14 DAY TRIAL // Square Enix has held its long awaited press conference designed to announce the date on which the PlayStation 3 version of Final Fantasy XIII would arrive on the Japanese market. Thanks to a bit of shady Internet work from the people in charge of the web sites of the publisher, we already know that the long expected Japanese role playing game is set to arrive on December 17 but there was plenty of other stuff the people at Square Enix talked about.
One of the first things that jump out is that Final Fantasy XIII is set to cost no less than 9240 Yen, which is the equivalent of about 100 dollars, quite a lot for a game, even if such a high profile one.
Square Enix is also saying that after the PS3 Japanese launch, it will devote all its resources to porting the game to the Xbox 360 home gaming platform from Microsoft, at the same time doing the localization work needed to get the game to Europe and North America. It seems probable that a clear date for these territories cannot be announced yet because Square Enix simply is not sure how long the twin processes will take.
Square Enix has also unveiled the theme song for Final Fantasy XIII. It is called “Kimi ga iru kara,” which translates into “Because You're With Me,” and is sung by an up and coming star named Sayuri Sugawara. The CD containing the song is set to be released in Japan on December 2 and, again, no dates were announced for other markets.
The Japanese publisher has also shown the results of a collaboration with beverage maker Suntory, resulting in Elixir cans bearing images from Final Fantasy XIII. Jaz Hirai of Sony was also on hand at the event eager to showcase the PlayStation 3 Slim and tie its image with the impending release of Final Fantasy XIII.