Final-Fantasy-XIII
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New game sales up in GameStop's fiscal Q1
GameStop reported earnings for its fiscal first quarter (February–April). Sales are up five percent over the first quarter of 2009, to $2.08 billion. Some of that growth is no doubt due to strong sales of new games. The retailer announced that new software sales increased 13.3 percent in the quarter -- a trend that the GameStop should be happy to see, now that EA and THQ are taking aim at the used games business. The company identified five games in particular that drove revenue growth: Battlefield Bad Company 2, God of War 3, Final Fantasy XIII, Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, and BioShock 2. We all love buying sequels at GameStop, apparently.
Square Enix 'looking into' Xbox 360 release of Final Fantasy Versus XIII
During an investor meeting in Tokyo, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada indicated that the company is considering a multiplatform release for Final Fantasy Versus XIII. An attendee asked Wada about the possibility of putting the currently PS3-exclusive Fabula Nova Crystallis game on Xbox 360 like Final Fantasy XIII, in order to boost sales outside of Japan, to which Wada responded (according to Andriasang's translation) "We'll be looking into it internally until right before the formal announcement." Wada did not mention when that "formal announcement" would take place. E3 is coming up, so it's entirely possible Wada is building up to that, having expressed his hope for an E3 unveil previously. But we've given up on expecting this game to become real any time soon. When it stops existing only in secret trailer form and becomes an actual, playable game, we'll be shocked, regardless of the platform (or platforms). Update: Wada responded on Twitter (via Andriasang) to speculation about his comments: "It looks like the 'net is heating up. Versus on Xbox? What I said at the earnings press conference was just that until a formal announcement is made at the announcement time, all points about all titles are not finalized." In other words, he is stressing that Square hasn't made any decisions.
Final Fantasy XIII, Dragon Quest IX, Batman sales lead Square Enix fiscal year
Square Enix had a good fiscal year (ended March 31, 2010), but its games division had a very good year. Final Fantasy XIII sold over five million units globally during the period, with the Japan-only release of Dragon Quest IX coming in second with 4.26 million units. Thanks to the company's acquisition of Eidos last year, the company could count on some Batman: Arkham Asylum cash, with the pointy-eared detective's critically acclaimed title selling 3.24 million units -- it's a shame Square won't get a piece of the sequel. Squenix's games division had sales of ¥109.9 billion ($1.18 billion) in the last fiscal year, up an impressive 128 percent over last year. With the Dark Knight out of the picture, Square Enix will have to depend on its other western franchises, including Kane & Lynch, Deus Ex and the games of Ms. Croft. Source [PDF link] -- Results Briefing Session for the Fiscal Year ended March 31, 2010
Swag Sunday: Mother's Day swag bonanza [update]
[Kevin Dooley] Update: This giveaway is over and winners will be contacted shortly. Thanks to everyone for entering and keep an eye on those commenter-tied inboxes! For this week's weekend swag giveaway, we've teamed up with 80sTees.com to offer six separate prizes to you, dearest reader. You regale us with your favorite Mother's Day memory in the comments section below, and you could be one of five winners to receive a code redeemable for $28 worth of merch -- and one lucky grand prize winner will get a code worth $68 and a copy of Final Fantasy XIII for the PlayStation 3 (we're betting your mom really digs chocobos -- she does, right?). And that's it! Now go make that special Mother's Day memory a reality. If not for her, do it for some prizes (you monster). Leave a comment telling us your favorite Mother's Day memory. You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec, because of restrictive sweepstakes laws in the province, unfortunately -- we assure you that we love the Quebecois!). Limit 1 entry per person per day. This entry period ends at 11:31AM ET on Monday, May 10. At that time, we'll randomly select five winners to receive one code each redeemable for $28 worth of merchandise on 80sTees.com, and one winner to receive one code redeemable for $68 worth of merchandise on 80sTees.com and one copy of Final Fantasy XIII for PlayStation 3 (ARV: $59.99). For a list of complete rules, click here. What is Joyswag? Since we don't keep the games and merchandise we receive for review or promotional purposes, it becomes "Joyswag," which is passed along to our readers. Please note that Joyswag may be in "used" condition. For more info on our policy, click here.
Xbox Live Marketplace in May: Rocket Knight, Dragon Age DLC and more
You know that dusty piggy bank you've had sitting on the shelf forever? Look, forget the kid's college fund -- she's not going to college for, like, years -- and bust that thing open! There's going to be some solid content on Xbox Live Marketplace this month. In the mood for XBLA games? How does Rocket Knight or Zeno Clash tickle your fancy? Oh, so you want some DLC -- Dragon Age: Origins will have more to offer the tireless adventurer later this month. Want to learn the Secret of Monkey Island? During the week of May 17, the secret will be half-off. See what we mean? Head past the break for more XBLM release highlights for the month provided by Microsoft.
Gamestop discounts FFXIII, BioShock 2 and more, offers free store credit
SlickDeals tipster DJ3xclusive recently unearthed a handful of handsome discounts currently being offered by Gamestop. Anyone who enters the coupon code "15NEW" while checking out from the retailer's online storefront can save 15 percent on a few games, such as Final Fantasy XIII ($43 after coupon), GTA: Episodes from Liberty City ($28), and BioShock 2 ($38). In addition, these three games come with an additional $10 credit to be used on future purchases. Better still, the code works on pre-orders of Super Mario Galaxy 2 ($42.50), which comes with $20 credit. The discount also applies to the BioShock 2 Collector's Edition ($68), Demon's Souls ($34) and Heavy Rain ($45), though these three don't come with the appended, complimentary 10-spot. Still, those are some pretty great deals. Or, if we could be so bold -- pretty slick deals?
Asia gets limited edition Final Fantasy XIII Lightning controller
Don't you wish you had a matching controller for that limited edition 250GB Lightning PS3 you bought from Japan? Well, if you go to Hong Kong or Taiwan, you'll be able to do just that. To celebrate the new Chinese language release of Final Fantasy XIII, a new special edition DualShock 3 controller will be released. For about $90, you'll be able to get a bundle that includes the Chinese language version of the game, a PSN card, and a special Lightning-branded white DualShock controller, featuring the same pink design as the LE console. [Via Siliconera] %Gallery-80441%
Final Fantasy XIII and Splinter Cell 360 Elite bundles $40 off at Amazon
Amazon has a pair of sweet deals for those in the market for an Xbox 360 console. Both the Final Fantasy XIII Elite bundle and Splinter Cell: Conviction Elite bundle are $40 off, down to a much more palatable $359.99. That's almost like getting the bundled game for free -- not to mention the value of a bigger, beefier 250gb hard drive and an extra controller. [Via Cheap College Gamers] Source - Splinter Cell bundle Source - Final Fantasy XIII bundle
Final Fantasy XIII and BioShock 2 costumes available today in Home
Your adventuring in Final Fantasy XIII may be coming to an end. You can show your fandom for the game by buying a five pound tub of hair gel and cosplaying at the next anime convention ... or you can buy a Final Fantasy XIII-themed outfit for PlayStation Home. Good news: you'll be able to take the easier option later with today's PlayStation Home update. Costumes for Lightning, Vanille, Sazh and Snow will all be available in the Costumes store in Sony's virtual world. In addition, you'll be able to rock costumes from BioShock 2 with purchasable Big Daddy and Big Sister costumes. Expect Home to have an interesting denizen of costumers this week.
Square Enix releases Chaos Rings on iPhone, discounts other iPhone games
Square Enix's impressive-looking iPhone RPG, Chaos Rings, is now available from the App Store. If you'd like to try it, you'll have to pay the iPhone equivalent of the Square Enix Tax, as the publisher has priced the Media Vision-developed RPG at $12.99. Chaos Rings is the story of four couples (each in its own storyline) summoned to fight to the death in a tournament for some mysterious reason. The "couple" theme forms the strategic element of battles: you have to decide when to use combined attacks that also open both party members to damage. Paradoxically, the release of this expensive-for-iPhone game also brings savings. To promote the launch of Chaos Rings, Square Enix put its other iPhone games on sale. Among others, Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy II are now $6.99 each, Crystal Defenders is now $5.99, and Sliding Heroes has temporarily reached the magic $.99 price point. Even the Final Fantasy XIII gallery is on sale, priced at Still Too Much.
NPD: Final Fantasy XIII sold almost twice as many copies on PS3
Let's go back a couple of years, to E3 2008. At the Microsoft Press Conference, the company drops the news that Square Enix has agreed to release Final Fantasy XIII simultaneously on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. There is much cheering and/or weeping and gnashing of teeth, depending on which side of the console wars you are on. Two years later, in April of 2010: Final Fantasy XIII is released on both consoles simultaneously. And the most recent NPD report says that while the Xbox 360 version sold a respectable 493,000 copies, the PS3 version sold 828,000 copies -- almost twice as many. We'll let you guys sort that one out for yourselves. Do remember where the consoles were at in both places -- back in 2008, the Xbox 360 had an early lead on big software (LittleBigPlanet was Sony's biggest game of the show), and these days, PS3 sales are doing much better. But we will say that, according to NPD analyst Anita Frazier, this is Final Fantasy's biggest launch ever, and that XIII has topped the first-month sales of XII by 48%. That's a lot of l'Cie.
March NPD: Pokemon and Kratos catch all the money
The ill-timed announcement of the 3DS wasn't enough to scare consumers off from purchasing new DS systems. Thanks to the combination of a new hardware variant (the big, big, big DSi XL) and new Pokemon games, the dual-screened platform sold like gangbusters. Meanwhile, hardware shortages kept the PS3 from massive sales despite the fact that it had the best-selling game of March (God of War 3). Speaking of software, we've learned a lot about you from this month. For example, Final Fantasy fans strongly prefer PS3, Battlefield fans strongly prefer 360, and Pokemon fans' dollar votes went to SoulSilver over HeartGold by quite a lot. How do you even decide something like that? Seriously, one of the 1.78 million or so of you who bought it -- take us through your process! -DS: 701K88K (14%) -Wii: 558K160K (40%) -360: 338K>84K (-20%) -PS3: 314K46K (-13%) -PSP: 120K13K (-10%) -PS2: 118K16K (16%) See the top 10 games after the break.
PS3 tops five million consoles sold in Japan
In this post-Modern Warfare 2 world, a number like five million may seem insignificant -- even laughable, to some. But hey, don't knock the PS3's latest accomplishment of selling 5,001,598 consoles in Japan. Famitsu brings us the news, along with the top-selling games on the platform so far: Final Fantasy XIII is first with 1,883,828 units, Metal Gear Solid 4 takes second with 706,461 and Yakuza 4 -- which was just released a few weeks ago -- comes in third, selling an impressive 526,093 copies so far. Gosh, the only thing that's missing is a Dragon Quest. [Via Andriasang]
Kratos stands atop Mt. UK, Metro 2033 has strong sales debut
God of War III quick time–evented the top spot from Final Fantasy XIII on the UK all-formats sales chart last week. Kratos' latest adventure outsold God of War II during its launch week 2.65 to 1, according to Chart-Track. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 retained the second spot for the week, while Final Fantasy XIII sales slipped 80 percent to summon third. Where's the stalwart Just Dance, you ask? Why, it's in fourth place, of course. Surprisingly, THQ's Metro 2033, another quality title from the reinvented publisher, premiered in fifth -- a strong debut week for the post-apocalyptic dark horse, which had previously been a faint blip on the Q1 2010 radar. Source – God of War 3 rules supreme [GFK Chart-Track] Source – Latest UK Software Charts [GFK Chart-Track]
Final Fantasy XIII fastest selling game in franchise, Square Enix claims
Great. We're pretty certain Square Enix is going to make another one of these videos now. With sales of "more than one million units in North America over the first five days," Square Enix has good reason for that smug look on its face. Taking into account European sales, Final Fantasy XIII has "recorded the largest first-week sales in franchise history." A number of factors undoubtedly contributed to the record-breaking success of the latest iteration of the JRPG series. Not only is it the first numbered Final Fantasy game on a current generation system, but it's also the first game in the franchise to appear on two platforms -- and two continents -- simultaneously. Finally, it's been nearly four years since the release of Final Fantasy XII on PS2. Fans were clearly hungry for a real Final Fantasy fix. Luckily for Square Enix, there's much, much more Final Fantasy in the works: Final Fantasy XIV is due this year and Final Fantasy Versus XIII should be ready by the time Square Enix is done counting all this money.
Square Enix brings overpriced photos of Final Fantasy XIII to the iPhone
Imagine all the epic battles of Final Fantasy XIII in the palm of your hand! In fact, using your imagination is pretty much the only thing you can do with this new App. Square Enix is proud to present an exclusive version of Final Fantasy XIII for your iPhone and iPod Touch that lets you zoom in on Lightning, Snow and the rest of the gang. See your favorite characters in dramatic poses, as they prepare for battles in the most stylish way possible. Yes, for only $8.99 you'll be able to download a small collection of still images to peruse. But wait -- there's more! Not only can you look at pictures; you'll be able to bring up a calendar and a clock. In fact, you can look at images at the same time as the clock. That functionality makes this truly a "Larger-than-Life" experience. Download it today! FINAL FANTASY XIII Larger-than-Life Gallery ($8.99):
Final Fantasy XIII tops UK sales chart, Just Dance shows stamina
In its first week at retail, Final Fantasy XIII charged up the UK sales charts like a Lightning bolt, becoming the "fastest selling" game of the year -- a record set by Bad Company 2 just last week. According to Chart-Track, the console sales split for the latest edition in Square Enix's flagship series was fairly even, with a 54 to 46 percent split on PS3 and Xbox 360, respectively. Bad Company 2's sales slipped 38 percent last week, bringing EA DICE's fantastic multiplayer title (wait, there's single player, too?) down to second place. And, in third -- there it is: Just Dance. The game is unstoppable and has the stamina of a six-year-old hyped up on Pixy Stix. Like we noted last week, Just Dance just keeps going and going. We're just waiting to see when this epic sugar rush wears off. Source – Lucky XIII for Square Enix [GFK Chart-Track] Source – Latest UK Software Charts [GFK Chart-Track]
GDC: Toriyama explains the themes of the Fabula Nova Crystallis trilogy
The creators of Final Fantasy XIII have been notoriously tight-lipped about the Fabula Nova Crystallis trilogy, a series comprised of FFXIII, Final Fantasy Versus XIII and the PSP-exclusive Final Fantasy Agito XIII. During a GDC panel titled "The Crystal Mythos," director Motomu Toriyama gave a few scant details about the other two branches of the trilogy, and the few similarities connecting the entries in the franchise's 13th series. Toriyama's main point during his presentation is that Agito and Versus won't be sequels to the recently released Final Fantasy XIII -- they'll both have their own unique set of characters, gameplay systems and overarching stories. The only thing connecting them is the "Crystal Mythos" motif -- a theme where the fates of ordinary humans are controlled by omnipotent gods. Players of Final Fantasy XIII should already be acquainted with this storytelling device. The other detail about the series Toriyama mentioned was that, like XIII, the rest of the series will continue to focus on story-driven gameplay rather than allowing the player to explore an open world. For better or worse, it sounds like Versus and Agito will possess the same linearity for which XIII was frequently criticized.
Metareview: Final Fantasy XIII
Sweet Shiva, the Final Fantasy XIII reviews are all over the place. What has been clear over the past couple years is that the Japanese RPG has been going through some seriously violent flux. The genre is trying to find a new path, and even as Japanese developers seem to search for a balance that'll please several markets, they're freaking out western reviewers and audiences, who have a certain expectation going into these games -- a fault of fans, as much as decades of ingrained convention by those developers. The new JRPGs aren't necessarily great games. They certainly break conventions of what a JRPG is, so how to review them? Along comes Final Fantasy XIII, another risk taker, but this time by the genre's big kahuna -- at least, it is in the west. We've weighed in with our review; let's see what other outlets think: Game Informer (93/100): "For years, gamers have had visions of this title as an industry-transforming epiphany, but no game could possibly live up to such astronomical expectations. That's no reason to lose faith; though reality doesn't match the myth, Final Fantasy XIII is a phenomenal RPG destined to be remembered as a technical milestone for the series." Eurogamer (80/100): "Palatable is very much the word for Final Fantasy XIII. The Final Fantasy series, with its lengthy cinematics, stubborn style and carefully prescribed limitations, can never hope to please everyone. So it's strange to see it try, and no surprise that the result is not a total success." VideoGamer (70/100): "You have to hand it to Square Enix for trying to move things forward - better that than yet another rehash of the tried and tested Final Fantasy formula ... But it does so along a path so narrow and straight that you long for the days of old. When Vanille is knocked out in battle, she sometimes says: 'What went wrong' It's a question we find ourselves wondering as well." Edge: (50/100): "FFXIII takes brave risks with the series' foundations, but they ultimately create trembling fractures throughout the entire edifice, that robust battle system unable to support the weight of an entire world. Final Fantasy games are always an investment. This time, the returns are questionable." %Gallery-41346%
Final Fantasy XIII ships 5 million copies
In a Japanese press release, Square Enix has announced that Final Fantasy XIII has shipped 5 million copies worldwide. Surprisingly, 3 million of those copies were shipped outside of Japan. Of course, Square Enix isn't saying how many of those copies have been sold, so bear that in mind when marveling over these impressive numbers. These 5 million XIIIs, according to the release, bring the total number of shipped games in the Final Fantasy series up to 96 million. How many of those were ports or remakes of the first Final Fantasy, we wonder?
