Rumor Mill: Final Fantasy XIII Xbox 360 Bundle Coming to North America

Final Fantasy XIII is set to arrive in North America and in Europe in March 2009 on both the Xbox 360 from Microsoft and on the PlayStation 3 from Sony. But, unlike Europe, which gets a Collector's Edition, with all the usual goodies like a soundtrack and concept art included, and unlike Japan, which received a PlayStation 3 bundle specifically designed with themes from the game, North America does not seem ready to get anything other than the normal version of the game.

But a recent retail listing that has been seen by Kotaku seems to point to a Special Edition bundle of Final Fantasy XIII, which comes with an Xbox 360 home gaming console and with two wireless controllers.

Apparently, the console is set to include the 250 GB hard drive previously only offered as part of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 bundle that is now out of stock. The Xbox 360 itself and the controllers should be completely black, with no specific Final Fantasy XIII motifs, while the bundle box itself will be completely white, not featuring a shot of main character Lightning. The price is set at 399 dollars.

Neither Square Enix, the publisher of the game, nor Microsoft, the maker of the console, have confirmed the existence of the bundle, but it makes sense to put one together for one of the biggest releases of the year and an announcement could arrive at the gaming conference Microsoft is preparing.

If the Xbox 360 Final Fantasy XIII bundle is real, then Sony might be motivated to put together its own package, using a PlayStation 3 Slim and the game, maybe even offering one of the deals that gamers in Europe or in Japan are getting in order to attract more customers to the PS3 version of the title.