Final Fantasy XIII coming to America and Europe after April 2010?

19 January 2009

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Posted by:Josh

Square Enix has confirmed that Final Fantasy XIII will remain exclusive to Japan for 2009 meaning that the Western world will not get the upcoming Xbox 360 and PS3 epic until mid-2010 at the earliest.

The game will be released in 2009 in Japan although a specific date has yet to be set even there.

President of Square Enix, Yoichi Wada, told Reuters that the game was on it’s way to being released for the PS3, exclusively, in Japan in 2009 with international launches for the Xbox 360 and PS3 coming “in the business year from April 2010 or later.”.

Despite Square Enix’s biggest cash cow being delayed for 2009, Square Enix still expects to have a huge year and is optimistic about it’s financial outlook although the project a small dip in operating profit of 2.4 percent to 21 billion yen ($236 million) forecast for the year.

They have been helped by good sales of a string of more recent titles including Chrono Trigger DS, Dragon Quest IV and Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII.

Update: Square-Enix comments that the European release date for Final Fantasy FXIII has yet to be decided. A spokesperson from the European arm of Square Enix has told MCV: “The launch dates of FFXIII are still to be determined and will be revealed in due course. Please wait for future announcements.” Sounds like they don’t know it themselves yet. Although FFXIII producer Yoshinori Kitase did state that: “We have already started recording English voices, and also the text localisation has been in progress, too. Normally we complete the Japanese version first, then move on to the US and EU versions, but this time there are some tasks that are happening simultaneously. So this time we’re hoping to release sooner than a year later than the Japanese release.” That’s Christmas 2010 for Europeans.