speaks of nine (9) PS3 titles that would apparently be available from the 17th of October which is, (as I am sure you are aware), the launch date for the PS3 console itself.

The titles listed on the store are:

- Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway
- Call Of Duty 3
- Fight Night Round 3
- Formula One 2006
- Gran Turismo HD
- Singstar
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas
- Warhawk
- WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2007

These games are still unconfirmed for the launch date, but frankly the list is not hugely encouraging. Of course Gran Turismo HD would be looked forward to, but Revolved.net is convinced the title was a tech demo only, and not a title for release. Gran Turismo 5 will be released, though presumably not at launch. Other titles listed are far less tempting in our eyes at least. We will just have to wait for confirmation by Sony before either getting excited or annoyed, though.

Both ‘controllers’ do seem provide innovative touches; the Wii controller (Wiimote) will use an entirely new controller formula, allowing single-hand, motion sensing play, while the PlayStation will utilise a DualShake system, though Revolved.net is yet to ascertain the exact details of this.

To conclude, it appears both Sony and Nintendo are ready to offer exciting packages, but it should be taken into consideration that there are more to controllers than innovation, something Nintendo have seemingly overlooked on more than one occasion.