Anyone who thinks MS is to blame for this deserve a slap across the face and another one if they actually think the 360 version is not being made as we speak.

maybe is time for MS to open its cheque book to speed up the making process.

@ Darc

But, SE is now working on simultaneous WW releases. They've said that's their new strategy.

Ubisoft said they'd make Nintendo quality titles for Wii in 2007. They said again in 2008. Talk is cheap. The localization times for the last three Final Fantasy games have gotten longer with each release. SE hasn't even been able to have simultaneous launches on their DS Titles.

Final Fantasy III DS

^JP August 24, 2006
^NA November 14, 2006
^EU May 4, 2007

The World Ends With You

^JP July 26, 2007
^NA April 22, 2008
^PAL April 18, 2008

Final Fantasy IV DS

^JP December 20, 2007
^NA July 22, 2008
^EU September 5, 2008

The couldn't even manage to do it with Chrono Trigger which is essentially a straight port of the SNES game. I realize it's never been released in Europe, but they had the games script in hand before they started coding the game on DS. It will take them 3 months to bring the game to Europe, provided it doesn't get delayed.

Chrono Trigger DS

^JP November 20, 2008
^NA November 25, 2008
^PAL February 6, 2009

Let's look at their PSP releases.

Dissidia: Final Fantasy

^JP December 18, 2008
^NA July 12, 2009
^PAL TBA

Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core

^JP September 13, 2007
^NA March 25, 2008
^EU June 20, 2008

Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions

^JP May 10, 2007
^NA October 9, 2007
^EU October 5, 2007

Unlike Chrono Trigger, Tactics was released worldwide. I know there were additions but most of the script was already translated. Still took them five months to bring it to the west. Anyway, I think my point proven. They can't get DS and PSP games released worldwide and FFXIII has the largest scope of any of SE's releases. They may have said their strategy was for simultaneous releases but they haven't shown it.

How can it take so long to translate. MGS4 was released simultaneously all around the world, and that game has more dialouge then the FF games. I'm guessing this means FFXIII won't be out before 2012 and VersusXIII will come out after Duke Nukem Forever. Square sucks

I don't believe localization is simply dialogue.

But it's what takes the longest time, am i rite?

Not really. Translation takes the shortest time, a great deal of programming is necessary though on the technical side. Japanese letters and written language is vastly different from western languages and the formatting is drastically different. Take a word in a menu that uses 3 characters in Japanese and 9 in english and then try to insert it, the whole menu crashes and then the game crashes. The Menus, pulldowns, inventories, sign posts everything have to be reprogrammed in order to have it in english. Read the blogs of the guys that did the translation of Mother 3. Translating was easy, it was all the programming that was a pain.

Plus MGS4 doesn't have more text and vocals than a 40-60 hour RPG that is text heavy and fully spoken. Vocals it might be comprable but text, not even close.

@Christor

Konami most likely start localizing MGS4 before the game was finished. SE seems to start the process after the Japanese version of their games are completed. MGS is bigger in the west than in Japan, so getting the game ready for North American and PAL/EU markets was a priority for Konami.

Darc Requiem said: Simulacrum said: 360 port could be the cause of long Western wait for anticipated RPG. By Steve Watts, 01/15/2009 Those hoping to play Square Enix's next blockbuster RPG may have to wait a bit longer than expected, as a Guardian report confirms that Final Fantasy XIII won't come out until next year in the U.S. President Yoichi Wada stated the game will release in April 2010 or later in North America, well after its scheduled 2009 release in Japan. There's no reason mentioned for the long wait time between releases, but Square Enix has said that they're going to finish the PS3 version before starting on the 360, rather than developing the two at the same time. Since the 360 and PS3 versions are supposed to see a simultaneous release in North America, this could be the culprit for added development time to an already long-awaited game. Of course, the 360 version will also be developed as the game is being localized, so it's hard to tell when the game would release if not for the 360 porting process. We'll let you know a more specific drop date as soon as we hear it from Square Enix.   FUUUUU** Somebody needs to do a little research. I'll post the same thing here that I did in the other thread. Final Fantasy VII JP January 31, 1997 NA September 7, 1997 EU November 17, 1997 Final Fantasy VIII JP February 11, 1999 NA September 9, 1999 PAL October 27, 1999 Final Fantasy IX JP July 7, 2000 NA November 14, 2000 PAL February 16, 2001 Final Fantasy X JP July 19, 2001 NA December 20, 2001 PAL May 29, 2002 Final Fantasy X-2 JP March 13, 2003 NA November 18, 2003 PAL February 20, 2004 Final Fantasy XII JP March 16, 2006 NA October 31, 2006 PAL February 23, 2007 Fanboys can try to blame MS all they like. The simple truth of the matter is that FFXIII is taking so long to release because of the PS3 architecture. When the game was announced for 360, the PS3 version had been in development for over 3 years. The swiftness of the games port to 360 will only serve to further the point.

This is true. Blaming the PS3 architechture, not so much. But to say that the delay of this game has absolutley nothing to do with the 360 is also a joke. NO MATTER how difficult or hard the PS3's "architecture" supposedly is, Square will not be able to release the game when it is finally finished. There will inevitably  be a time when the PS3 version of the game is completely finished, and we are still waiting for them to port it over. Blame the PS3 architechture all you want, but hte fact is that you have absolutley no proof whatsoever of what the real issue is. You don't know if it is actually the PS3 architecture, but you are acting as if you are a part of the development team. I say if Square would stop wasting their time on pathetic side projects like IU and TLR, FFXIII should have released before Star Ocean 4.

This is extremely bad news to those of us who are dying to play this game.