The Final Fantasy XIII XB360 announcement discussion* (spawned)

[Xalion]

I don't think this will have as great an impact on the current war as some people think. That is coming from someone whose major decision to buy the PS3 over the XBox 360s two years ago was based on FFXIII being declared a PS exclusive.

That is correct, I bought the PS3 first because FFXIII was a PS3 exclusive. Believe me, my love for FF goes far beyond my love for any particular brand of console. Therein lies the key though. I already bought the PS3 in anticipation of this. Now that it has changed? I already own a PS3 - so the news doesn't affect me in the slightest. I think you will find that most people who find certain console games system sellers are in the same boat. They will have already invested in one of the next gen consoles. For some it will mean that they bought an XBox figuring to buy the PS3 when FF came out and they don't need to anymore. For others like me it will mean they already purchased the PS3 and have one regardless. I think you will find very few held out for what will be almost 3 years for 1 game. For those who love FF enough that they would have held out, FFXIII versus is still exclusive as far as we know. The engine was developed from the ground up for the PS3 and will be ported later. All across the board, I would still assume they would buy a PS3.

So that leaves potential market share lost as those who purchased an XBox already and were waiting for this particular game to buy a PS3. Personally, I don't know how large that market is. They are probably people like me. I plan on buying an XBox. I already own a Wii and a PS3. To date, I have yet to have a compelling enough reason to get an XBox though. I will get one, I just have to decide each month to budget my money on new hardware or new games. So far new games have won out. But as the NPD pointed out several months ago, people like me who own multiple consoles are the exception rather than the norm.

 

[Love_In_Rio]

Next one Insomniac and Naughty dog.

I don´t understand very well why Sony is shareholder of Square. Maybe they wanted its 10% (?) stocks to bring more revenues.

The direction Sony has taken after firing people like Kutaragi and Phi Harrison is each day nearest to the one taken by Sega.

The perception is the most important thing in marketing. And today the perception is that Microsoft will win the consoles war by all means and that Sony has given up and its empire is falling like Roma.

Ah!, and i see this as a lost for Square as well. They have just lost their hardcore fan base and its 'specialness', bread fot today, hunger for tomorrow.

 

[ShadowRunner]

This announcement also substantially weakens the argument that BluRay is a key feature for making epic games and will sway studios towards the PS3. Wasn't this game a poster-child for why we need BR? If FFXIII was PS3 exclusive, you can bet that Sony PR, PS fans, and even reviewers would be calling this a title that couldn't be done without BR or the power of PS3.

Or the game may now have sacrifices made on both sides because it is multi-platform. I hope not.
The fact they are finishing the PS3 version first hopefully means this wont happen.

 

[DrJay24]

This announcement also substantially weakens the argument that BluRay is a key feature for making epic games and will sway studios towards the PS3. Wasn't this game a poster-child for why we need BR?

FF games were very CG heavy, so if you have hours of HD video along with a game how do you do it on 7.4GB? You either kill the video and audio with compression or you move to more disc, like the other JRPGs on the 360 which are 3+ discs. So do you need BD? No, but I'd say this type of game is still a "poster-child" for larger capacity disc.

But I suspect you knew all this, as this horse has been beaten for a long time.

 

[djskribbles]

i think this is being way overblown. yeah this is a big loss for Sony, but people are talking as if this is the end of the PS3. maybe not so much here, but on other gaming sites anyway. its not like its not coming out for PS3.

 

[dobwal]

Okay? Im seeing a bunch of posts that acts like FF13 going to multiplatform is like a major blow to Sony.

If we were talking about a high profile title in year one or two, maybe. But FF13 won't hit till like the end year 3 or beginning of year 4 in the two biggest market. The market will pretty much be decided well before FF13 even hits the market. If one of the two consoles doesn't take off and seperate by this Christmas it more than likely they never will create much seperation from the other in terms of console sales. Even now we late into the game, nevermind holiday 09 or early 2010.

 

[Vic]

Or the game may now have sacrifices made on both sides because it is multi-platform. I hope not.
The fact they are finishing the PS3 version first hopefully means this wont happen.

I hope the PS3 version isnt watered down as a result of this announcement.

I dont know Sony didnt offer Square some incentives to release the game as soon as its available.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Okay? Im seeing a bunch of posts that acts like FF13 going to multiplatform is like a major blow to Sony.

If we were talking about a high profile title in year one or two, maybe. But FF13 won't hit till like the end year 3 or beginning of year 4 in the two biggest market. The market will pretty much be decided well before FF13 even hits the market. If one of the two consoles doesn't take off and seperate by this Christmas it more than likely they never will create much seperation from the other in terms of console sales. Even now we late into the game, nevermind holiday 09 or early 2010.

Sony and MS have sold a few million units so far, I think the HD console market is along way from decided yet.

 

[Love_In_Rio]

Okay? Im seeing a bunch of posts that acts like FF13 going to multiplatform is like a major blow to Sony.

If we were talking about a high profile title in year one or two, maybe. But FF13 won't hit till like the end year 3 or beginning of year 4 in the two biggest market. The market will pretty much be decided well before FF13 even hits the market. If one of the two consoles doesn't take off and seperate by this Christmas it more than likely they never will create much seperation from the other in terms of console sales. Even now we late into the game, nevermind holiday 09 or early 2010.

This is a very important fist against Sony´s face. It´s not about the importance of a concrete game but about one of the symbols that settled the playstation brand. Perceptions, very important for our actitudes...

Cell also is knocked. White engine ( today i have read that really the engine is called crystal tool or something like that and that is PC centric and not even feature finished ), SPUs to the limit ? ja, 3 VMX units are enough to make the same. And i hope the bad frame rate seing in the new video of killzone 2 posted today in threespeech.com is something video code related...

 

[liolio]

Or the game may now have sacrifices made on both sides because it is multi-platform. I hope not.
The fact they are finishing the PS3 version first hopefully means this wont happen.

Or that they think that porting to the 360 could be pretty much trivial?

 

[Skrying]

Okay? Im seeing a bunch of posts that acts like FF13 going to multiplatform is like a major blow to Sony.

If we were talking about a high profile title in year one or two, maybe. But FF13 won't hit till like the end year 3 or beginning of year 4 in the two biggest market. The market will pretty much be decided well before FF13 even hits the market. If one of the two consoles doesn't take off and seperate by this Christmas it more than likely they never will create much seperation from the other in terms of console sales. Even now we late into the game, nevermind holiday 09 or early 2010.

The game not coming out for a year or two is likely the biggest part of this to be honest. The fact that one of the series always associated with the Playstation brand is coming out on the "other guys" console is massive, I don't see how someone can dismiss it as otherwise.

When someone buys a console they tend to think long term investment. In today's market that choice is basically impossible to make unless you follow it really closely. The only "real" place I see a separation of the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 is in the online services field. Final Fantasy is just another indication that from here out any once big time third party exclusive will likely make its way onto both systems. That's massive. It makes the generation a dead heat. It's the final cement to me on someone seriously arguing either console blowing the other out in sales once all is said and done.

 

[dobwal]

FF games were very CG heavy, so if you have hours of HD video along with a game how do you do it on 7.4GB? You either kill the video and audio with compression or you move to more disc, like the other JRPGs on the 360 which are 3+ discs. So do you need BD? No, but I'd say this type of game is still a "poster-child" for larger capacity disc.

But I suspect you knew all this, as this horse has been beaten for a long time.

Given the experience offered by MGS4, if thats something a BluRay FF13 will offer, I rather have multi-DVD port, if that experience is roughly equal to what we've usually seen from multi disk JRPGs.

For FF13 to be a poster child for BD, it will have to produce a relatively seamless experience because if the large capacity + 2x BluRay = multiple installs, then the experience similar to past interations of multi-disk rpg will ultimately be superior.

 

[Carl B]

I have to say I think Xalion is correct in a lot of his points. How many of the 360 early adopters bought at launch for a Halo game that wasn't to release for another couple of years? And same with the PS3 set; in a way, FFXIII has already given its boost to the PS3, notwithstanding that if it were to be reviewed a truly incredible game in its own right, that would be an advantage lost by the PS3 come US release time.

I've been a lifelong Final Fantasy fan... played the original on the NES the month it came out. This is a game I'm looking forward to, but it's lost almost all sense of immediacy in the past year as its launch date has been completely failed to solidify.

Now mind you I think this is a great win for MS, and more importantly the JRPG loving 360 userbase, but in terms of the console war in the immediate sense I think things like Live vs PSN, (sometimes timed) exclusivity for games like Rock Band, and how the multimedia and meta-gaming aspects of these consoles flesh out as the months go by are the biggest selling points in the second half of 2008.

FFXIII was a big announcement by MS today, but IMO not their biggest. The dashboard re-design, introduction of avatars and expanded community features, Netflix tie-ins, and strong social gaming push all I think will ultimately be bigger drivers.

 

[Love_In_Rio]

Or that they think that porting to the 360 could be pretty much trivial?

Read my upper post. It results now that the engine is not finished and that is multi oriented developed in a Core duo...

 

[liolio]

Read my upper post. It results now that the engine is not finished and that is multi oriented developed in a Core duo...

Your post wasn't available when I posted and it took me sometime (as i was watching poker on tv).
Interesting info

 

[liolio]

I have to say I think Xalion is correct in a lot of his points. How many of the 360 early adopters bought at launch for a Halo game that wasn't to release for another couple of years? And same with the PS3 set; in a way, FFXIII has already given its boost to the PS3, notwithstanding that if it were to be reviewed a truly incredible game in its own right, that would be an advantage lost by the PS3 come US release time.

I've been a lifelong Final Fantasy fan... played the original on the NES the month it came out. This is a game I'm looking forward to, but it's lost almost all sense of immediacy in the past year as its launch date has been completely failed to solidify.

Now mind you I think this is a great win for MS, and more importantly the JRPG loving 360 userbase, but in terms of the console war in the immediate sense I think things like Live vs PSN, (sometimes timed) exclusivity for games like Rock Band, and how the multimedia and meta-gaming aspects of these consoles flesh out as the months go by are the biggest selling points in the second half of 2008.

FFXIII was a big announcement by MS today, but IMO not their biggest. The dashboard re-design, introduction of avatars and expanded community features, Netflix tie-ins, and strong social gaming push all I think will ultimately be bigger drivers.

I think that the ps3 si still not exactely cheap and that some persons just have lost a reason to wait.
But overall I agree with you these improvement will help making money with more "profitable" part of the market

 

[DrJay24]

For FF13 to be a poster child for BD, it will have to produce a relatively seamless experience because if the large capacity + 2x BluRay = multiple installs, then the experience similar to past interations of multi-disk rpg will ultimately be superior.

Why would you need to install CG cut scenes? The only reason MGS4 had installs was to make the level loading quick, it could have had longer load times and no install, but I'm sure that would have pissed off twice as many people.

You could have a small install for engine/texture stuff and stream all the movies off the disc, unless someone thinks BD can't handle movies now

So FFXIII could be a fine show-case for BD, same load times and everything on one disc vs four or more. I'm thinking something like Oblivion with hours of HD CG cut scenes.

 

[dobwal]

The game not coming out for a year or two is likely the biggest part of this to be honest. The fact that one of the series always associated with the Playstation brand is coming out on the "other guys" console is massive, I don't see how someone can dismiss it as otherwise.

When someone buys a console they tend to think long term investment. In today's market that choice is basically impossible to make unless you follow it really closely. The only "real" place I see a separation of the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 is in the online services field. Final Fantasy is just another indication that from here out any once big time third party exclusive will likely make its way onto both systems. That's massive. It makes the generation a dead heat. It's the final cement to me on someone seriously arguing either console blowing the other out in sales once all is said and done.

Massive in minds of dedicated gamers, Yes. But to the general market, No.

If FF went 360 exclusive the ramifications might have been huge for the market in terms of sales software and hardware.

However, FF will sell just as well on the PS3 as a multi port as it would have as an exclusive. Going multiplat just means the franchise removed alot fodder from the fanboy wars and its not going to have much of effect on many's console's buying decisions.

FF, GT, Halo, KZ and MGS creates a portion of their hype based exclusivity. They end up making a lot of noise in the forums because they have become the definitive titles for fans defending their consoles. GTA and FF are basically gauranteed to find their future franchises less talked about then before when they were exclusive to a platform, but they will still sell as well as they have always sold as long as they are quality titles.

 

[Droid]

IMO this is very bad for Sony. The PS3 was just beginning to take off.

This will definitely impact future sales of the PS3. Heaven knows how many people were sitting it out until FFXIII launched, before dropping cash for the console.
I very surprised Sony allowed this to happen.

That said, it might have something to do with the way GTA IV and MSG4 was affecting console sale. In another words, it isn't affecting it very much.
So Sony probably figured what the hell ...

 

[PARANOiA]

I have to say I think Xalion is correct in a lot of his points. How many of the 360 early adopters bought at launch for a Halo game that wasn't to release for another couple of years? And same with the PS3 set; in a way, FFXIII has already given its boost to the PS3, notwithstanding that if it were to be reviewed a truly incredible game in its own right, that would be an advantage lost by the PS3 come US release time.

Sure, but if it's coming out in another 12-18 months, imagine how many PS3's MS just prevented being sold. That's why this is significant... my biggest interest in the PS3 can be played on the machine I have at home. Suddenly that PS3 as second console became far less interesting. This is seriously swaying my decision, so there's at least one