Announced by Jack Tretton at Sony’s Pre-E3 Press Conference, Final Fantasy XIV Online is currently in development for PLAYSTATION 3 (PS3). Hailed as an exclusive release for Sony’s system at its original unveiling, it appears not everything is as it seems, according to Shinji Hashimoto, Square Enix Senior Vice-President.

            While a confirmation of a PC release for Final Fantasy XIV Online has been doing the rounds online for the last two days, since practically immediately after Sony’s Pre-E3 Press Conference. It now appears that there may well be one other format the title will appear on.

Speaking to Gamasutra, Hashimoto stated; “Some folks interpreted the announcement as being an exclusive, but we wanted to make sure that the announcement was that the game is coming to the PS3 and PC, and in terms of Microsoft products and all other hardware we are considering all options at this time.”

Interpreting the phrase “coming exclusively to PS3” as Final Fantasy XIV Online being a PS3 exclusive is any easy mistake to make, in the eyes of Electronic Theatre. Could this possibly have been some ill-practice on behalf of Sony and Jack Tretton? Or is it possible that in the heat of the moment, with thousands of eyes starring upon him, Tretton was simply unable to recall the correct words for introducing such a colossal project? With Final Fantasy XIII no longer a PS3 exclusive in the west, it would’ve been a big coup for Sony to have secured the next instalment in the series, one that looks set to follow Final Fantasy XI into the realms of Massively Multi-player Online (MMO) gaming.

What other systems would be capable of supporting what will undoubtedly be a heavy weight on internet protocols and data transfer? Electronic Theatre would suggest that while Wii, Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable may well be capable, the online infrastructure certainly isn’t in place currently. So, of course, that leaves Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

Of course, this is far from confirmation that the title will arrive on Microsoft’s console, but that affirmation may well take quite some time – indeed, it was nearly three years between Final Fantasy XIII’s unveiling and the confirmation of Xbox 360 release. Of course, you can rely on Electronic Theatre to keep you up-to-date.

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Comments

katslessor

+2

 

 

Poor show Sony, I do hope this was an honest mistake, but how many honest mistakes are really made in multi million business? My personal opinion is not many, most business that achieve well will twist things to try and attempt to have a unique selling point over their competitors.

Thursday 04 June 2009, 16:50

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