Most of us here remember E3 2008, or at least one specific part of it. Some of us might remember this thread or the 10 others that erupted around the same time. Microsoft stole the show by taking a valuable exclusive away from Sony. Armed with an older trailer for FF13, Microsoft sent gamers into a fervor of ps3 doom. There were valid complaints of the PS3 being too expensive, not having enough games, lacking worthwhile exclusives, and having weak hardware sales as a result. This blow ended up being truly not that big of a deal. So what happened?

Look at some of the posts in the thread i linked to above. This is the sort of gloom the ps3 faced on a regular basis in 2008, which was amplified amid e3 hype as it lost what was thought to be the most valuable exclusive Sony had. There was talk of people selling their PS3s -- while others denounced the console altogether. Sony fans themselves were changing their avatars and sigs, distancing themselves from a once treasured exclusive. This was when people still expected the game to come out in 2009 and be the definitive exclusive for the PS3. Many posters here were already aboard the ps3 is d0med train, this just gave them the evidence to confirm what they already believed. 

As time wore on and the ps3 library started to fill out with worthwhile games, FF13 seemed to fade into the background amid delays with frustrated fans who just wanted it to come out already. In 2009 the PS3 really came into its own game wise with a number of good releases. The slim came out at a lower price point and far exceeded the expectations of many. At some point that year, the ps3 haz no games rhetoric seemed to dry up as detractors were forced to reevaluate their position. The role that FF13 could have had seemed to decline as the generation wore on.

Fast forward to early 2010, where the x360 version of FF13 was shown to be lacking compared to its ps3 counterpart and the original doom predictions born out of the E3 2008 megaton were entirely gone. The x360 hadn't got its badly needed foothold in Japan, and the ps3 continued to build its library while challenging the Wii in weekly hardware sales.

tl;dr: General E3 hype, the ps3 falling short of expectations, pessimism among forum-goers, along with a weak ps3 library allowed the FF13 multiplat announcement to snowball out proportion until assumptions about its actual effect on console sales and software libraries in general came crashing to the ground sometime in 2009. Delays, FF14 announcement and losing exclusivity hurt the hype for this game pretty badly. Its release in NA/EU proved the negligible benefit that Microsoft gained by securing it for their platform.

Let me know what you think, I'm sure I missed something.

yeah, it also didnt help that FF13 wasnt all that, and even after MS exclusive ads, it still got its ass kicked in the US by the PS3 version 3-1 even after MS said there version would sell better in the US.  YOU know i never got that whole "stealing games thing" Final fantasy was NEVER exclusive to SOny. hell FF11 was on 360 and that is apart of the main series

I wasn't on VGC back then but I had just started to visit N4G and that was the most shocking gaming news I had ever heard of. And it still is as of today.

I was more shocked by Dragon Quest IX being exclusive to the DS.  I remember looking up and down the article for a subtitle, such as Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, but it was the actual mainline game.

I still remember when Microsoft said it would sell more on the 360 outside of japan XD aaaah good times (^.^)

It was shocking. What was even more shocking was when I realized Tales of Vesperia is better then Final Fantasy 13, despite coming out years earlier.

O how the mighty have fallen.

It's a shitty game imo which made that event seem so funny.

Hopefully vs13 can redeem final fantasy XD if its bad aswell i think final fantasy is gona end up like sonic XDDDD

Neh... the meltdowns where worth it.. priceless.. We won't see such a meltdown for years..

True (^.^)