Rumor: MS paid fo Final Fantasy XIII PS3 exclusivity breach

[Zeus]

Internet rumors are suggesting that contained within an upcoming Famitsu edition is news that MS paid Square Enix big bucks in order to breach their Final Fantasy PS3 exclusivity deal. However, scans have reportedly surfaced and the source can not back-up these sightings...


There's apparently a big feature article in the upcoming issue of Japanese gaming mag Famitsu that talks Square Enix, Final Fantasy XIII and all that jazz. While scans haven't hit the internet yet, we've heard from several trusted insiders who have seen the yet-unreleased issue. It mentions that FFXIII is going to be out in Japan by next summer and in Europe/USA on both the Xbox 360 and the PS3 by the end of 2009 — which pretty much what we already know.

Here's the juicy bit: According to the Famitsu piece, Microsoft is footing the bill for Square Enix's FFXIII breach of PS3 exclusivity contract. No idea how much money that entails or the exact deal Microsoft worked out with Square Enix, but the fact there is not Xbox 360 version announced for Japan is telling. Square Enix does state how porting the game to the Xbox 360 should be easy.

More interesting tidbits: It's apparently hard to tell which looks better: Star Ocean 4 or Final Fantasy XIII. Also, the company plans to focus more on PSP game development from now on. File this as rumor until proper scans surface.


News Source: <A href="http://kotaku.com/5033606/rumor-microsoft-paid-for-final-fantasy-xiii-ps3-exclusivity-breach" target="_blank">Kotaku</a>

[Smerpy]

Wtf?!Oh well but still it's only a rumour just yet.Hope SE doesn't take it.

[Signa]

id be skeptical of this. if you cant see that the PS3 is not the console of choice this generation, then you are blind and stupid. it makes sense for an exclusive to open up a bit for a better profit margin.

Edit: im not saying the PS3 is crap, thats for you to decide. what im saying is that the PS3 hasnt sold as much as the other two consoles. its not the console of the public's choice, and when you are a developer, you want to go with the public's choice.

[siyrobbo]

except in japan the 360 is not the console of choice, which is why they are not releasing it there (well not yet)

It just makes financial sense, the 2 consoles are so similar in power

Its ok moaning about MS buying properties and developers, but isnt that what sony did with guerilla games to secure killzone? what about naughty dog and insomniac?

[superaktieboy]

@Signa...
erm, FYI, MS has sold that much because they started ahead of the competition coz they knew that if they didn't they'd be fucked yet again, you need to crawl out of your Xbox hole and see that all consoles have got their cons and pros


@article
erm it doesn't take a genius to figure that one out, pretty much all PS3 stolen exclusives were paid towards by MS...

@siyrobbo
im not sure about guerilla, but naughty dog and insomniac making PS3 exclusives, its their choice as far as i know, Insomniac has been loyal to sony since the PS1, they're are those companies that are like 'focussing on one machine is better than multiple' and since they have always been PS guys, they have chosen the PS3 this gen

[IJTF_Cinder]

Naughty Dog has been owned entirely by Sony since 2001, Insomniac is independent.
Guerilla Games was bought by Sony shortly after Killzone was released on the PS2.

On topic; WHO GIVES A RATS ASS! This isn't news, this is business, and it only feeds the trolls and fanboys who lick corporate ass-crack for some wierd reason.
None of these companies pay my salary, so I couldn't give a half a ****, let alone 2, what they do.

[whackawookie]

On topic; WHO GIVES A RATS ASS! This isn't news, this is business, and it only feeds the trolls and fanboys who lick corporate ass-crack for some wierd reason.
None of these companies pay my salary, so I couldn't give a half a ****, let alone 2, what they do.


couldnt agree more. developers are in the business to make money and hopefully a fan following it isnt the other way around. they aren't going to lose millions of dollars to satisfy a single group. after the announcement of this going to the 360 there stocks rose, people can complain all they want but that move made the company money

[Xenogears V]

It's normal. Only way to take away an exclusive is pay money.

[Spnoz]

It's normal. Only way to take away an exclusive is pay money.

Only way to make a exclusive is also to pay money.

[The Last Ninja]

No Kidding ?
MS giving tons of $$ to other software company to open door for them, this is breaking NEWS !!!!!!

Seriously boys, Microsoft have run its business like that for ages, the history of Microsoft was created upon such (anti-) commercial behavior.

Just take an example in the last week news, MS is willing to give 100 000 $ each year to the Apache Software foundation (a non-profit corporation) so that their free software can run .NET/ASP stuff.

They have the biggest wallet, they can do whatever they want, they nearly bought sega so that it won t merge with Nintendo or Sony, they tried to buy Square Soft a few times.

[Siliticx]

We can say for sure they paid for it. Because at this point, even with SE being retarted, they can see the tendency in this graph : http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunch.php?cons1=PS2&reg1=All&cons2=PS3&reg2=All&cons3=X360&reg3=All&weeks=400

[snipersnake]

yeah. This is business, nothing personal. Usually antichrist wins.

[grapeape]

We can say for sure they paid for it. Because at this point, even with SE being retarted, they can see the tendency in this graph : http://vgchartz.com/hwlaunch.php?cons1=PS2&reg1=All&cons2=PS3&reg2=All&cons3=X360&reg3=All&weeks=400

Of course for every chart there is also the argument that no console manufacturer in the history of gaming has ever won 3 generations in a row. Normally by the 3rd console the companies own arrogance and stupid decision making help create its own failure. Look at Atari with the 7200 or Nintendo after the SNES.

I think Sony has a good chance at a second place finish but its going to take a bit of humble pie to do so. Sony's 3rd time around arrogance is pretty obvious, look at the "we dont pay for exclusives" or the "people will work extra hours to afford a ps3" comments and its pretty undeniable. Sony is going to have to come to the realization that just being in the game isnt going to make everyone flock to them automatically anymore.

[daps83777]

Of course for every chart there is also the argument that no console manufacturer in the history of gaming has ever won 3 generations in a row. Normally by the 3rd console the companies own arrogance and stupid decision making help create its own failure. Look at Atari with the 7200 or Nintendo after the SNES.

I think Sony has a good chance at a second place finish but its going to take a bit of humble pie to do so. Sony's 3rd time around arrogance is pretty obvious, look at the "we dont pay for exclusives" or the "people will work extra hours to afford a ps3" comments and its pretty undeniable. Sony is going to have to come to the realization that just being in the game isnt going to make everyone flock to them automatically anymore.

yeah no one thought that nintendo would lose out to sony especially with it being sony's first console during the N64 and psone gen. but sony dominated that gen to a large degree and wiped the floor the PS2 gen.

one thing to note though is that sony has never actually really had any real competition for a full gen. this is the first time sony has been challenged in a real way. the price tag hurt the PS3 at the begining but also the fact that microsoft and nintendo are both offering competition. the 360 is going after the more hardcore gamers and nintendo is getting the casual PS2 owners which was a large portion of the PS2's sales, especially when you look at the numbers of sales the PS2 did after it reached the magic price point of $199. and even the amount of sales it did after the PS3 was released.

[takef0cusin]

Naughty Dog has been owned entirely by Sony since 2001, Insomniac is independent.
Guerilla Games was bought by Sony shortly after Killzone was released on the PS2.

On topic; WHO GIVES A RATS ASS! This isn't news, this is business, and it only feeds the trolls and fanboys who lick corporate ass-crack for some wierd reason.
None of these companies pay my salary, so I couldn't give a half a ****, let alone 2, what they do.

....WORD.... Quit posting this stuff, its not news.

[QrafTee]

I thought everyone knew Microsoft paid off Square Enix? Wasn't it obvious? Not only that, but Microsoft is getting 3 exclusive RPGs from them as well, right? (with one of them being a timed exclusive)

[sigma8]

id be skeptical of this. if you cant see that the PS3 is not the console of choice this generation, then you are blind and stupid. it makes sense for an exclusive to open up a bit for a better profit margin.

Edit: im not saying the PS3 is crap, thats for you to decide. what im saying is that the PS3 hasnt sold as much as the other two consoles. its not the console of the public's choice, and when you are a developer, you want to go with the public's choice.

Well, when is FFXIII coming out?

Last year, the worldwide sales were (from memory) PS3 at around 6 million, and 360 was about double that. Now the 360 is at 20 million and the PS3 is at 15 million. The 360 is no longer double the size of the PS3's market. By the time FFXIII comes out, the gap will be even smaller.

That's not to say there isn't some seriously good financial logic that they should not avoid the 360, since (15 million consoles + 20 million consoles) > 15 million consoles...

But it's hard to say that reason behind this kind of decision is the PS3's lack of dominance. Even if PS3 had a 5 million unit lead over the 360, there'd be plenty of good reasons to support both consoles.

[kingkneal09]

r u kidding me, o my goodness, microsoft "paid" sony 4 ffxiii...wooooooooooooow...o my goodness...r u serious, o men, i had no idea... tsch... and me here thinking square jus wanted to cater to a larger audience...in layman terms.... microsoft sent a representative to our offices, with a 335 million dollar cheque... we instantly knew wat it was 4...they came back, a few days later, with a nother check this time 4 500 mil...it took us a while to figure out that they wanted it released the same time...lol...say rumor...riiiite...

dnt be surprised if they find this guy dead somewhere, trus me, microsoft gat more juice than the mafia...:cool:

[nolifeking]

Who cares and why is this news! Square got screwed on FFXI when the ps2 slimline was released with no possible HDD support so if they can get a lot money from M$ they will jump at it. BUT this is completely unconfirmed so someone could just be talking ****.

[msanchez]

Well I don't think anyone wasn't aware of this, or at the very least doesn't suspect it. Not that it's wrong, it's business, but I would be more pissed if it was confirmed that they payed to have the release of the ps3 version put back to wait for the 360 (which was probably the case as well). I guess it would still be fair, but it really would piss me off a bit.

[NewBeginning]

All I've gotta ask is, what "deal" are they talking about? Square may have planned on Final Fantasy XIII being exclusive to PS3 at one point in time, but since Sony "doesn't pay for exclusives", what deal would there have been that made Final Fantasy XIII exclusive to the PS3?

[Spnoz]

Microsoft is acting like every other company under the sun would have.

Do Sony fanboys think that Sony is different?

Companies doesn't care about ethics, honesty or moral (any company caring about those values would not last very long in an international market). A company doesn't have any notion of "good" and "bad" unless if it's profitable to the company (good) or not (bad).

Microsoft paid SquareEnix to have FFXIII on the 360. So what? Like Sony never paid (or funded) anyone to get exclusive content. Like Sony never "convinced" movie studios to switch to Blu-Ray...


And this, my friends, highlights the weird irony behind capitalism... A system based on competition, where everyone tries to get rid of it.

A system based on free market, where everyone aims for a monopolisitc control of that market...

A system where anyone can start a business, and then make it harder for everyone else who want to start another business and compete with them.


Microsoft is only acting like Sony would have. Next thing we'll hear is that Sony will pay Bungie to make an Halo spiritual successor on the PS3 (and when that happens, we'll see plenty of PS3 fanboys who were sh!tting on the Halo franchise say that this new game is awesome...)

It's only business. Nothing new here.