*a bigger play

If you ask me if Microsoft should have gone after the Final Fantasy series in the way that they did for GTA 4. I think it would have boosted Japanese sales a LOT.

Why didn't they do this? Are they really only targeting western gamers that hardcore? Or does Sony have Final Fantasy on lock in a way that I don't really have any knowledge of?

Maybe they did, who knows. We might find FFXIII on the Xbox360 in the end. Its a great way to make up the costs of the game and expand the market potential for the series so that future games make more profit.

I bet M$ did go after FF but couldnt afford it. Plus SE is an honorable company that stills to their word unless M$ gave them god only knows amount of cash.

I've wondered this myself. Even if it wasn't possible to grab FFXIII, they should have made a play for Versus. Would've put hardcore FF fans in an interesting predicament to have it split between two consoles like that, and definitely would have helped 360's dire Japanese situation. Maybe it was just too late and already promised to Sony?

If MS is really going to - as they say they intend to do - get serious about fighting for a real share of the Japanese market, they're going to need a title of that magnitude. Can a nice moneyhat finally coax Square into a FFVII remake!?

It looks like they decided to go after a lot of smaller scale RPGs, like Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Eternal Sonata, etc. Plus obtaining the FF13 title on the 360 while it is still on the PS3 would do absolutely nothing to advance their cause in Japan -- only exclusive games can make the Japanese buy the 360.

Agreed. I guess what I'm saying is they should have dropped a money bomb on FF13 exclusive. That would have sent a huge ripple through the gaming world and in all honesty destroyed the PS3. If I was M$ it would have been the first thing I would have done.

Not really, it would act as the centrepiece to the other exclusives. It would tie them all together as a big package so it makes sense for them to go for them.

One interesting thing is, would Microsoft go for the Western releases and get multi-plat on that? Because the game is often released way after in the rest of the world, they would have from about a month before it ships at least to start porting the game last minute. It wouldn't make sense for Squeenix to expend the effort on the small Japan userbase of the 360.

Final Fantasy isn't the juggernaut it once was. The franchise used to be the ONLY rpg series. Since part 10, Square Enix has made quite a few miss-steps. The franchise is still a big name, so it probably would've cost a ton, but the payoff wouldn't be worth it.

Infinite Undiscovery may not be as good, but it's a worthy substitute (hopefully).

they probably didnt wanna pay too much for it,and maybe sony payed to keep it exclusive

I seem to remember to FF leaving nintendo for ps1. Mainly because the ps1 had a bigger storage media for games [cd over cartridge]. Why put FF13 on DVD9 and limit it when they can have a 50GB bluray at their disposal. And imagine if it ends up a 2 disc bluray game [2 50GB bluray disc in the box]