SquarEnix Party (update intervista Tanaka)

[Turrican3]

fonte: www.gamesindustry.biz

Final Fantasy XII and Kingdom Hearts II get a launch date.

Significant Square Enix titles, Final Fantasy XII and Kingdom Hearts II, were given Japanese launch dates at the company's major publicity event over the weekend, the Square Enix Party.

The PlayStation 2 bound role-playing games headlined the occasion, with FFXII gained a March 16th 2006 release, while KHII was provided with a December launch this year. Both titles were confirmed for European release sometime in 2006.

Held at the Makuhari Messe near Tokyo, the Party also played host to a number of other announcements. Forthcoming computer animated movie, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, will get a limited premier in theatres on September 8th in Japan, followed by an official opening in the country's theatres on September 10th. A full DVD and UMD launch will follow on September 14th, as previously reported.

The news of Advent Children's release came with fresh speculation that the game it's based on, Final Fantasy VII, will be remade for PlayStation 3 after Square Enix refused to confirm the future plans of its FFVII based tech demo.

Meanwhile, Final Fantasy VII's spin-off title, Dirge of Cerebus was declared to be playable over the internet via Square Enix's own Japanese PlayOnline service. The single-player PS2 game will focus on FFVII character, Vincent, with the online mode allowing control of a solider from the game's main antagonists, the Deep Ground organisation. Square Enix will begin accepting Japanese beta testers today, with testing set for autumn. Currently there is no firm release date for the title.

Finally, Square Enix revealed more information about its recent foray into Mana series (known as Seiken Densetsu franchise in Japan), World of Mana. The company announced that the game will be released across unspecified multiple platforms and also be used in a strategy stretching across other media such as film, manga, novels to accompany the games. World of Mana currently has no launch date.


Hands-on di FFXII: http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/finalfantasy12/preview_6130092.html

Hnads-on di KH2: http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/kingdomhearts2/preview_6130096.html

[Turrican3]

Nuovi scan FFXII: secondo le ultime indiscrezioni il gioco potrebbe uscire nel 2006 "persino" da noi in Europa (il virgolettato è d'obbligo alla luce dei tradisionalmente non rapidissimi tempi di conversione di Square Enix)

[Turrican3]

Trailer/teaser per World of Mana: http://www.square-enix.co.jp/mana/

altre immagini per Grandia 3:

[Turrican3]

Sulla data di uscita e sui motivi del ritardo Gamasutra (www.gamasutra.com) scrive:

Matsuno Steps Down From Final Fantasy XII As Date Confirmed

Square Enix has confirmed a final Japanese release date for the long-delayed Final Fantasy XII, first announced in 2003. The game has only recently shown up again in playable form at the Square Enix Party in Tokyo; previously, a playable build debuted at E3 2004, but a lengthy gap where only prerendered video footage was displayed followed, leading to widespread rumors about the health of the project.

The reasons for the delay are partially explained in a statement released by Square Enix on the Japanese website: as translated by consumer site 1UP.com, the explanation says that "FFXII producer, Yasumi Matsuno is recovering from sickness, and is currently involved with the project as a consultant." Matsuno's previous work for Square Enix has included the Final Fantasy Tactics games as well as Vagrant Story.

Matsuno will remain on as a consultant, while the game will be guided to completion by co-directors Hiroyuki Ito and Hiroshi Minagawa. The game also is listed as being executive-produced by Akitoshi Kawazu, father of the SaGa series; previously, all Final Fantasy games gave the executive producer nod to series founder Hironobu Sakaguchi, but with Sakaguchi now overseeing his own studio in Mistwalker, the mantle has passed to Kawazu.

The new Japanese release date is March 16, 2006, which ensures that the release will fall within Square Enix's Japanese fiscal year. The American release has been slated for an unspecified "later in 2006."

[Ciccio_Drink]

Che giochi fantastici  :pant:

..saranno tutti miei in versione USA

[Turrican3]

Intervista a Tanaka di SquarEnix, executive producer di Final Fintasy XI

fonte: www.gamespot.com

Final Fantasy XI Q&A: Square Enix Party 2005
We talk to executive producer Hiromichi Tanaka from Square Enix about plans for the ever-growing Final Fantasy XI.

MAKUHARI MESSE--Hiromichi Tanaka is one busy man. The executive producer of Final Fantasy XI is still overseeing the two current versions of the game that have been out for some time on both the PC and PlayStation 2. At the same time, he's shepherding the upcoming Xbox 360 version of the game and working with his team as they continue development on the work-in-progress game hinted at by the tech demo of a fantastic world set above the water shown at Microsoft's E3 press conference. Despite having all this on his to-do list, the veteran developer took some time out to attend the Square Enix Party 2005 and meet with us.

GameSpot: How do you feel about the way Final Fantasy XI has evolved since its release?

Hiromichi Tanaka I never imagined so many people would enjoy XI as much as they have, and I'd like to keep producing a good game for everyone.

GS: Did you always see the game as cross-platform?

HT: [Yes,] XI was always intended as a cross-platform game.

GS: Once Square signed with Microsoft, why did you decide to make XI the first game for it?

HT: The only game we had that was capable of being played on Windows was FFXI, so of course that was the first game we wanted to release. Obviously, new games will be developed for the 360, but those will take time. We'd actually planned to release the game on the current Xbox, but Xbox Live's closed system made it impossible.

GS: How do you see Microsoft's standing in Japan?

HT: Xbox wasn't received in Japan as well as it was in other parts of the world. Since the Xbox 360 will be capable of a lot of different functions, it should do better. The next generation of consoles is all an unknown right now. It's hard to know who will be on top, so it's a race from now on.

GS: What does the future hold for what you do? Can we look forward to another massively multiplayer online game with the Final Fantasy franchise? What platforms do you see yourself focusing on?

HT: For MMOs, the platform isn't that important anymore. The only real requirement is its ability to display the images from the game. As technology advances it should be possible to play one game across different platforms.

GS: Does that complicate things for you as you move forward, as typically developers have had to appeal to one specific audience such as console or PC players?

HT: Since MMOs require a keyboard, that's really the only requirement now. If the platform supports a keyboard, it doesn't matter whether it's a console or PC. From this point on it should be possible to make games for either.

GS: How are you enhancing the Xbox 360 version of FFXI?

HT: We're only utilizing the functions of the 360 which are equal or greater than the PC. So the graphics will be much better, but we aren't supporting features such as voice or micro transactions.

GS: How long do you see FFXI existing?

HT: As long as we have users who enjoy XI we'll keep producing content for the game.

GS: Do you think there will come a time when you'll shift your focus from XI to another MMO game based on a new world or another part of the Final Fantasy universe?

HT: Before, when we were making packaged games, we knew we had a limited amount of development time and we couldn't go back and change them. Online games were viewed as taking a long time [to build], but you can actually revisit them and put in new ideas and grow the game as you go, which has made development very interesting. As for a new game, we showed off graphics for a title that's in development right now.

GS: Do you even have time to play XI these days?

HT: I always have my character on XI when I'm at work. I can't really join parties or level up, but I'm there at least. I can actually make my character invisible and go around to see what people are doing, so I'm always in the world.

GS: Interesting. Thanks for your time.

[Ciccio_Drink]

HT: I always have my character on XI when I'm at work. I can't really join parties or level up, but I'm there at least. I can actually make my character invisible and go around to see what people are doing, so I'm always in the world.

lo voglio pure io un personaggio invisibile perennemente 

[Romeo Guildenstern]

Marzo 2006 in Jap per FFXII è l'ennesima presa in giro. Secondo me questa decisione dopo una simile attesa è dettata più dalle strategie di marketing, che dagli effettivi tempi di sviluppo: FFXII potrebbe essere un ottimo "ponte" fra PS2 e PS3. Per me "Sua Eminenza" Yasumi Matsuno dovrebbe mandare i mercantucoli Square a quel paese e seguire Sakaguchi-sama.
KHII potrebbe essere un buon gioco; non una rivoluzione, ma una buona esperienza.
Per quanto riguarda il nuovo capitolo di Seiken Densetsu.. Ci spero da troppo tempo per cedere all'hype, anche se sento che cresce sempre di più. Visti i tempi che corrono alla Square (remake a go-go baby!) spero che questo progetto non sia affidato a degli incompetenti.