The Rich Geek

Millionaire Geeks is not a game company by any means but we definitely like to keep our members up to date on major events in the gaming community. Probably the biggest event this year aside from Blizzard announcing that there is work being done for a Diablo 3! But along with the announcment that a Final Fantasy XIII is in the works, which is not a surprise because it is a very popular franchise, Square Enix dropped a big surprise on everyone at E3!

So another E3 has passed and Mr. J and I are left hoping that one day we will be able to attend. I mean, what geek wouldn’t want to be there at E3 when all of the game companies come together and show off their latest projects! This year Final Fantasy XIII took center stage. Despite the fact that Square Enix is only 3% complete with the game, a very developed preview trailer was shown at E3 2008. As you can see from the image above the game looks very impressive graphically, and of course we can expect that as Final Fantasy games have always pushed top-notch graphics for the past 10 years!

The big surprise came when Square Enix announced that Final Fantasy XIII will not be a Playstation exclusive like past Final Fantasy games have been. Oh no, out of the blue they said that it would be coming out for the XBox 360 as well! This is big because that would make Final Fantasy XIII the second huge franchise to release on both systems (Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV did this as well). Now if I were the president of Sony I would be doing some serious rethinking of my game plan. The president of Sony Jack Tretton was quoted as saying,

“Am I disappointed by it? Yes,” said Tretton. But apparently, he saw it coming. “Am I surprised by it? No.”

So let me ask you this Sony: DO YOU THINK THERE’S AN OBVIOUS PROBLEM WITH THE PS3!?

Sony is actually losing money on the PS3 because it is such an expensive system to create and make games for. And in reality, yes it boasts the best graphics out of any of the new generation systems but when you get down to the gnitty-gritty is that really worth it when nobody wants to spend the money to make games on your fancy blue ray discs?

Square-Enix’s latest rpg masterpiece was originally a PS3 exclusive up until E3 but Sony couldn’t hold on to the rights. Tretton said that Sony has already spent a great deal on the PS3’s hardware and the company “can’t write checks for exclusive software.” Nobody wants to come out and say it but this is because the PS3 is costing Sony a ridiculous amount of money to make. Final Fantasy XIII will still be unique to the PS3 in Japan as the sale of the XBox in Japan is very low. Final Fantasy XIII is predicted to release at the end of this year in Japan and that most likely means somewhere in 2009 for the rest of the world (I’m thinking around Christmas time).

As for the plot and characters of the new game, very little is known. The main character has been confirmed to be a strawberry-blonde woman named Lightning. She is supposed to be based on the idea of a “female version of Cloud” from Final Fantasy VII as can be seen from her picture above. Other than that there is a blonde man who remains nameless.

There is a little bit of information about the plot of Final Fantasy XIII here on Wikipedia, how accurate this info is remains unknown.

So in conclusion I think I’m going to get myself a XBox 360, I can get all of the great games and not spend $600 on a system! And hey, if they are releasing Final Fantasy XIII on the Xbox then they most likely have plans of releasing Kingdom Hearts 3 in there as well! And because we love you guys so much and are so happy that you take the time to read our blog, here is the trailer that was shown for Final Fantasy XIII at E3 2008, enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV3SAD45PmE&feature=related