Kitase: No plans for Blu-ray FFXIII demo outside Japan
Looking at the possibility of a 360 and PS3 downloadable demo.
Yoshinori Kitase, producer on the hotly anticipated Final Fantasy XIII, has told VideoGamer.com that Square Enix has no plans to release a Blu-ray demo of the game outside of Japan.
A Blu-ray demo of the game was bundled with the release of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete in Japan last month, a move that contributed to a quadrupling of PS3 sales.
Kitase, who has worked as game director and producer on the Final Fantasy series since 1991, told VideoGamer.com during a recent Square Enix press event for Dissidia: Final Fantasy, the upcoming 3D fighting game for PSP, that the company was instead exploring the possibility of releasing a 360 and PS3 demo as a download.
He said: “The type of demo version we released in Japan, we currently have no plan of doing that abroad, partly because we are going to carry on with the project alongside the Xbox version, so we really can't just make it available only for the PS3.
“But we hear that the demo version normally means something that you can download in the West, so that is a possibility we would like to check.”
While Square Enix has yet to officially announce a release date for the game, it looks like it will be released in Japan at the end of this year. Unfortunately there's no word on when a demo will hit the West.
Be sure to check back tomorrow for the interview with Final Fantasy legend Yoshinori Kitase in full.
How do you feel about a 360 and PS3 downloadable Final Fantasy XIII demo? Let us know in the comments section below.
User Comments
adam41
I don't know if Square-Enix will listen but I thought I'd start a petition to see if we could convince them to change their mind:
http://www.petitiononline.com/FFX13Blu/petition.html
Machetazo
A download, to me, means cop-out. I already question the scale of ambition for this one, so the more they keep scrimping on the International release, and trying to cut corners, the less favourably that I will view it.
Just having it as some download may mean it doesn't have the impact, or feed anticipation for the title properly; if it's just another item on a weekly download summary article.
I probably wouldn't bother to download it, frankly, because I think Final Fantasy should think more of itself. A demo disc, in a card slipcase, something tangible to herald the arrival of the next FF - or I'm not interested.
YoctoYotta