We’d wager a guess that not many patrons enjoyed E3. True enough, the criticisms for the fall and continuous fall of the expo, since its post-2006 change, were scathing. Nonetheless, E3 played host to one of the biggest announcements of the year, and quite possibly the only real one of the show. Square-Enix took the stage, and what they unveiled shocked us enough to warrant 3rd place on Game Over 2K8.
Final Fantasy XIII, the next mega magnum opus of Square’s illustrious franchise, was assumed to be Sony-exclusive. All Final Fantasy titles after FFVII did the same. The company itself, touted it as a stylish action-RPG hybrid that pushed the PS3′s visual artillery to a whole new level.
But at E3 2008, SE brought the house down. Final Fantasy XIII was going multi-platform, the second system being Sony’s most fearsome rival in the console wars: The Xbox 360. Overnight, stances and alliances were redefined. Xbox 360 fans flamed PS3 fans for their loss of yet another exclusive, while PS3 fans ribbed 360 fans on their previous insults of FFXIII – which had suddenly become a very real choice on their “Must-Play” lists. Square-Enix later dubbed FFXIII a “timed exclusive”. Work would begin on the 360 version only after the PS3 one was released. Regardless, within a few hours, the fanboy wars had been split wide open.
Since the FFXIII‘s revelation, Square-Enix took a more aggressive marketing approach to it’s 360 JRPGs. Obviously they were attempting to woo a whole cadre of future customers. The key word is “attempt” though, since Infinite Undiscovery and The Last Remnant didn’t really give titles like Fable II sleepless nights. The company also made strides in the global arena, opening a new LA-based studio and making bids for other developers like Tecmo (which refused and merged with Koei). Square-Enix clarified their break from isolation, stating that all developers have to eventually embrace the international market if they want to survive.
Final Fantasy Versus XIII, headed by Tetsuya Nomura of Kingdom Hearts fame, is still a PS3-exclusive. But then we heard the same thing about FFXIII at the same stage (2 years before its release date). It’s unclear how SE is going to cram the content of a Blu-ray onto an Xbox DVD – it’s still a multi-disc set, whether you use single or dual-layer. Such questions are still dodged, but if you read between the lines (“The Xbox 360 is much easier to develop for”), you can bet it’s not impossible.
As it stands, we’re eagerly awaiting the game. Lightening, the female protagonist, looks great and the gameplay delivers on its speed and graphics. The fact remains, however, that the age of the third-party exclusive may be well and truly dead with FFXIII’s multiplatform development. And that more than warrants its place as the 3rd most defining event of the year.
Don’t forget to check in on the 2nd defining event of 08 tomorrow. And bring your hankies along, because it isn’t exactly cheery.
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