This has been said before, but since you obviously did a lot of work, I won't flame you, or own you in any way. This topic largely gets a Zenfoldor pass:

However, let me just comment on a few things. First let me say that FFXIII is being developed exclusively for the PS3 right now, and then will be ported over. It's good that great games like this go multiplat, even if it does piss you off. You bought your console on the assumption that FF would be exclusive, and buying a PS3 was the only way to play it. That was your assumption. If Sony endorsed it, you should be mad at them, not Microsoft. It doesn't matter if Microsoft paid or not, if they did, it should make you more pissed as Sony for not matching their offer. There is no evidence that they paid, however.

The HD consoles aren't selling as well as they should be. Therefore, many 3rd party games will go multiplat. This is good for gamers, even you. You'll get more games for your PS3. The game doesn't magically turn from good to bad when it gets a 360 port. That's just your fanboyism making you think that. Fanboys will always like exclusives more than multiplats. They have to hype them up, so they can justify their console purchase, and entice others.

As far as those "full specs of the PS3" that's a talking point, always has been. There is virtually no discernable difference between the HD consoles graphics, never has been, never will be. That was a myth perpetrated by Sony, that less knowledgable gamers still cling to. The PS3 isn't gonna magically unlock itself one day. Last wave PS3 games aren't gonna magically destroy last wave 360 games. The consoles have very similar graphics. Only a fanboy would disagree with that. Also, Blu-Ray isn't really needed for gaming, it's a marketing tool. Acting like changing discs is an issue is again, a faux complaint. LO has 4 discs, and changing them took me about 30 seconds, for a 40 hour game. It was alright with FFVII, it's alright now. Pretending that it makes a large difference is again, fanboyism.

I'm simply stating my opinions here, nothing more. A more thorough commentary will not be forthcoming, because again, you've worked hard. Examine things a little more carefully, when you make a large post like this and you won't fall under scrutiany. I'm afraid you might see some trolling on this topic.

That's pretty much the way I see it. PS3 version won't go down in quality, but in all honesty, that doesn't necessarily mean 360 version will be noticeably inferior (I mean, look at DMC4 and Burnout, the difference between those games on 360/PS3 is so minimal ingame that I doubt most people would notice).

Depending on how powerful CELL really is, they may actually think to change some of the gameplay systems mechanics in order to make it possible on both system. HIGHLY unlikely though, since I doubt the CELL's real world power (not just numbers on a page) is enough to make that happen AND/OR I doubt FFXIII will be so advanced that it'd push CELL or even the Tri-Core to it's limits.

agree that yes, fans would buy a wii for mario, expecting mario games to be on it. Same with Halo, while that is a valid point. It doesn't change the fact I make in my original post. Square-Enix made their decision with this, let it be weeks ago, or months ago. I will assume they were in the talking about it months before the actual decision was made, a decision like changing a game from exclusive to multi-plat is not something to take lightly. What we say here won't change anything. So I appreciate your passion in defending the game. You just need to look at it logically.

SE's statements are contradictory. We know MS wants them to be identical, SE said they would be at E3. Yet Tetsuya Nomura refuted such a claim. Its hard to say it will or wont change the quality when even SE is confused on whether it did or not. I say it did as It effected it as soon as the thought crossed their mind. SE also stated a Simaltaneous release for the two versions, that sounds like effection to me, how bout u?

Yes its now multiplat, will it cause a loss in PS3 quality. No, of course not. Will this decision prevent you from buying it on a PS3? No, it will not. Will this decision allow MORE people to buy it? Yes, it will. Will this decision sell more consoles. Yes, more consoles will be sold, both Xbox 360, and PS3.

More consoles will never be sold from a multiplat, check GTA4. One of the biggest titles of the year and it ushered in very few console sales. Look at Halo, brought in TONS of sales, way more than GTA4 did for it's consoles. Even MGS4 sold a wad but multiplats have yet to prove there ability to expand a consoles fan base, thats an exclusive's job.

PS3 may suffer a loss on overall sales, but with power-games like LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2 coming out soon. Is this such a huge deal? Besides, Final Fantasy Versus 13 should be PS3 exclusive. Which is set in the same Final fantasy 13 universe, Xbox 360 user's playing Final Fantasy 13. Who are impressed by it, may just be pushed enough to buy a PS3 and Final Fantasy Versus 13 if the game is that good.

True, the PS3 still has a whole nother arsenal of games in its corner, but FFXIII was the biggest. FFXIII is Halo, Mario quality of gaming, the kind of gaming that shifts tides in console wars. Bungie knew this while making Halo, they stayed faithful.They did fine. Now that might just be the Sony fanboy in me talking but it is true that FFXIII was better off before.

As for the arguement behind multiplat games selling less consoles. I cannot think of ONE example of a game that sold less because it was multi-platform. Thats the whole idea of multi-platform games. To make your game easily avaiable therefor it can be bought and played by MORE people.

DMC4, Sold over all less than DMC3, which happened  to be an exclusive.(although this can be attributed to the fact many think DMC3 was simply a better game which is valid too. It is hard to prove in either way that multiplat has a significant change in sales, which is my point.)

After a little research of the situation I have come across a few things that bother me. Many have bombarded the interwebs with their opinion on the matter. What I have found is....

Have the Fanboys Gone Crazy? Why are They so MAD?

http://www.psu.com/FFXIII-and-Versus-to-Fully-Utilize-PS3-Specs-News--a1911-p0.php

http://kotaku.com/gaming/rumor-smash/square-closed-mega-theater-confirms-ff-xiii-ps3-only-302669.php

http://kotaku.com/gaming/this-page-intentionally-left-blank/no-final-fantasy-for-you-xbox-266191.php

-Firstly, it is articles like these that have fans of Sony and FF alike enraged about the whole situation. Sony and FF have been joined at the hip for a very long time. This is why the fans think of them together in such a way(Die Hards at least).   A loss of an exclusive is one less thing that validates one's purchase. I mean if Halo or Mario went multiplat after u purchased a system for it wouldn't you be mad. As A sony fan I believe the game is best on its system, to put it elsewhere is nothing but a slap in Sony's face. If all titles were available on all systems, the winner is predominantly gonna be the cheapest of them, as many only see a price tag. Halo was enough to validate many ppl's purchase of a 360 on RELEASE! FFXIII was that game for many on PS3. Many benchwarmers and 360 owners alike said "Phew! now I DONT have to buy a PS3 for it! YAY!" Which emplies the original plan TO purchase one.

It is completely feasable to be angry when many fan's pride and joy franchise lies to them TWICE in one statement.

1. They promised to be PS3 exclusive many many MANY times over.
   
2. Promised to use full specs of the PS3, something me personally was REALLY looking forward to. Now I must live in a world without a FF that does this (this I can say becuz MGS4 did NOT use full specs of PS3 and developers stated it was not even possible to convert it to other formats, unless for PC).
Hideo Kojima is full of hot air. I haven't seen anything for the PS3 that the 360 couldn't duplicate, except the so called 'In Game Footage' sony likes to show at E3s.

Fishie! Fishie! I really don't know what you're implying with the 'fishie fishie' theme. Are you alluding to shady dealings? Oh, wait, no, MS is probably just doing what they've always done, use their money to get people to publish on their system (Unlike sony, which doesn't do anything to secure exclusives)

How Do We Know It would look any different?

http://www.psu.com/Final-Fantasy-Versus-XIII-in-game-shots-revealed-News--a2523-p0.php

This is what a EXCLUSIVE FF game looks like. And yes, that is said to be INGAME graphics!

OH man! In Game! Awesome. It's even better than those Killzone 2 shots we saw from E3 '05. Oh, wait, it turned out those weren't really in game at all. My personal belief is that if a developer claims it's in game, then they're probably lying. They're not releasing the game for another ~15 months! And those screenshots are from january! How is the engine that polished already!

http://kotaku.com/gaming/bff/final-fantasys-nomura-digging-that-ps3-304647.php

This also gives thought to what was FFXIII's true purpose at the begining.

Fishie! Fishie!

SE just wants to make everything even this time right?

Wrong! This was prooven to be invalid once FFXIII went multiplat. There is nothing "EVEN" about them now.

• Infinite Undiscovery:360 Exclusive
• The Last Remnant:Timed 360 Exclusive(originally promised as simaltaneous release)
• Star Ocean 4(originally put as Sony exclusive with no sign of defection, then all of a sudden becomes exclusive to 360?)
• FFXIII multiplat (wtf)
• FF versus XIII: PS3 Exclusive
• So if full exclusives are one point and timed ones are .5 that puts us at....
• 360:2.5 PS3:1.5
• Not to mention the 360 would already be getting Tales games and others. There was no need to give 360 yet ANOTHER game to add to their arsenal to make things "EVEN".

If they wanted to be fair why did they not hold Last Remnant's release as they did FFXIII(a much bigger franchise which ppl have been waiting for for a looooooooooong time). Or for that matter, Why is yet another franchise synonomous with playstation,SO4, 360 exclusive? Why would Square choose a system that has an abismal fanbase for RPGs for some of there new titles(no JRPG on 360 has sold more than a mil yet)?

You seem to be missing the point. SE just wants money. Neither of the HD consoles have the population or fanbase to give them tons of money on their own. They don't want to sell games that cost 50M$ to develop to only 500K people. In fact, MS 'moneyhatting' is probably the only reason these games are being published at all.

Oh, and I agree that no JRPG has sold more than a million copies. But has any PS3 JRPG sold that mythical number? Doesn't the PS3 have, like, 1 JRPG?

Why the sudden change with SquareEnix Now?

Now this one is a toughy but I will try to answer. Firstly it makes little sense for SE to just decide to do this now. This is the kind of decision a company makes when a product is not selling as expected. But the PS3 is! Wha? Dont believe me, check the front page. The PS3 has been outselling the 360 every month since christmas with the burning potential to constantly do better. If they were having doubts, why not just say that from the get go. It is ludacris to change plans now this late in development, when the stakes were at their highest for Sony and SE.

Saying 'The PS3 is selling better than the 360' is a stupid thing to say. That's like saying 'I'm faster than a man with no legs.' Both systems are selling at around Gamecube levels. The PS3 isn't selling like expected. All the analysts expected the PS3 to sell like the Wii, netting 30 million consoles worldwide and a majority of the marketshare. It has half that, maybe.

Microsoft says they did not Pay for it? Right?

Not quite what they said. I believe they were a tad decieptful in their presentation. observe

http://finalfantasy-xiii.net/2008/07/18/sony-microsoft-bought-final-fantasy-xiii.html

if you look closely Tretton makes a passing remark about MS and their infamous dumptrucks of cash. This is known as MS's trademark already. We KNOW they have done it in the past to get games to go exclusive/timed exclusive for their system(Bioshock, Oblivion,Lost Planet, Eternal Sonata, etc). Why is it so difficult to believe they have done it for a title that holds more berring than all those stated titles combined? So MS will pay for the small fry but not the big cahuna(SP?)?

http://360.kombo.com/article.php?artid=13863

Here is a rep from MS talking about the so called "Rumors". If you pay attention to this guys words, he never actually denies that they paid for it. He simply pushes the conversation into a different direction to steer clear of the topic even though he brought it up(Nice move if I do say so myself).

If Sony says they did, they didn't deny it, and Sony has stock in SE meaning they know where their income is coming from, than all roads point to moneyhatting. The evidence is there.

Then why didnt sony do something about it you ask?

Well SE says the deal was recent, but how recent? Sony has access to SE's financials. MS has not even sent the dev kits for the port yet even now. Do we really think Sony would just stand by and let their BIGGEST exclusive slip by? I think not!

My geuss is MS strategically planned the timing just right. Maybe even DAYS before the E3 conference this deal was put into motion. This gave no time for Sony to react after hearing the news (maybe the day before the conf.)

Fishie! Fishie!

Sony has said time and again (saying 'time and again' is a nice trick to get out of finding a source) that they don't pay for exclusives. They are still stuck in the heyday of the PS1/2 when they were the best selling console and it was stupid not to develop for them. How do they expect to keep their 'core franchises' when they aren't paying and they are the least sold system? (in terms of total sales, not month by month, yes, I know there was a several month period where sony was beating MS)

JUMP SHIP! PS3 is goin DOWN!

not really. PS3 is still selling on par with 360 and only can improve. See my previous comments about comparing yourself to things that are doing poorly.  Furthermore, why can it 'only improve'? IMHO, another big scandal or a 3rd party releasing a cheaper Blu-Ray player or more lost exclusives or a significant price drop for the 360 could all seriously hurt the PS3.

People don't realize that the PS3 can sell withough even having the huge catolog of games the 360 has and being way more exspensive than its competition. The 360 is moving in on the sweet spot(the price range area where a system's sales peak the most) The Wii started out there and sold accordingly. What do you think will happen once the PS3 reaches it? It is gonna blow your mind. Actually, it's gonna blow Sony's pocketbook. The 'sweetspot' is 200-250$ at most. Do you really think the technology is gonna exist to sell all the technology in the PS3 for under 350$ before 2010? If sony wants to hit the sweet spot it's going to cost them hundred dollars per PS3 sold and it won't be for a while. Sony has said they want to focus on profits right now, so they aren't going to be cutting willy-nilly as long as they're still selling.

Many tend to say, why get a PS3 when most of the games I like are on the opposite system. This is true, but it works both ways. And the PS3 may cost more, but carries more in the box features that the competition lack or must buy seperately (standard rechargable controller anyone?). The features of the PS3 only sell the system if people want them. Blu-Ray is only a system seller if people want blu-ray, and most people aren't going to have a HD-TV before 2010. Standard Rechargable Controllers? So what. You can buy a battery charger for like 10 bucks. Furthermore the reason people buy consoles is because they want to play games, not because they like owning boxes with hi tech doo-dads.

I hear many going "NOw its a matter of time before we get FFVXIII now!lol!" This is more feasable now than ever in the light of the FFXIII thing but think about this. FFXIII is made by a dif director. Nomura is in charge of versus and everyone knows him to be a bit of a PS3 fanboy. Nomura has already shown his disgust with the multiplat deal. He does not believe in multiplat games(rightfully so) and simply would not do it.

FF Versus 13 doesn't matter. Ordinary people buy the core series game for name value and don't beat them. They don't say 'where can I get me more of that exposition!'. Besides, what's to say that SE doesn't make a new FF13 spinoff just for the 360? They have over a year to develop it.

So what is to learn from all of this? WHAT REALLY HAPPENED?

Simple, MS used their calling card AGAIN. We can argue the basics of moneyhatting's ethics but it leads to the same conclusion.

Now I believe, this is an opinion so dont flame me for it, that MS intention was not even to boost 360 sales with this anouncement. On the contrary, it was to simply hinder PS3 sales as much as possible. The PS3 had been gaining plenty of momentum over the last yr. With the success of MGS4 and the promise of FFXIII on its way soon MS had to act fast if they wanted to stay in the lime light. PS3 lost a valuable exclusive and the 360 went for a price cut at the same time.  And most of 360's conference was spent on blatent rip offs of Sony's franchises as well as Nintendo's. This has slightly boosted 360 sales in the last couple of weeks. And it has also caused the PS3 sales to fall just below 360's.

But my qeustion is, why go for PS3 sales instead of fucusing on your own? Do you see it as a threat? Or do you simply care less of making a serious profit but more on stomping competition into the ground?

Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiishhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeeeee!

The reason the XBox franchise exists is because MS got pissed off that sony was saying 'Hey, our PS2 is so awesome to play games on, but we're thinking of expanding it so it's a living room computer! Who needs stupid Microsoft Windows when you can have a Sony Playstation Living Room Computer!'. This made MS mad because windows is where they make their billions, so they started the XBox to give the PS2 (and eventually the PS3) a credible threat so they couldn't do what they want.

The reason the XBox exists is to hurt PS3 sales numbers. That's it.