The Final Fantasy XIII DLC Mystery

Will Final Fantasy XIII have DLC? Who knows! It looks like Square-Enix sure doesn’t.

We already knew that there was a ton of content planned that never made it into the final version of Final Fantasy XIII – enough to make an entire additional game, in fact. With that in mind, the question became “Well, will we see it added back into the game?” This is the era of DLC, after all – why throw so much content to waste?

In the Final Fantasy XIII Ultima Guides, Producer Yoshinori Kitase reportedly answered the question, according to Andriasang, saying that while the staff had considered the idea of DLC – and that it was certainly possible given how the game was built – it wasn’t in the cards at the moment. Kitase’s team wanted the game to be a cohesive single package, and DLC would have delayed an already long-in-development game even further.

“If asked if it’s possible or impossible, it’s possible. However, at present we’re not considering it.”

However, Andriasang also noted that Director Motomu Toriyama stoked fan flames by posting on boards prior to the game’s release and suggesting that those who held onto the game for a while instead of reselling it would be rewarded in the long run – indicating some form of extra content to come down the road.

The notion that FF13 would have DLC was stoked by a report posted on NeoGAF, where a Dutch forumgoer claimed to have the latest issue of Official Playstation Magazine, and that there was a two-page interview with Kitase. In response to a question about whether the Western version would have any additional content to the Japanese version thanks to the wait, the NeoGAF user claimed that Kitase’s answer was as follows:

At first we had plans to release the game simultaneously worldwide, so we had the intention to deliver identical version between the regions. When we noticed that we wouldn’t make it, we decided to release the game as fast as possible in the west after its release in Japan. We initially had doubts to add extra content to the western version but then it would have taken the international version more months of delay. We did prepare a DLC but it will arrive a little later in the west.

So there we have it: Both third-party rumors, claiming information from works that have yet to be openly published. Clearly, one of these Yoshinori Kitases is right, and one is wrong – but which one? Will Final Fantasy XIII have DLC, or won’t it? Can someone at Square-Enix please make up their mind?

(Via CVG)