Final Fantasy XIII Coming to the West on March 9

Square Enix, the Japanese publisher that has recently bought Eidos, has announced that it will be releasing Final Fantasy XIII, the latest Japanese role playing game in the long running franchise, in the West on March 9, 2010, on both the PlayStation 3 from Sony and the Xbox 360 from Microsoft. The game will be outed in Japan on the PS3 only on December 17.

Phil Rogers, who is the president and the Chief Executive Officer of Square Enix Europe, stated, “FINAL FANTASY XIII promises to be a huge event in the 2010 gaming calendar. This is truly a landmark title, arriving simultaneously for multiple platforms for the first time in the history of the series. We are also immensely proud to be able to bring the game to the European and PAL audience much earlier than was publicly anticipated.”

Square Enix has also announced that it has recruited Leona Lewis, an appreciated songwriter and performer, to provide the theme song for the Western version of Final Fantasy XIII. The song is called “My Hands” and is part of the “Echo” album that is being released this week.

Final Fantasy XIII was initially set to be exclusively released on the PS3, as Sony consoles had been the traditional home of the series, but Microsoft broke the new at this year's E3 trade conference saying that the exclusivity was no more. The move to the Xbox 360 is widely thought to have contributed to the delay of the release date, as the game needed to be ported to the Microsoft console in order to get a simultaneous release on Western markets.

Square Enix is saying that the two versions will be equal in all respects, even if the space on the PS3 Blu-ray is bigger than that of the DVD of the Xbox 360. It’s not clear whether those who play the game on the Microsoft device will get the same quality of cutscenes and the original Japanese voice acting.