Updated info regarding the release of "Final Fantasy XIII" serves as an extraordinary reminder of just how slowly major game publishers have gotten into this console generation.
***
During the previous generation of game consoles, publisher Square-Enix released its first "Final Fantasy" game of the generation to America, "Final Fantasy X," just 14 months after the launch of the PlayStation 2.
Those were the good old days.
In an interview with news organization Reuters yesterday, Square-Enix president Yoichi Wada said that "Final Fantasy XIII" was on target for a 2009 release in Japan, but that American gamers would have to wait longer.
An excerpt from the story states the details cleanly:
Square Enix also plans to launch the next version of "Final Fantasy" in 2009 in Japan, further strengthening its product lineup.
Overseas launches of the latest "Final Fantasy" game will come in the business year from April 2010 or later, Wada said.
Square Enix will offer the latest version, "Final Fantasy XIII", for both Sony Corp 's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360 in North America and Europe, and exclusively for the PS3 in Japan.
I know people on this blog said this would be the case, but I had guessed incorrectly in my Most-Anticipated-PS3-Games-of-2009 list that Square-Enix had improved its turnaround time on localizing games. I also didn't expect Square-Enix to take this long to get what its biggest global role-playing game series released to the U.S.
"Final Fantasy XIII," the first "FF" game of the current generation is indeed taking a while. The game already hasn't been out in Japan in the 26 months since the PlayStation 3's launch in that country.
If the game arrives in America at its soonest possible date as indicated by Wada -- April 2010 -- the amount of time elapsed between the launch of the PS3 in America and the release of "FF XIII" will be a gargantuan 41 months. The gap between the launch of the Xbox 360 and "FF XIII" in the U.S. will have been 53 months.
It's not just been Square-Enix that has been slow to get on board with this generation. Sony's in-house Japanese development studios have yet to release a major game for the PS3, though anticipation is high that the team behind "Ico" and "Shadow of the Colossus" will finally have a game to show this year. Konami, which finally released "Metal Gear Solid IV" last June has also shown signs that it is slow to backing games for this generation.
Were publishers just not ready? It's a question that bears asking and that we'll follow in the months to come.