Square Enix has gone PC. On the first day of the show, the Japanese game publisher announced that Final Fantasy XIII is coming to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 (in Europe and North America only) and PC. During a press conference following the Microsoft event, Final Fantasy XIII Producer Yoshinori Kitase discussed the new development strategy that Square Enix has taken with its upcoming games.
Aside from the new The Last Remnant game, which is being created for Xbox 360 and PS3 using Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 externally, all new internally-developed games from Square Enix, including Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XIII Versus, and an untitled new massively multiplayer online game, utilize the new PC-based Crystal Tools development environment. These tools allow development teams to create cross-platform games.
"The content will be the same on all platforms," said Kitase. "However, we have yet to determine how many discs will be required for the 360 version. We'll have to consider the differences between formats. Currently the game is being built on PC, where it's actually functional. We're still focusing on making it work on PS3, so it's difficult to know how long the process of taking it to 360 will take."
Thanks to the new PC development platform, Kitase added, "Now that we're developing on a PC base, the pace is going a bit faster," Kitase said. "We haven't introduced new footage of the game, but we should be able to show something new in the near future."
Square Enix showed the beautiful pre-rendered trailer for Final Fantasy XIII at the end of the Microsoft press conference. The publisher has a big event scheduled for Tokyo next month where the first new information will be revealed on all Final Fantasy titles. Previously, the publisher released its online game, Final Fantasy XII, on Xbox 360 and PC.
