Final Fantasy XIII exclusive to Japan in 2009

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Square Enix's highly anticipated JRPG won't be released outside of island nation until sometime after April 2010 on PS3 and Xbox 360.

At this year's Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix debuted a new trailer for Final Fantasy XIII, its highly anticipated role-playing game slated to arrive for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Aside from the eye candy, Square Enix's trailer also offered the tantalizing promise of a 2009 launch date.

Unfortunately, that promise of a 2009 release apparently applies only to Japan, given that the game isn't going to make it to the US or Europe until the second quarter of 2010 at the very earliest. The news emerged as Square Enix, the game's developer, delivered projections for the remainder of its current fiscal year, which ends March 31.

Square Enix president Yoichi Wada told Reuters that the game was on track for a 2009 PS3-exclusive launch in Japan, with international launches for the Xbox 360 and PS3 coming "in the business year from April 2010 or later."

Final Fantasy has been one of the most successful franchises ever to hit the console market. Since its first incarnation on the NES, the series has sold upward of 85 million units worldwide, with numerous spin-offs and even a feature-length movie adding to its success.

Despite the delay in the launch of Final Fantasy, Square Enix has remained optimistic about its financial outlook for 2009 with a small dip in operating profit of 2.4 percent to 21 billion yen ($236 million) forecast for the year. The company also reported healthy sales for the tail end of 2008 and said "demand has been generally brisk," with key titles such as Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest IV and Final Fantasy VII prequel Crisis Core all hitting shelves throughout the year.


I suppose I'd care more about this had I ever played the Final Fantasy series. Its a shame none of them except for 7 is available on the PC.

Analysts bullish on 2009

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Gaming industry watchers expect the business to continue growing this year despite economic concerns.

While 2008 was a record-breaking year for the US retail gaming industry, a handful of industry analysts are expecting 2009 to be even better.

In a Lazard Capital Markets investors note covering technology themes for the coming year, analyst Colin Sebastian this morning said that the industry's success was tied more to the console generational hardware cycle than to the economy at large. While the US retail gaming industry posted gains of nearly 19 percent last year, Sebastian sees that growth "slowing to more modest mid-single-digit growth in 2009" due to tough comparisons with the explosive growth of 2008 and "potentially fewer hit titles."

While Janco Partners' Mike Hickey didn't put a growth range in his note for the European retailer GameGroup (operator of GAME and Gamestation stores) today, the analyst seemed more optimistic about the product lineup than Sebastian.

"We expect continued video game market growth in 2009, fueled by an exceedingly strong 2008 hardware sell through and a powerful 2009 game slate," Hickey said.

Wedbush Morgan Securities' Michael Pachter was likewise encouraged by recent hardware sales, pointing to them as a leading indicator of strong software sales in 2009.

"As Nintendo increases Wii supply further, Sony markets Blu-ray, and Microsoft fully benefits from its price cuts, we expect hardware sales to show year-over-year increases for the first half of 2009," Pachter told investors in a note regarding NPD's 2008 totals, adding, "a strong release schedule early in the year [will allow] the industry to sustain double-digit sales growth for the full year."

Pachter also returned to the notion that the gaming industry's financial fate isn't tied to that of the larger economy, although gamers might find his reasoning on that point to be rather unflattering.

"It is important to note that the bulk of purchases between January and October are driven by the user of game software," Pachter said. "In our view, this indicates even greater recession-resistance ahead, as most hardcore video game consumers are either ignorant or apathetic about current economic conditions."

Pacific Crest Securities' Evan Wilson didn't commit to a growth projection, but shared some of his peers' guarded optimism.

"2009 has difficult comparisons due to the release of GTA 4, MGS 4, Mario Kart, Wii Fit, Super Smash Bros., and a few other big titles," Wilson told GameSpot. "It also saw tremendous pent-up demand for big holiday titles like Guitar Hero 3 and Call of Duty 4 as well as Wii hardware. We could very well see industry growth continue, even with the current recession in consumer spending, but the comparisons in the first half of the year may make the growth rate below what many have become accustomed to."