In an interview with Japanese games magazine Dengeki, Square Enix said that the graphics engine for Final Fantasy XIII – the enigmatically named “White Engine” – was only in it’s first version, and so very little work had been completed on the game at the time of announcement. It’s likely that no gameplay elements exist at all right now.
Which would explain why the main version of Final Fantasy XIII was estimated to be 3% complete – surprising considering the quality of the E3 and TGS trailers released thus far. It’s spin-off, Final Fantasy Versus XIII, also for PS3, was also given an estimate – just 1% complete. No mention was made of the mobile phone version of FF13.
It is expected we will see at least the main PS3 version of Final Fantasy XIII in 2008 in Japan (that’s what? 2009 for the rest of the world?) – in the meantime, fans are advised to enjoy Final Fantasy XII and all the upcoming FF releases and re-releases on Nintendo Consoles, including Final Fantasy III (DS), Final Fantasy V (GBA) and two new Crystal Chronicles games (on Wii & DS). Translation from Japanese via rpgsite.