Final Fantasy XIII will be hitting North American stores on March 9th, announced its developer Square Enix today – just so that you guys know, that’s the same exact month that God of War III will be hitting stores, meaning that March is going to be an amazing month for gaming.

Along with this announcement, Square Enix have also released a new video for the game showcasing the new battle system, the Paradigm system; just for fans to get a better understanding for the new system. Final Fantasy XIII will release on both the Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 March of next year, the Japanese will be getting the game on December 17th.

During the Final Fantasy XIII premiere party, Square Enix announced the Japanese release date for Final Fantasy XIII, which is this December the 17th. However, we’re located  in America, and we want to know when we’ll be able to get our hands on the game. So here’s the question Square, what’s Final Fantasy XIII’s North American release date?

Answering the question, Yoichi Wada, president and CEO of Square Enix, told the press that they’re aiming for an “international release [next] spring”. But, seeing that he said “international”, not American. This gives hope to the Europeans that they may actually see the game at the same time as Americans, which is a very good thing. Once again, the game has been confirmed for a December 17th release in Japan and goes on sale at about ¥9240.

With the Japanese release of Final Fantasy XIII slowly coming upon us, it’s time for Square to start revealing the heavy details on Final Fantasy XIII. In the latest issue of Famitsu, Square Enix did exactly that by revealing two new characters that will be featured in the game – reports the Examiner. The first, of course, is the lovely lady pictured, Jill Nabato.

When first shown, Jill was quickly dubbed as the female version of Sephiroth. But, officially, Jill is a lieutenant of the government who controls the PSICOM soldiers, and is said to be a cold-blooded, heartless woman. The second character revealed is Yaag. Like Jill, Yaag is also a lieutenant. He has a strong sense of justice and carries a very serious demeanor. One of his primary concerns is protecting the people of Cocoon. Since Cocoon is his primary concern, he views Lightning and her companions as pests that are trying to bring unrest to Cocoon.

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In all the recent videos, not including the ones at E3, Final Fantasy XIII has been featured with it’s translated English dialog. However, we can now confirm that, that should no longer be an issue. Because Square Enix has revealed that they have completed the remainder of all the English dialog for Final Fantasy XIII.

“Sweet! English VO for FFXIII is complete,” stated Square Enix’s Klee Kuo twitter feed.

With the overwhelming power it will take to run Final Fantasy XIII, Square Enix producer Yoshinori Kitase confirmed that the 360 version of Final Fantasy XIII will ship on multiple discs, as previously thought.

“This is not the final count as we’re still working on it, but we’re aiming for about three discs for the Xbox 360 version,” he stated when talking about the number of discs. After that, he then when on to assure that the two versions of the game will be practically identical, although he did concede that there will be “subtle differences” between the two.

“The 360 version and the PS3 version should be pretty much equal, both in terms of content and the visuals as well,” he continued. ”Since the hardware is different, there might be some subtle differences if you compare screenshots side by side, but the team’s being very careful about the compression of the data and the visuals, so that it’s exactly the same on both.”

Speaking at a Press Conference in Tokyo last week, Square Enix’s Yoichi Wada stated that a release date for long-awaited Final Fantasy XIII could be revealed in a matter of weeks.

Anyway, Wada told the Japanese press that he would make “an announcement in a few weeks”. However, if you look at the stated time, this could mean that Square Enix is announcing the game’s release at the Tokyo Game Show – scheduled for late September.

The title is due out in Japan this winter, with its Western debut, on PS3 and Xbox 360, expected sometime in 2010. However, we’re hoping to see more on the title at Tokyo because Square has confirmed that the tile will certainly be in attendance.

Recently revealed that its 360’s development began in April, its developer, Square Enix, have stated that the 360 version of Final Fantasy XIII has “no chance” of compromising with the PlayStation 3 version of the title.

When speaking to VideoGamer, XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase had this to say about the compromises between the two versions of Final Fantasy XIII.

“The team is targeting to create an equal experience on both the 360 and the PS3, so there are no limitations. For example, right now we’re working on the PS3 version first, and once we’ve completed that we’ll really know how much game there will be to fit onto the Xbox 360 discs,” said Kitase.

“So we don’t know how many discs it’ll be housed on for 360, but there won’t be a chance that we’ll compromise anything because, oh it didn’t fit in the 360 discs so we’ll have to take it out of the PS3 version, or vice versa.”

Square Enix has revealed some very shocking info about the development of the 360 version of Final Fantasy XIII. However, it seems to be coming along nicely, considering that it has only been in development for two months.

“Up to the trial demo version that was released [in April] in Japan, [FFXIII] was PS3-only in terms of development,” producer Yoshinori Kitase told Giant Bomb. ”The Xbox 360 version is definitely following after the PS3 version, but [we] were finally able to come to a point in the PS3 development where some of the staff could take their hands off and start programming the 360 version.”

Kitase and fellow producer/designer Motomu Toriyama gave an on-stage demonstration of FFXIII for Xbox 360 during Microsoft’s E3 conference. The pair promised a Western release of spring 2010.

During the Sony Keynote in Los Angeles, Jack Tretton of Sony confirmed the development of Final Fantasy XIV: Online, which he revealed will be coming “exclusively” to the PlayStation 3 from the developers over at Square Enix.

Along with that, he also revealed that the game will be releasing in 2010.

If you didn’t know, Square Enix is still developing Final Fantasy XIII - also when at the event.

Sony’s planning an “electrifying announcement” for April 27th and we all wonder what they are planning to announce. However, it seems that a very in-dept source, when it comes to things like this, thinks that it has came up with the answer.

According to GameZine.co.uk, an Uncharted 2: Among Thieves demo/beta will be included on the inFamous retail disc, which would underline the “electrifying” statement.

But, from the business stand point, this could be attempt from Sony to increase inFamous’ sale, which we have seen with the Final Fantasy XIII demo included on the FFVII: Advent Children Complete Blu-ray.

But, there’s another idea rumor. Following recent rumors that Naughty Dog is developing competitive and cooperative for Among Thieves, it seems that Naughty Dog may want to give it a spin in a beta of some kind – seen with Crackdown and the Halo 3 mutli-player beta. However, we’ll have to wait until the 27th to see if this rumor is real.

Final Fantasy XIII has been a long time coming and, as you know, Square Enix’s title has a huge burden on its shoulders. With five years of hard work along with time and money invested, the latest full chapter of the Final Fantasy series needs to deliver on all levels.

“There is an unusual sort of pressure on Final Fantasy XIII,” said producer Yoshinori Kitase when speaking to Edge Magazine. “I’d say we need this game to have ten times the success of these smaller titles.”

“But I don’t think that means we’ve compromised in terms of the game design or creativity in any way. Indeed, the development of the game has very much followed in the tradition of the previous titles in the series, welcoming input from the full range of development staff.”

FFXIII has been in development for about five years now. The demo will be out in Japan later this month.

[EDGE Magazine via EDGE]

Besides Sony’s claims that “nobody will ever use 100 percent of [the PlayStation 3's] capability.” It now seems that Square-Enix producer, Yoshinori Kitase, claims that Final Fantasy XIII has maxes out all the capability of the system.

In an interview with Japanese magazine Dengeki PlayStation 3, Kitase, when being asked about how much power the Final Fantasy XIII demo uses, he had this to say.

“Doesn’t the demo use about 50 percent of its power? Of course, I think the retail version will make use of nearly 100 percent,” he told the magazine.

He went on to say that the game will make use of all the PS3’s hardware power much like Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X made use of the PlayStation and the PlayStation 2, respectively. Kitase added that there won’t be any disc swap issues due to Blu-ray and the PS3’s hard drive.

This news only makes one wonder, what does this mean for the 360 version of the game?

["Final Fantasy XIII Uses Nearly 100 Percent of PS3 Power" via Kotaku]

In light of the Final Fantasy XIII countdown on the Final Fantasy XII website, which started some time last week promising ‘a new vision’, it looks like it is finally over, but what has it left behind for all to see.

When you visit the website you will see a brand new Final Fantasy XIII trailer from Square-Enix, but, sadly, the trailer isn’t visible in English, yet, but it does keep its promise of “a new vision [being] revealed to the world.”

After dropping ‘the most anticipated title in japan’ spot, it seems that we finally, after along time, get some new details on Final Fantasy XIII (13) and, it seems, that with this news the title will once again regain its number one title spot.

Apparently, this is all new information that can be found from screens of a low quality.

Here they are: It is possible to evade and counterattack. Lightning’s weapon can morph into other weapons in battles (example from gun to blade). You can score multiple hits on an enemy, or an enemy can have multiple targets. You can hit multiple enemies at once with specific attacks/weapons. It is possible to store multiple commands and execute them at once.

There is no MP in the game, each spell/skill has a maximum number of use or require charging to use. The game seamlessly transition between field and battle scenes. In the field you can see the enemies, warning signs appear on enemies who aware of your presence. There is a Chain Bonus and Break Bonus system in the game, details unknown. You can visually see the enemy name and the HP in battle.

For the past 15 months, or so, Famitsu, a popular gaming magazine in Japan, had polled its readers on which game they are anticipating the most.  For a long Fifteen months Final Fantasy XIII (13) dominated the results, that is until now.

According to PSU, the beloved, once Sony exclusive, Final Fantasy XII’s number one spot has been hijacked for a much, apparently, more beloved Japanese franchise for its upcoming game, Dragon Quest IX, which is on the Nintendo DS.

However, PSU says that PlayStation 3 holds 6 of the 15 spots, which is almost half of the titles on the list. So basically, the system has more titles anticipated in Japan then any other system.

But, one would come to think that this is because of the game “system hopping” onto the both the PS3 and 360, but because its lead was for so long, even after they had made the announcement, it has to be something else.

So could this mean that the Japanese public is sick of Final Fantasy, and it’s a sea on barely any information?

With all the videos shown over the past year of Final Fantasy XIII, there was only so little of it shown that can be considered gameplay. And with so much time in development we were all wondering when we would be able to seen any gameplay of the game, beside in the teaser trailers. However, according to a post on the NeoGAF Forum, there will be gameplay of the game shown by the end of this year. Square-Enix’s Tetsuya Nomura spoke about the game in an interview with Gemaga, he mentions that before the end of the year we’ll see the battle scene in FF13, which is just another way of saying game. He also revealed in the interview that they have no immediate plans to release information on the voice acting cast for the game.

[Square Enix TGS report via NeoGAF]

What makes you buy a video game system? Is it the system itself or is it the platform exclusives? Looks like Capcom will no longer be willing to make anymore platform exclusives for all three of the system that are right now out on the market. This report comes from the company’s fiscal year 2008 report, which states that “All major titles launched during the next fiscal year or thereafter will be developed as multi-platform games,”. This comes as no surprise because many games are being dropped off for the multi-platform name like Final Fantasy XIII, which was originally planned for the PlayStation 3, but is now also coming to the Xbox 360, and now to see as a video game company make that change it’s really makes the questions I asked at the begin of this article harder to answer.

But, as a company Capcom will be making more money using multi-platform games to build there company, money-wise. Here’s what Capcom has to say about that “We will aim to increase revenue and dramatically increase the number of users by launching, for example, Resident Evil 5 … Street Fighter IV … and Bionic Commando [on multiple platforms].” It already looks like Capcoms plan may already be in actions because much of there nex-gen games are already get the multi-platform taste.

A report given by Atari revealed has that Alone In The Dark 5 will be making a debut to the PlayStation 3 this November, the official release date is still unknown at the time. While this game was releashed not to long ago on the 360 and PC, which recieved mix review from the press and many alike.

This is not a rumor at all. Today at E3, Yoichi Wada announced that Final Fantasy XIII will be coming to the the Xbox 360. How about them apples, looks like it’s almost time to turn in my PlayStation 3 after this showing there’s no need for me to see more.

Before all the hate messages start coming in, this was a very fast type so i just started putting what i think sooo…… yeah, i really don’t do that…

According to a scan revealed by Jeux-France, the development of Final Fantasy Versus XIII is currently at a stand by because Square Enix’s PlayStation team where sent to work on Final Fantasy XIII.

[Final Fantasy Versus XIII en images via Jeux-France]

GDC 2008 Taku Murata’s session at the GDC had some very interesting information: The White Engine, which is being used in Square Enix’s next generation PlayStation 3 title Final Fantasy XIII, has been renamed and is now called Crystal Tools. The interesting part was when Taku Murata said some of the engine’s features will work on the Wii, although, “it’s a secret”. Is Square Enix planning to released more titles on the Wii?