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Final Fantasy 13 gets 1080p support on Steam next week
Square Enix will introduce a patch for Final Fantasy 13 on Steam next week that will give players additional graphics options. Slated to land on Thursday, December 11, the update will allow players to switch to custom resolutions, such as 720p and 1080p. The patch hits the same day that the game's sequel, Final Fantasy 13-2, will arrive on Steam as well. Final Fantasy 13 first launched in late 2009 in Japan, making its worldwide debut in March 2010 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was followed by the aforementioned 13-2 in February 2012 and the final game of the trilogy earlier this year, Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13. Those planning on picking up the Steam version of Final Fantasy 13-2 may want to pre-purchase the game, as it is 10 percent off at the moment ($17.99). [Image: Square Enix]
Final Fantasy 13-2 heading to Steam in December
Square Enix is following up on the recent Steam launch of Final Fantasy 13 with a PC version of its direct sequel Final Fantasy 13-2 next month. Square Enix previously revealed that all three formerly console-exclusive entries in Final Fantasy's Lightning Saga (Final Fantasy 13, 13-2, and Lightning Returns) would see a PC release via Steam. Final Fantasy 13 premiered for Valve's digital distribution service in October, offering a 60 frames-per-second presentation and platform-exclusive bonuses like Steam Trading Cards. Final Fantasy 13-2 is up for pre-order on Steam at a 10 percent discount ahead of its scheduled launch on December 11. A PC release date for Lightning Returns is not yet known. [Video: Square Enix]
Joystiq Weekly: Sony financials, Destiny review, Minecraft sale and more
Welcome to Joystiq Weekly, a "too long; didn't read" of each week's biggest stories, reviews and original content. Each category's top story is introduced with a reactionary gif, because moving pictures aren't just for The Daily Prophet. What would you do with $2.5 billion? Sure, Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson isn't pocketing the entire sum from Microsoft's acquisition of Mojang, but something tells us he'll uh, be okay for a few years. Unless you're keen on buying small nations and playing a real-world game of Risk, it's tough to imagine spending your share of a massive buyout like that. There was loads more to this week than business deals involving yacht-sized bags of money, though. There's hope for a playable taste of Final Fantasy 15 in 2015, reviews for Destiny, Hyrule Warriors, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call, a full timeline of Minecraft's progress from day one and loads more, all awaiting you after the break!
Final Fantasy 13 trilogy heading to PC starting next month
PC versions of the Final Fantasy 13 trilogy were confirmed by Square Enix today, with the first game due to launch on October 9. Hints that the series was destined for PC surfaced earlier this week when Steam logos were spotted on Square Enix's official site for the games. Final Fantasy 13 will cost $16, and will be available through Square Enix's online store and Steam. Prices for the other two games in the series have not been announced. Those pre-ordering the game through Steam will receive a 10 percent discount ($14.39). Steam users will also have access to a set of unlockable Steam Trading Cards. The trilogy began in 2010 with Final Fantasy 13 followed by its sequels, Final Fantasy 13-2 in 2012 and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13 in February. Square Enix said it shipped over 11 million copies of the games in the trilogy worldwide to date. [Image: Square Enix]
Final Fantasy 13's new portal page has a Steam logo
In suspiciously timed news, Square Enix launched a new portal page for the Final Fantasy 13 saga that conspicuously features the Steam logo. The site, launched today, features the Steam image next to logos for already confirmed platforms. FF13, FF13-2 and Lightning Returns all initially released on Xbox 360 and PS3, and the trio are also coming to Japan's Dive In mobile streaming app, as announced last week. So is Lightning about to strike thrice one more time? Square Enix's not announced any PC ports of the JRPG trilogy so take all this with a pinch of salt. That said, the publisher does seem to have a few things up its sleeve for the Tokyo Game Show, which begins tomorrow. Also, earlier this year, Final Fantasy producer Yoshinori Kitase told Eurogamer he was "definitely interested" in pursuing PC versions for future games, and he also touched on why the FF13 saga didn't come to PC in the first place.
Play Final Fantasy 13, Murdered on mobile in Japan
Square Enix is launching a service in Japan through the app Dive In that enables games such as Final Fantasy 13 and Murdered: Soul Suspect to run on iOS and Android mobile devices. The streaming service launches on October 9, and it will initially support Final Fantasy 13, Final Fantasy 7 International and Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossom Murders. Players are able to purchase playtime plans with prices that vary depending on the game. Final Fantasy 13 starts at three days for 250 yen, and goes to one year for 1,800 yen (prices don't include tax). See the pricing breakdown, translated by Gematsu, below. Final Fantasy 8 and The Last Remnant launch on the service in November, Final Fantasy 13-2 and Murdered: Soul Suspect launch in December, and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13 is in 2015. [Image: Square Enix]
Lightning Returns, bearing prizes for fan art competition winners
Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy series character designer Tetsuya Nomura has chosen three grand prize finalists for a fan art competition. The competition was organized by Square Enix and DeviantArt to celebrate the recent release of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy 13, and was the first time Nomura, who designed Final Fantasy 13 heroine Lightning, has acted has a judge. The winners, in no particular order, are Marga Donaire, Nicolas Barge and Randis Albion - or KarmaLizzard, ArisT0te and randis, as they're respectively known on DeviantArt. The three winners will receive an original sketch from Nomura, $1,000, a keychain, a shirt, a custom Xbox 360 and controller, and the complete Final Fantasy 13 trilogy. Each winner will also be the header image at the top of DeviantArt for a day. More than 4,000 creations were entered in the competition, which garnered more than 1.5 million views. We've included a smaller resolution of Donaire's piece, "Wilhelmina" at the top of this article, but you can see the full-resolution image, along with the other two winners, by checking out the gallery below. You can also check out the official DeviantArt contest page to see the rest of the entries. [Image: Marga Donaire]
Today's gaming deals from Steam, Square-Enix, Target [update]
Steam's Thin Wallets 2013 Campaign holiday sale continues today with a fresh batch of discounted games you surely have time to play. For the next 24 hours, the Darksiders series, season pass and all, is available for $9.99. Sleeping Dogs is down to $4.99, season passes for Telltale's The Wolf Among Us are $16.74, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 is $4.99. The current batch of Flash sales will expire at 9 pm EST, but until then you can snatch up The Binding of Isaac for $1.24, XCOM: Enemy Unkown for $9.99, or Deus Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut for $4.99. If you're looking to play on consoles, Square-Enix's online store is offering 50 percent off select games with an ongoing holiday sale. 360 and PS3 copies of Sleeping Dogs are $14.99. If you're okay with passing up on features included in the more recent Director's Cut, 360 and PS3 copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution Augmented Edition are also $14.99. You can also get ready for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII with 360 or PS3 copies of Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIII-2 for $10 apiece. Lastly, Target's recent credit card data breach has resulted in many of their in-store items being marked 10 percent off this weekend. Combined with their weeklong sale on 3DS XLs, that means you can pick up a 3DS XL today at Target for $135. If you don't have a 3DS yet, you might want to consider 2013's contributions to its lineup. Update: This article has been updated to reflect changes in pricing for the Steam holiday sale. Prices that were originally listed for the Darksiders series, The Wolf Among Us, KOTOR 2, The Binding of Isaac, XCOM: Enemy Unkown and Director's Cut have all been altered. Thankfully, they're now all cheaper than when the new batch of sales began!
The Mog Log: Lightning fizzles in FFXIV
There's something a bit odd about playing what amounts to a promotional event for a game you won't be seeing for several months. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII promises to conclude the two-part trilogy that its predecessor created, but it's not coming out in the US until February of next year, leading to a minor disconnect. Still, it matters only in the broadest sense; after all, most of the references packed in hearken back to the first game in the set, and I didn't need a pre-order to know that I wanted a gunblade. So I've been following along with Final Fantasy XIV's event and dutifully progressing along the quest chain for the week. But I wasn't terribly impressed all around. I think there were some very nice touches coupled with some really baffling decisions here and there, and the overall effect was rather lackluster. It isn't really the fault of the event so much as a problem with popularity.
The Mog Log: You got your Final Fantasy XIII in my Final Fantasy XIV
If there was any doubt about it before, it's a known fact now: Lightning of Final Fantasy XIII will be showing up in Final Fantasy XIV, and players can go so far as to earn a copy of her outfit to wear out and around Eorzea. Odds are pretty much absolute that it will be purely cosmetic, but that doesn't make it any less unusual. Aside from ruffling the feathers of anyone who particularly dislikes Lightning, the inclusion opens up the weird snarl of non-continuity along the entirety of the franchise. I like Lightning, but this certainly does feel unusual. Even without seeing the quest, I have plenty of questions about how the games tie together, what the possible explanation could be, and how this will affect both worlds (as Naoki Yoshida has said specifically that this is Lightning herself, not someone who looks and acts as she does). So let's talk about crossovers, let's talk about Final Fantasy XIV's existing fanservice, and let's ask ourselves if this is the straw that breaks the camel's back. Metaphorically. I don't think there are camels in Eorzea.
Here's the 'real' Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII debut trailer
Remember that trailer for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII that leaked out a few days ago? Forget that happened, since Square Enix slightly altered and re-launched it. Disregard all the parts of it that are identical, or all the footage that you swear you've seen before.One of the only differences that stands out in the remixed trailer is the music, really. Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is heading to Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2013.
Final Fantasy XIII's Lightning story to continue in a 'new direction'
On September 1, during a Final Fantasy anniversary event in Tokyo, Square Enix will present some kind of "new information about the direction of Lightning's story." The Final Fantasy XIII protagonist was last seen in XIII-2 DLC "Requiem of the Goddess," which at the time acted as a conclusion to her saga.The new Lightning material is currently in the care of "Key members of the FINAL FANTASY XIII development team including the Producer, Director and Art Director."Final Fantasy XIII was originally announced as a multi-part "Fabula Nova Crystallis" universe, consisting of FFXIII, FF Versus XIII (which we're still waiting for) and Final Fantasy Agito XIII – which was renamed Final Fantasy Type-0 and released last year on PSP in Japan. Though the Fabula Nova Crystallis thing hasn't quite panned out, Square isn't letting that get in the way of expanding the Final Fantasy XIII series.
What Square Enix learned from Final Fantasy 13's large-scale development
Square Enix had 180 artists, 30 programmers and 36 designers working on Final Fantasy 13, and that many people on board made its development complicated, director Motomu Toriyama told Gamasutra."With a large-scale development team, we didn't use our time well," Toriyama said. "How do you communicate to everyone in the department what the drive of the game is?"Toriyama and his team tried to keep the game as secret as possible within the massive workforce, which led to playtesting happening "way too late in the process," he said. Square intended to fix those issues with Final Fantasy 13-2, and implemented production-based milestones as opposed to story-based ones it used at the beginning of FF13's development. Still, more needs to change."We are also thinking that we will not do large-scale internal development any longer," Toriyama said. "We have a lot of great creators in Square Enix, but for larger-scale development we will be doing more distributed and outsourced development to reach our targets on time."
Final Fantasy XIII-2 purchases on Amazon net $20 gift card
Looking to do some time travel on the cheap? Amazon's not quite able to bend time just yet, but it can offer you a $20 credit on a brand new copy of the just-released Final Fantasy XIII-2, not to mention a digitized "mini strategy guide." We're hopeful that the strategies are bigger than the guide itself.Should you choose to go with Amazon's deal, you could always put the $20 credit towards a flux capacitor or something that might actually facilitate time travel. Maybe hallucinogens? We're not sure if Amazon's in that racket yet, but that's another potential avenue for seeking your desire to float across the pond of time. Maybe a Doors album is a better way to go?
Why Final Fantasy XIII just didn't work
This is a column by Jason Schreier dedicated to the analysis (and occasional mocking) of his favorite genre, the Japanese role-playing game. Whether it's because they're too antiquated or just too niche, he believes JRPGs don't get enough attention in the gaming industry today. It's time to change that. On January 31, Square Enix will release Final Fantasy XIII-2, a direct sequel to Final Fantasy XIII, which the developer shipped several years ago to mixed reactions. Some fans adored the game's gorgeous aesthetics and flashy combat; others cursed Square Enix for daring to defile their beloved series. Perhaps because of that fan ambivalence, a large part of Square Enix's marketing plan for Final Fantasy XIII-2 has revolved around the message "This is not Final Fantasy XIII!" During preview events and demos, the developer has been careful to show off all of the new elements that the first game did not have: towns, NPCs, sidequests, and so forth. Will Final Fantasy XIII-2 be worth playing? I'll tell you in a few weeks. But while we wait to see whether or not the newest Final Fantasy is worth our time, let's figure out why Square Enix is so eager to make it feel different than its predecessor. Just where did Final Fantasy XIII go wrong?
Final Fantasy XIII-2 trailers X 2
It's a scientific improbability, but these Final Fantasy XIII-2 clips feature more melodrama than should be containable in a piece of Square Enix media -- barring any Kingdom Hearts climax monologue, of course.
Amazon celebrates PS3 price drop with discounted games
The temptation was just too much. Even with the car payment, the mortgage, and the hospital bills from having your squeedlyspooch removed, you still couldn't resist dropping the tantalizingly reasonable 250 clams for a new PlayStation 3. And who can blame you? We went out and bought a second PS3 that we have absolutely no use for, it was that enticing of a proposition. But now that you've got the system, these tough economic times have left you with very little money for actual games. What's a gamer like you to do? You can't even sell your squeedlyspooch on the black market. Thankfully, Amazon has your back, as they have both recognized and seized the opportunity to get that skrill provide valuable savings by shoveling a big ol' pile of discounted PS3 titles in your face. The sale is an eclectic mix, to be certain: Bulletstorm and Def Jam Rapstar aren't often mentioned in the same sentence, for instance, and while some titles may be better than others, this still seems like a good way to get some use out of your new console.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 domain name registered
"Corporation Service Company" has registered the "Finalfantasy13-2game.com" domain name, according to Superannuation. The company has previously registered domains for Nier, Mindjack, and other Square Enix games, suggesting that this is also the work of Square Enix. This domain name could simply be Square Enix grabbing related names just in case, but it could also be evidence of a direct sequel to Final Fantasy XIII -- possibly, like Final Fantasy X-2, one built on the engine and assets from the previous, expensive game. Of course, unlike Final Fantasy X, the Final Fantasy XIII "franchise" is already somewhat crowded, with Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy Agito XIII on the way sometime before the end of the universe. Square is holding a "1st Production Party Premiere Event" in Japan on January 18, so if there really is a new Final Fantasy to announce, we'll likely hear about it, and any costume-change-based fighting it may contain, then. [Thanks, Vallanthaz]
Final Fantasy XIII launches on Japanese Xbox 360 to tepid sales
Final Fantasy XIII launched exclusively on PlayStation 3 in Japan last December, beating the multiplatform English release by just under three months, and the local Xbox 360 version by a year. The Japanese Xbox 360 game, dubbed Final Fantasy XIII Ultimate Hits International, arrived on December 16th, bringing with it an English voiceover track, an "Easy" mode and a bonus book. According to launch week sales figures, Square Enix's turnaround in supporting the Japanese 360 may have been overly optimistic. Producer Yoshinori Kitase told Japanese mag Famitsu in September that the redesigned Xbox 360 hardware had revitalized interest in a local edition of Final Fantasy XIII. "We feel that there are ... a lot of people in Japan who own nothing but 360s," he said. "Thanks to the new system and such, the situation's a lot different than it was in July 2008." In its first four days, Final Fantasy XIII sold fewer than 22,579 copies -- the cut-off point for that week's top 20 sales as tracked by Media Create -- and landed in the 39th spot. It's not an unsurprising outcome for a year-old title meeting a relatively small user base, but it raises an interesting question: Would Square have benefited more if it had launched its flagship property on both platforms last December, or was this tardy tradeoff its best shot at a small target?
Amazon gets critical hit on Final Fantasy XIII PS3 price for DOTD
Look, guys. Amazon really, really wants you to buy Final Fantasy XIII. For the millionth time this year, the retailer has cut the price of the PS3 version of the game for its Deal of the Day promotion -- this time around, you can grab the lengthy JRPG for $18.99, more than half off the usual cost.
