As the line-up of Japanese third party support for the Xbox 360 is steadily accumulating despite its lack of success in the land of the rising sun, Microsoft still strongly desires one valuable series to make its way to their console: Final Fantasy.
While that comes as no surprise to many of us, recent statements made by Peter Moore (leader of Microsoft’s interactive division) and Jeff Bell (Corporate Vice President of Global Marketing) in two recent interviews conducted by Siliconera, hint at the possibility of it becoming a reality.
"I think now it’s very clear we are here to stay and that we are going to sell an awful lot of consoles globally. I don’t think we have to be quite as persuasive as we needed to in the past. You can see that with our line up that we have available now. We have a lot of third party exclusives and we are very proud of that. How far [would we go to bring Final Fantasy to the Xbox 360]? I think what we would like to do is convince anyone they are going to make more money by partnering with us than they will by spending the money developing and partnering with the entire industry," said Bell.
While he may be correct in saying that the company has acquired a fair share of the market, which would convince previously skeptical publishers to start developing games for their hardware, it’s highly doubtful that Final Fantasy XIII would yield more revenue for Square-Enix if it was made solely for the Xbox 360 as opposed to going multi-platform.
When Moore was asked which third party franchise he’d like to embrace with open arms in coming to his platform, he unrealistically replied "Mario." Acknowledging the fact that would never happen unless "hell froze over," he claimed Final Fantasy as his second choice.
Furthermore, he stated that there has been ongoing communication between both Microsoft and Square-Enix in regards to the series making its way to the Xbox 360.
While that fact alone may be enough for getting adopters of the milky white machine excited, there are some details that were absent during the interview. If Final Fantasy is making its way onto the system, would it begin with Final Fantasy XIII itself or another title in the Fabula Nova Crystallis compilation (which currently consists of Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Final Fantasy XIII Agito)?
It’s anyone’s guess right now, but if anything does happen, it’s probable that we’ll hear about at the Tokyo Game Show this September.
When (and if) we do, GamerNode will deliver every last bit of information available to our readers.
[Via Siliconera]
