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Final Fantasy XIII Xbox 360 Is Only Two Months Old

Square Enix says it just recently began the process of bringing its mammoth RPG over from the PS3 to the Xbox.

Square Enix blew a lot of minds at last year's E3 with the announcement that Final Fantasy XIII would hit the Xbox 360 day and date with the PlayStation 3 in North America. But the company didn't start working on a 360 version of the hotly anticipated RPG till shortly before this year's E3. Longtime series producer Yoshinori Kitase had this to say at the show last week when I asked how the game's cross-platform development is going.

Up to the trial demo version that was released [in April] in Japan, [FFXIII] was PS3-only in terms of development... 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.

To be fair, Square is building FFXIII on its cross-platform Crystal Tools engine, which is probably easing and expediting the porting process to some degree. But I'm still impressed they got the game into a playable state in such a short time, as indicated by its appearance at Microsoft's E3 briefing. Here's what that looked like, in case you forgot.

  

If you're especially interested in how FFXIII is going to make the console transition, Eurogamer recently posted an exhaustive and technically informed breakdown of the forthcoming 360 port, based on analysis of the PS3 demo. If things like alpha channel and fill rate get you excited, I really recommend you go take a look at their findings. Since it looks like the differences will be minimal, my choice of platform will probably come down to my love of achievement points versus my desire for a Japanese language track--and I think you know how that's going to end up. How about you?

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84 Comments

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FuzzYLemoN

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Edited By FuzzYLemoN

...Good luck with that.
*Continues waiting for the PS3 version*

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Nasar7

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Edited By Nasar7
@dagas:
"
@Nasar7 said:
" I'm the opposite, I don't care about achievements but a Japanese language track is very enticing. Yet another reason for me to pick up a PS3. "
To be clear. The Eurogamer article mentioned nothing about Japanese language tracks. It claims however that the 360 version most likely will have better aplha effects and more MSAA while not getting the full HDR that the PS3 version will have. I myself will take the 360 version because that's my only option, and I don't really care about some minor graphical differenses anyway I just want to play the game. "
Ah, I see now. I didn't read the other articles originally. The Kotaku article mentions that they might include a JP language track on the PS3 version, but its not confirmed. I hope they do. And being the non-fanboy, underdog rooting American I am, the idea of balancing out my 360 purchases with some PS3 ones is appealing.
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MattyFTM

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Edited By MattyFTM  Moderator

Didn't they originally say they weren't going to start work on the 360 version untill the PS3 version was done?

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ryoma122

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Edited By ryoma122

god dam why does the 360 have to steal all the good exclusives

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tj_chisholm

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Edited By tj_chisholm

Yeah I would rather them take their time and get it right.  It wouldn't look good for their first push (with FF) into 360 to be a bad port of a ps3 game.  The systems are different and the games should be built differently.

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Dragoon14

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Edited By Dragoon14

damn it's for 369

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galerian

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Edited By galerian

Just get it out already...

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PJ

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Edited By PJ

well that doesnt make SE look that much better. Completing FF13 for the PS3 and not releasing it utill they are done porting it to 360 makes no damn sence at all.
There are several different ways they could have done this. One is that just release the PS3 version first and the 360 one later, though theres probebly some contract preventing them of doing so.
Another way is to just keep your damn mouth shut about how ass backwards you develope your games and not piss off alot of fans.
Then there is the sanest way of doing it. Develope the damn games at the same time. Its not like SE is a small developer that cant afford to hire more ppl so just do that or since its obviously that easy to port it just take a 1/5 of the team and put them on porting the game white the PS3 version is still being polished and that way you could have both versions done at the same time or close to it.

Also they can put the japaneese langue track as downloadable(has been done before) or have it on a seperate disc that you install on your console.

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dagas

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Edited By dagas
@Nasar7 said:
" I'm the opposite, I don't care about achievements but a Japanese language track is very enticing. Yet another reason for me to pick up a PS3. "
To be clear. The Eurogamer article mentioned nothing about Japanese language tracks. It claims however that the 360 version most likely will have better aplha effects and more MSAA while not getting the full HDR that the PS3 version will have. I myself will take the 360 version because that's my only option, and I don't really care about some minor graphical differenses anyway I just want to play the game.
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church069

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Edited By church069

I'll probably buy the 360 version just for the sake of achievement points, other than that it would have just come down to a coin flip.  Unless one version becomes vastly superior to the other which I have not seen yet.

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Nick

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Edited By Nick

Well I don't own a PS3 so, 360 for me.

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CylonAndrew

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Edited By CylonAndrew

Well, for PS3 and 360 fanboys, just be glad everyone will be able to play it. Who cares about nit picking details in either version, as long as the 360 port is not a disaster. That is Square Enix's fault, and vice versa.

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killdave

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Edited By killdave

makes sense to get the harder coding done first on the ps3 and then an easy port onto the xbox

imagine if they did xbox first ... we'd be waiting for another year or two before they would be able to launch same day

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Nasar7

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Edited By Nasar7

I'm the opposite, I don't care about achievements but a Japanese language track is very enticing. Yet another reason for me to pick up a PS3.

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GeekyrBossMan

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Edited By GeekyrBossMan

Think I am stilling leaning PS3 on this one.  While I love my nerd points, I don't think I can stomach the American voice acting (though I hope to be proved wrong).

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OllyOxenFree

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Edited By OllyOxenFree

I think I'll grab the PS3 version instead.  I'm not an achievement freak plus it'd be weird playing a FF game on the 360.

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m_rum

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Edited By m_rum

I'm buying this for the 360 just because all the entertaining  fanboy-meltdowns this announcement produced last year (and still does).

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RipTheVeins

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Edited By RipTheVeins
@HeaveyMental said:
" showing that developing for ps3 and porting to 360 is easierthis was being said a lot more 1 year ago ... nobody talks about that anymoredon't fanboy flame me, it's facts "
well yeah, developers have been saying that it is harder to develop games on the PS3 rather than 360, so that's just common sense.
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Systech

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Edited By Systech

So they announced the game and started working on it 10 months later?

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rinkalicous

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Edited By rinkalicous
@Subject2Change said:
" And I thought you were the Sony guy in the bunch, but no you are just an achievement whore... :/Playing it on the system its meant to be played. "
You're right, it's not meant to be played on the 360. They just accidentally ticked the '360' box when making the game, so some 360 discs came out by accident. And of course, not playing on the system it's 'meant' to be played obviously makes you less of a badass. You're a better person for playing it on the system it's meant to be played on. They don't really want you playing it on teh 360, in fact, they'll personally judge you to be uncool.

Sarcasm-> Off.
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Edited By master_prophet

Final Fantasy XIII is probably my most anticipated game right now, besides Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, but I'm highly impressed with this game being only two months old on 360 and being shown off that well.  To the dude above that mentioned achievements: 360 RPG game achievements always suck, that's a given, so I'm hoping that the 360 version of this game will be the first JRPG with decent achievements, but either way I don't care cause I'm playing this game day one, the achievements don't matter to me in FFXIII.

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Brackynews

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Edited By Brackynews

I'm fine with buying and playing both.  With a staggered release window it's not a pain, it's a privilege. ;)

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Edited By AndrewB

They can either get to work porting the thing over without all the reluctance and treating the platform like crap, or they can forgo receiving my $50 or so.  My purchase of the game also depends heavily on reviews.

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Sample

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Edited By Sample
@HeaveyMental said:
" showing that developing for ps3 and porting to 360 is easierthis was being said a lot more 1 year ago ... nobody talks about that anymoredon't fanboy flame me, it's facts "
Developing for 360 is easier than developing for PS3. 

But if you want to port to 360, you're better off doing the PS3 version first.
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SlowHands

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Edited By SlowHands

Yay alpha channels and fill rates!

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subject2change

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Edited By subject2change

And I thought you were the Sony guy in the bunch, but no you are just an achievement whore... :/

Playing it on the system its meant to be played.

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Edited By unangbangkay

To answer the question, I think my preference for the Japanese language track, and the fact that I don't have a 360, will dictate my purchase. That said, it's not like FFXIII PS3 won't have trophies, right? *crosses fingers*

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HeaveyMental

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Edited By HeaveyMental

showing that developing for ps3 and porting to 360 is easier
this was being said a lot more 1 year ago ... nobody talks about that anymore

don't fanboy flame me, it's facts

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Edited By mrbasehart

Achievements on JRPGs tend to be incredibly hard things to get a lot of points in - Enchanted Arms and Phantasy Star Universe, excepted - so playing the game for points seems like a recipe for putting hundreds of hours into the game. 

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Edited By Sample

probably the best thing they could have done. Develloping for multiple consoles at the same time is a pain.

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Gylfi

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Edited By Gylfi

If I get it ill go for the ps3 but I dunno, still haven´t finished XII and I bought that with my ps3 a zillion years ago.... I just dont feel like grinding :S

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Edited By FCKSNAP

So I have to wonder; besides Tri-Ace's games, will SE make any other games for the "next-gens" that aren't FF? I really fell in love with Square's other RPGs (although they were mostly Japan-only so I had to play translated roms for a majority of them), but getting a new IP or something would be amazing.

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Edited By RHCPfan24

Achievements are too valuable a thing to waste. I am not sure which version I will side with, haha.

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Brad

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Edited By Brad
Square Enix blew a lot of minds at last year's E3 with the announcement that Final Fantasy XIII would hit the Xbox 360 day and date with the PlayStation 3 in North America. But the company didn't start working on a 360 version of the hotly anticipated RPG till shortly before this year's E3. Longtime series producer Yoshinori Kitase had this to say at the show last week when I asked how the game's cross-platform development is going.

Up to the trial demo version that was released [in April] in Japan, [FFXIII] was PS3-only in terms of development... 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.

To be fair, Square is building FFXIII on its cross-platform Crystal Tools engine, which is probably easing and expediting the porting process to some degree. But I'm still impressed they got the game into a playable state in such a short time, as indicated by its appearance at Microsoft's E3 briefing. Here's what that looked like, in case you forgot.

  

If you're especially interested in how FFXIII is going to make the console transition, Eurogamer recently posted an exhaustive and technically informed breakdown of the forthcoming 360 port, based on analysis of the PS3 demo. If things like alpha channel and fill rate get you excited, I really recommend you go take a look at their findings. Since it looks like the differences will be minimal, my choice of platform will probably come down to my love of achievement points versus my desire for a Japanese language track--and I think you know how that's going to end up. How about you?