I remember hearing a rumor of the early FF's coming to XBLA. That seems like a very good idea. If I was MS however I wouldn't waste my time going after FFXIII I would try to get an exclusive remake of FFVII!

It's kinda sad that Japanese apparently ONLY play RPGs...
"In a candid chat Mr. Bell acknowledges that the Xbox 360 isn’t selling well in Japan, even though there are RPGs on the console."

I mean...why don't they play more than RPGs!

I made a prediction about four years ago:

Final Fantasy 1-6 were on Nintendo systems, and Nintendo and Square were the best of buddies. Something broke down and the two didn't even speak to each other. Square goes to Sony.
Final Fantasy 7-12 would be on Sony Systems. Sony and SquareEnix are the best of buddies. Something breaks down, and SquareEnix goes to Microsoft.

Six games per, interesting symmetry, no? It's looking more and more likely.

I just don't see it happening. According to this site, Japan has always been the single largest market for Final Fantasy games as far back as VII (I didn't check before that). Square would stand to lose millions in potential sales by not releasing on a console with a decent base in Japan.

Granted, the PS3 isn't in much better shape over there, but, if the game is going to change platforms, it only makes sense to go all the way and put it on the Wii. That's the only way they can match the sales of their older games in Japan, and it's not exactly weak in the US either.

If Microsoft was interested in winning over the Japanese market, why don't they go after the #1 RPG in Japan: Dragon Quest?

I think it's because of Final Fantasy's world wide appeal that everyone talks about it. However, it's not nearly as big as people tend to think -- a far more valuable exclusive would be GTA 4.

People keep saying Square is loyal to the Japanese gamer.  Are they more loyal to the gamer than they are to money?  Doubtful.  Further, are they really abandoning the Japanese gamer if they release their game multiplatform.

If Square-Enix cared about the Japanese gamer, Final Fantasy 13 would be released on the Wii first since the DS already has Dragon Quest.  That way Nintendo would have the top two RPG franchises on its platforms.  It doesn't seem to matter to the Japanese gamer that the PSP has a big technical advantage over the DS.

The things standing in the way of that happening are.

SE loyalty
Sony shares of SE
hardware limitations of the 360
Se is not big on ports, FF spinoff maybe.

Can you be a little more specific? Storage capacity aside, which is obviously not a factor for RPGs since square has been known to release RPG games on multiple discs, what exactly is the 360 lacking? It has more general CPU power, more fill rate, and more available and more flexible memory than the PS3 does. So it wins in every major category regarding games.

Further, can you expound a little on SE not being a big fan of ports? From FF7 when they released it on the PC and re-released it on other platforms to final fantasy XI where it's been released on everything under the sun, I don't quite see SE having a problem with ports. Final Fantasy 3 on the DS, anyone?

Look, I like the PS3 better than the 360. The 360 might have a better games library, but the PS3 hardware is at least up to a reasonable level of quality. However, the PS3 has no major technical advantage over the 360 aside from raw storage per disc, and there are very, very few cases where that's a big deal. And it's one thing that can be most easily planned/designed around.

 They are not loyal bro :s.

 If they were loyal why did they move from Nintendo to Sony?

 But I guess they will not port it to other consoles and I AM 100% sure that they will not port it to the WII X D. 

When has Se made a game and days later said they are porting it to some other console, never. They usually make individual games for specific hardware. Yes they port old games and way to much, but never anything new to some other console.

Cell is far better then 360 at math related tasks. That means better physics, animation, compression, sound, video whatnot IF the program is written with the Cell in mind, and the white engine PS3 FF games are on is specificly designed for the PS3 hardware. Porting it would be a major pain in the ass, theres a reason Se got UR3 engine and is not using white engine for anything on 360.

Anything for 360 from SE will be on the UR3 engine.

 Same reason every one else left nintendo, cartriges.