True Crime: Hong Kong has been revived as Sleeping Dogs.

Square Enix has unveiled its plan to revive the popular open-world action game from United Front Games — who had been working on True Crime: Hong Kong for more than two years before Activision decided to cancel the game in 2011.

However, then in August, Square Enix picked up the rights to the game, but not the franchise; and Square needed to rebrand the game before it could be intentionally released. Thus, Sleeping Dogs was born.

Now being developed in conjunction with Square Enix London Studio, Sleeping Dogs is headed to the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC this August.

In a bombshell announcement — collaborating with the tenth anniversary — Square Enix announced that it will be releasing an HD version of Final Fantasy X.

However, details are still scarce, as the game is still deep in development. But, Square did reveal that it’s coming exclusively to both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita.

During an interview with Famitsu, director Tetsuya Nomura revealed a small amount of information surrounding the long awaited Kingdom Hearts III. According to Nomura, the third installment will mark the end to series antagonist Xehanort.

However, it won’t mark the end of the franchise. Apparently, the development team have already set in place the framework for future sequels, which will retain Sora as the main protagonist. Nomura has also promised that Kingdom Hearts III will answer the questions which will be left by Kingdom Hearts 3D on the 3DS, suggesting that this could be the final title before the third installment.

In addition, Nomura also stated that the development on KH3D is about forty to filthy percent complete.

Obsidian Entertainment revolutionized the in-game dialog system; introducing spit-second decisions into the equalization. However, their overall technical presentation made its titles unreliable and unplayable.

In a recent interview, project director Rich Taylor stated that Dungeon Siege III will be more “stable” than its previous titles. “There’s always that challenge of working on something other people wrote and not being fully aware of what can it do, what can it not do.”

“Stability and being bug free are extremely high priorities on this project, and we actually talk about it internally constantly. The advantage here we have over, for example Fallout, is when we have a question about how something works, I walk 10 feet outside my office door and go talk to the programmer who wrote it,” he continued, explaining the importance of using their own engine.

Lara Croft returns in Tomb Raider, an origin tale detailing her untold roots. Square Enix, who will be publishing the title, released this piece of artwork, showcasing a battle damaged, younger and much more ragged version of the famed protagonist.

Tomb Raider will entangle the first adventure for a young and inexperienced Lara Croft, which “charts the journey of an ordinary woman who finds out just how far she must go in order to stay alive.”

“Forget everything you knew about Tomb Raider, we are exploring things that have never been done before in this game,” added Crystal Dynamics’ Darrell Gallagher. “This is an origins story that creates Lara Croft and takes her on a character defining journey like no other.”

Eidos has released the latest trailer for the upcoming sequel, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the third installment into the Deus Ex series. And, though there hasn’t been alot said about the sequel, abiding by the trailer, it’s a game about human augmentation and about the growing power of national corporations.

However, that’s not all the information the trailer reveals, it reveals Human Revolution’s launch window, early 2011.

“The Human Revolution CGI is a joint venture between Eidos Montreal, Square Enix’s Visual Works in Tokyo, and a creative company called Goldtooth Creative in Vancouver,” said director Jean-Francois Dugas, when speaking about the trailer. “Initially, Goldtooth Creative created a concept pitch based off the game itself which had to be approved before Visual Works started building the video.”

The developer, also, recently held a presentation for the game. However, they were more focused on giving the background of its art design and didn’t show any actual gameplay. Hopefully, E3 will be more forthcoming.

There’s no doubt that Final Fantasy XIII is a massive game; however, its developers don’t have any plans when it comes to adding to the experience. When being question about the games downloadable content, FFXIII’s producer and director revealed that they don’t have any plans for downloadable content.

“Regarding the DLC content, we feel that the final product is 100% enjoyable…it’s the complete package,” says Final Fantasy XIII producer, Yoshinori Kitase, and director, Motomu Toriyama in a joint statement — in a chat with the European PlayStation Blog.” So we’re not planning any DLC at this time.”

They also commented on recent rumours that content cuts from Final Fantasy XIII will be added as downloadable content.

“In regard to the rumoured cut content, we feel it was taken out of context,” explained Kitase and Toriyama. “There are a lot of ideas that are brought to the table, and then the team takes the best ideas out of those, and the final product is polished that way. There was content that were ‘ideas’ that didn’t make the final content, but the team isn’t looking to release that as downloadable content.”

That said, it’s understandable if Square doesn’t want to talk about downloadable content at this time. But, if there really isn’t going to be downloadable content, there’s going to be a lot of disappointed players. However, then again, Square could be messing with us — I just hope they are.

Within the past couple of years, Ubisoft has centered itself as a comparable developer/publisher. That said, wanting to expand its reach, the publisher revealed its ambitions to develop a Japanese role-playing game, much like the Final Fantasy series. When be interviewed Famitsu, Ubisoft’s Alain Corre spoke about the companies general ambitions within the role-playing genre.

“People often say that Japan is packed with hardcore gamers, and it’s important to understand what it is they’re looking for,” Corre said in the Famitsu interview. “Our mission is to create hit games on the same level as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. We’d like to see everyone in Japan root for us. Perhaps someday our efforts will result in a major hit on the level of a Dragon Quest.”

“We have never made any RPGs, a genre Japanese people love,” he continued. “We’ve made shooters, strategy, sports, action, and adventure games, but not any RPGs yet. Still, we’re open to all possibilities. If we can get a quality team of RPG-oriented developers, I’d love to release one. If we have a chance to work with Japanese creators, then I’m sure we can make a game that appeals to the Japanese audience.”

Corre also made it known that they’re “currently investing in Japanese development studios”, and that they’ll be revealing more about those projects “in a year’s time.” With that said, could this have to do anything with “Project Eden”, Ubisoft’s collaboration with Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s Q Entertainment? Well… it’s anyone’s guest.

If you’ve played the original, you’ll known that Kane & Lynch: Dead Men was an entertaining but rough-edged game (it was littered with controversy, most notable the firing of Jeff Gerstman). But, with all the hope in the world, maybe they can address these issues in the sequel, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days.

Square-Enix Europe have announced today that Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days will be releasing sometime next year on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. The sequel “is a raw and brutal crime shooter designed to take players on an even more intense story experience, following two of gaming’s most disturbed criminals, through the gritty Shanghai underworld.”

However, they aren’t calling Kane and Lynch 2 a sequel. They’re calling it “[a game] inspired by documentary filmmakers and the user-generated era,” meaning that it could be a game played documentary style, or something like that. Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days will be released under the Eidos games label  in 2010.

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.

Besides recent reports, it seems that unannounced Final Fantasy project is alive and well. According to a report posted by GameIndustry.biz, sources confirmed that the unannounced Final Fantasy project that was in development at GRIN is now in development over at Square Enix.

You see, Square took the project off GRIN’s hands after only six months of development due to concerns over quality. Sadly, because business laws in Sweden prohibits companies from going into debt without severe penalties, GRIN was subsequently to bear its wage burden without new projects, and had to closed its doors. Square didn’t respond to the news.

In the shadow of the recent announcement of Star Ocean on PlayStation 3, Square Enix confirmed that its upcoming action-RPG NieR will release in two versions; NieR Gesthalt for the Xbox 360, and NieR Replicant for the PlayStation 3. However, during the past couple of weeks, the names recently made an appearance, but no clarifications were made, at that time.

Details are incredibly light at the moment on the two versions. But, what we do know is that both versions have their NieR character attempting to find a cure for a character who has a mysterious illness. Hopefully, all will be cleared up at next week’s Tokyo Game Show, where the Xbox 360 version will be playable.

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.

When speaking to Kotaku, Hiromuchi Tanaka, producer on FFXIV, told them that there’s an important issue  keeping them from bringing the title on to the Xbox 360. The “rockblock” that he speaks of is, Microsoft‘s “network policy”.

Since the PlayStation 3 and Windows PC versions allow for cross communication and cross platform play, this is an important issue that Square Enix can not over look. Because it can effect the longevity of the tite on that paffic system, “system” being the Xbox 360. However, Tanaka says that Square Enix is trying to reach an agreement with Microsoft allowing Xbox 360 players to enjoy the game, saying the developer is still “considering” the platform.

Anyway, with that said. It’s no wonder as to why Square Enix hasn’t announced a Xbox 360 version of the game yet. However, we hope that Microsoft can over look this and bring Final Fantasy XIV on to the 360.

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.

Donating sales in Japan, Dragon Quest IX has yet to see the bread its success, but if you had yours eye fixated on when you’ll see the game in North America, I have some very important news for you. According to the president of Square Enix, Yoichi Wada, they’ll being looking into bringing Dragon Quest overseas sometime next year.

This news comes when talking about the company’s performance in the first period of the new financial year. However, Dragon Quest has never been an overly popular franchise in North America. It looks like with all its success in Japan, Square Enix may seems to spark interest in North America.

Superannuation reports that last Wednesday Eidos filed a trademark registration for Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days, suggesting that a long-rumored sequel is indeed on the way.

However, Eidos hasn’t exactly been shy about talking on the sequel. Back in May, Eidos president Ian Livingstone said that developer IO Interactive was working on the sequel. “We’ve already got Kane & Lynch 2 in production, which just goes to show the belief we have in it as a long-term franchise.”

More info should be revealed shortly.

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.

Unlike some company’s we know, Square-Enix!, Atlus knows how to cater to their fans, by the way I was just kidding about that statement. While checking out a demo for “Persona 4″ last week, MTV’s Multiplayer Blog noticed that “Persona 4″ was shipping on December 9, which is a date before Christmas but after the Thanksgiving sales rush, Black Friday. So why not just wait until January or February, when people might have gift cards, etc.?

“The one problem is from a retail standpoint, retailers are very averse, across the board, to bringing anything in after Thanksgiving,” said Atlus’ manage of public relations and sales Aram Jabbari. “If they can avoid any product in December, they will.”

Until February, Jabbari explained, retailers want to move their excess stock. They don’t want new products. Atlus recently received word “Persona 4″ is approved for release and will hit its release date. If that hadn’t happened…

“What that means is, if a game [like 'Persona'] is to slip and it was set for the first week of December, it’s essentially the kiss of death,” said Jabbari.“Every retailer would cancel orders. That’s why you don’t see many games coming out December through February.”

[‘Persona 4′ Must Release On December 9 Or Receive The ‘Kiss Of Death’ From Retail via MTV]

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]

Well, no one saw this one coming. According to Kotaku, at 1pm Japan Time today, Square Enix will be outlining its plans for a friendly takeover Tecmo, which is having some trouble at this time. The Square Enix takeover should help the company gain a stronger foothold in the U.S. market with popular Tecmo titles like the Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive. This can also help Square Enix with their heavily dependent on RPGs.

This isn’t the first time Square Enix has moved in on a beleaguered company. In August 2005, Square Enix acquired Taito and wholly owned the company as a subsidiary by September 2005.

I think it’s time to stop jumping around. According to a live blogging thing over at IGN , Square Enix exec Shinji Hashimoto said that “they will complete the PS3 version in Japan, then start a localization for the US and Europe while they start development on the 360 version.”

Many people many not understand that this means, it means a longer wait time in the U.S., not even a so called delay, it more feels like a super delay if you ask me. So why did they announce the game this early in it’s development? Because they think it’s a good idea for you to wait until the game comes out so that they can build the hype up.

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]

Today, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe announced that their European store will be the first to receive the Haze Demo on Tuesday (May/6/2008) the European store will also have two updates next week due to the PlayStation Day event that they will be holding. With Haze being a major part of Sony Huge Keynote this just proves that Sony is going to bring more to the table with games like Resistance 2 ,Secret Agent Clank [PSP] and SingStar Vol. 2. There is no word on the demo coming to the United States store.