Final Fantasy XIII Not Due Overseas Until 2010

Did you feel that? It's as if millions of voices suddenly cried out and were just as quickly silenced as the Japanese RPG giant, Square-Enix, lays out its international plans.

In order to best provide you with information as to when you will be playing Square-Enix's highly-anticipated role-playing title, Final Fantasy XIII, we've prepared a simple quiz as to avoid all possible confusion.

Question: Where do you live?

A) Japan
B) Not-Japan

If you answered "A," Japan, we have great news to share with you. Square-Enix plans to release Final Fantasy XIII in your wonderful island nation for the PlayStation 3 by the end of 2009. If you answered "B," not-Japan, we have horrible, dreadful news. Reuters reports that the company does not intend to ship Final Fantasy XIII internationally until at least the start of their next fiscal year, which begins April 2010.

The reason for this is not simply one of localization, but of its vaunted multi-platform release. While Final Fantasy XIII is a PlayStation 3 exclusive for Japan, it will be made available for the Xbox 360 as well in the North American and European markets. In a report filed in July 2008 by Wired, Square-Enix president Yoichi Wada made it clear that work would not begin on the Xbox 360 edition of the game until the PlayStation 3 edition was completed and localized for international markets. As Square-Enix intends to release the two versions simultaneously outside of Japan, the world must wait until both Microsoft and Sony have their wares ready.