14 DAY TRIAL // We live in a very advanced world where transport and localization for different products can happen in the blink of an eye. This is especially true with video games, which appear on the same day or with a few days between launches all around the world.
But one company doesn't seem to follow that trend, namely Square Enix, creator of the famous Final Fantasy series of Role Playing Games. Usually, when an FF game is made, it only arrives in the company's native Japan. Then, after half a year or so, it will hit North American shores. After that, with another 6-month delay, the game will eventually make its way towards European and other PAL regions.
As the latest installment in the series, Final Fantasy XIII, is gearing up for a Christmas release in Japan, the grim forecast that Europeans must wait until Christmas 2010 to get their hands on the highly anticipated RPG isn't making them very happy. In an effort to give them a ray of hope, the producer of the game, Yoshinori Kitase, has expressed his desire to bring FF XIII to Europe and other territories as soon as he can, saying that “we would like to make the gap as short as possible.”
“Obviously we would like to release it over here as soon as possible. Traditionally the Final Fantasy numbered series, it takes about half a year between the release in Japan and the release in North America, and another half a year before it's released in Europe. But we would like to minimize this, this time. For example we have already started recording English voices, and also the text localization has been in progress, too. Normally we complete the Japanese version first, then move on to the US and EU versions, but this time there are some tasks that are happening simultaneously. So this time we're hoping to release sooner than a year later than the Japanese release.”
Even though this is supposed to make Europeans happier, it is only Kitase's desire and sadly it isn't something concrete. Hopefully though we will get to see FF XIII in the first half of 2010 in all territories, not only in Japan.