E3 2009: Sony Press Conference

Sony's Press Conference really delivered some surprises though where spoiled prior to their presentation.  My favorites where the following 3...

1. Final Fantasy XIV Online was revealed even before the release of Final Fantasy XIII.  This looks to be the successor to Final Fantasy XI.  They showed a CG trailer but no in game trailers just of yet.  The classes seems to be the likes of it's predecessor.  I just hope it wasn't as slow as it was.  I am a hardcore FF fan and forced myself to play XI and I enjoyed it presonally.  But with my other gamer friends playing the game, they didn't have the same sentiments.  Lets all hope that this one will make it big.  Let's give Square, the best RPG makers in my opinion, another chanced in the MMORPG realm.

2.  ICO's creator Fumito Ueda finally reveals its new nexgen game The Last Guardian codenamed Trico.  I love this team because they are not pressured and will not be pressured to a release date.  They concentrate on the quality of the game and will put their full power and creative knowledge and know how to make it the best game and they have done this with ICO and Shadow of the Colossus.  And now Last Guardian, looking just as stunning and incredibly amazing.  The best graphics in a game I have seen up to date.  The feathers on the creature was staggering.  Each feather moved in its own physics and the game play and the kid was just awesome.  The music really give an epic feel to the whole presentation.  This will surely live up to its reputation no doubt about it.

3.  God of War III was the closer of the whole conference.  Looking ever so stunning and everything that the series has been made famous.  Showing Harpies, Chimeras and giants, the demo had to be cut short because of time.  God of War will surely live up to the expectations of God of War fans everywhere.

That was it with Sony.  I expected it to be dull and short of expectations for Sony fanboys because of the bombs of Microsoft with the Kojima surprise and the introduction of Project Natal but they didn't let that stand in Sony's way.  They have surely delivered.

That's it, Sony is coming back!

360 Outsells PS3 for the 2nd Time in Japan

For the 2nd time in history Xbox 360 has outsold the PS3. The last time this happened was the release of Final Fantasy creator Sakaguchi's Lost Odyssey!

But that's not the amazing part of the article. Xbox 360 has outsold the PS3 nearly 3 times more. The actual numbers? PS3 sold 9,673 and the Xbox 360 with 24,962. That's 19,000 more then the previous month for the xbox 360.

So why the sudden boost of sales for Microsoft in the land of the rising sun? The only game that Japan cares for... Final Fantasy! Last month, Yoichi Wada, President of Square-Enix, announced Final Fantasy XIII on the Xbox 360 along with the JRPG line up consisting of The Last Remnant, a new Star Ocean game, and Infinite Undiscovery.

But Final Fantasy XIII isn't coming out for the 360 in Japan you say? Yes but also a factor that might of resulted in this is the price cut. The new SKU rumored to be at $399.99 120GB, $299.99 60GB, clearance 279.99 20GB, and $199.99 256MB might of happened a bit earlier in Japan.

Eventhough all these things that might of caused it, my conclusion is that in Japan all they care about is JRPGs and once a big project like Lost Odyssey and Final Fantasy is around the corner, the local japanese folks are willing to spend that money to get their fantasies fulfilled.

But all in all my bottom line is... japanese girls are HOT!

source: joystiq, kotaku, ign

E3 MS Update: Final Fantasy XIII

The biggest news that JRPG fans or any RPG fans or any Square Enix fans... ANY fans of video games is that Microsoft and Square Enix has just announced that Final Fantasy XIII is coming to XBox 360.

When president of Square Enix, John Yamamoto, announced the 3 exclusive games on the Xbox 360 and left the stage, he comes back on stage and interrupts the presentation and askes if he could announce one more thing? That's when the video plays showing the trailer of Final Fantasy showing an extended version of previous trailers of the game.

It was inevitable. Sony's PS 3 was just not cutting it. With the recent release of Metal Gear Solid 4, Sony's sales was up but not as much as they thought. With Sony's recent statement "we are going to make profit", they have no plans of cutting the price. So this is probably why Square Enix sees in the market and decided to go with Microsoft.

This is not an excluxive move by Square Enix but it will definitly destroy Sony fans spirits.

This I believe will be the nail in the coffin. Microsoft fans are saying "Haha! We have Final Fantasy!!!" Will this sell more consoles in Japan? We don't know. Will this sell more consoles in America? Definitly! With 3 exclusives, Square Enix is really on the Microsoft bandwagon. All the people that had the notion of "I'll buy a PS3 when Final Fantasy XIII comes out" now will have that notion disappear.

This is really big! What do you think?