In this week's Famitsu, three major Japanese developers discussed this year's E3 and how they feel about the various motion technology displayed. Grasshopper Manufacture's Suda 51, Q Entertainment's Tetsuya Mizuguchi and Level-5's Akihiro Hino all somewhat agree on what they see as the future of gaming. "Hardware-wise, it was all about Project Natal," Mr. Suda said, as translated by 1UP, noting his excitement on the possibility of creating a game specifically based around its technology.

"It's not a shift from 2D to 3D or in the number of polygons, but it's games trying to open up an entirely new door," Mizuguchi agreed, continuing, "I thought it would take longer, but it's happening faster than I expected." Ironically, when the trio chose the most exciting games at E3, the list quickly filled with Western-developed games, from Splinter Cell: Conviction and Assassin's Creed 2 to The Beatles: Rock Band. Could they resist the ubiquitous Final Fantasy name drop? No, no they could not. "The visual quality was so impressive that I doubted it was even a game," Hino said of AC2, adding, "Final Fantasy XIII is the same way." Impressed/interested by the motion technology but still loving AAA-franchise sequels? Sounds like the whole game industry right now.

Considering the impressive demo of Final Fantasy XIII running on Xbox 360 shown off at the Microsoft presser during E3, we were shocked to find out recently that the build being demoed was actually less than six months old. The game's producer Yoshinori Kitase told Giant Bomb during E3 that, "Up to the trial demo version that was released in Japan, [the game] was PS3-only in terms of development."

He explains further, saying, "The Xbox 360 version is definitely following after the PS3 version, but [we] were finally able to come to a point in the PS3 development where some of the staff could take their hands off and start programming the 360 version." Seems as though the claims that the PS3 version would be complete before work on 360 development started were a bit ... overzealous?

E3 was brütal! If you blinked, for a split/second, you missed something. Even if you were trine to keep up, it was a blur -- staying a.wake like that, you only pushed yourself to the brink of your own dark void. That's where Joystiq comes in; to crackdown on the madness; to reach out ... with conviction -- phew! Crysis averted.

We've scoured the dark corners and survived the inferno to piece together this roundup of all things Xbox at E3. Why? Just 'cause we love you. So, draw nier and shift your eyes past the break.

It's sad when we hear "around a year away" as a release window and it sounds fairly close, but that's Square for you. The company says it's targeting a spring 2010 release for the Final Fantasy XIII on the Xbox 360.

We just got a look at the game running on the 360, and it looks gorgeous.

Last year Square Enix announced Final Fantasy XIII would be released on the Xbox 360 in the west. The company stated that the game would be in development for the Xbox 360 after the Japanese version was finished and released. Apparently they changed their mind, because Motomu Toriyama and Yoshinori Kitase have just shown the game off, running live on an Xbox 360 at the Microsoft E3 press conference. This probably has something to do with the surprisingly early release for the game in Spring 2010.

A brief tour of the Los Angeles Convention Center -- soon to be swathed in flashing and impossibly loud video game booths -- reveals an early portent of E3's revitalization. Advertising has returned in full force, with humongous banners draped across buildings and video game characters towering over attendees.

Oh, and there's a bit of money-wasting eccentricity too. Try the gigantic pile of junk outside the South Hall (courtesy of the homeward-bound Rabbids?) or the cruel, cruel Final Fantasy XIII cast teasing their arrival in ... 2010. Click through our gallery and pretend you're there!

Look up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's a Japanese role-playing game character watching you shower? Los Angeles residents have been introduced to the cast of the upcoming Square Enix powerhouse, Final Fantasy XIII, via building-sized promotional posters. The giant ads for the upcoming JRPG can be spotted on the corner of S. Figueroa Street and Olympic Boulevard in Downtown Los Angeles.

The 124ft image showcases the game's three main characters, (above-left, from left to right) Vanille, Snow and Lightning, as well as a heading that promises the game will launch in 2010 (with logos for both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360). Giant video game based promotional posters in LA, huh? You'd think some kind of huge gaming event was happening in the area soon, or something.

As far as we can tell, there are two types of people who care about whether the North American version of Final Fantasy XIII has a Japanese voice track (in addition to an English one) -- RPG-loving hipsters who strive for complete, unwavering authenticity in everything they say and do, and ... well, people who speak Japanese and live in America, we suppose. Unfortunately for both these groups, it seems the Japanese voice track might only appear in the PS3 version of the highly anticipated Squeenidos title.

In a recent Q&A with IGN, FFXIII producer Yoshinori Kitase explained that without the kind of memory available on Blu-ray, there's simply not enough room on the 360 to implement two vocal tracks. He added, "Are there many people who would like to play with Japanese voices?" Well, gang? Are there?

[Via Kotaku]

Square Enix producer Yoshinore Kitase has told VideoGamer.com that Square Enix has "no plan" to release a disc-based demo for Final Fantasy XIII in the States. The demo, bundled with certain copies of the Blu-ray release of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete, thrust PS3 to the top of the Japanese sales charts, and became the best-selling anime Blu-ray in Japan. While including a demo with the upcoming US release of the movie seems like a no-brainer, Kitase explained that a PS3-exclusive demo would be unfair to the Western audience that's also expecting an Xbox 360 demo. "We are going to carry on with the project alongside the Xbox version, so we really can't just make it available only for the PS3," he explained.

Kitase then noted that the company "would like to check" on the possibility of a downloadable demo. We're certain the logistics behind delivering a 5GB demo to the PSN/XBL masses will be quite difficult to figure out.

Yoshinori Kitase, producer of Final Fantasy XIII, is getting older. Running into his 40s and still at the helm of one of Japan's biggest franchises, the man has been employed by Square Enix for 19 years now. In his time, he's headed up production of classics from Chrono Trigger to Final Fantasy VII to Kingdom Hearts. And you'd think, after all those games and all that time, the man wouldn't react bitterly if the newest entry in the FF series were characterized as a JRPG ... and you'd be wrong.

"There's a trend these days to strictly categorize games as western RPGs or Japanese RPGs, but Final Fantasy is something that we don't try to categorize as either/or," Kitase told Edge Magazine. Forgive us if we're mistaken here, but we were quite under the impression that the FF franchise more or less defined what a JRPG is. Continuing, he says, "For us, the game straddles genre." We're not sure what game he's playing, but early reports of the recently released FFXIII demo in Japan lead us to believe turn-based battles and spiky-haired androgynous characters are still par for the course. Guess we'll have to find out for ourselves when the game releases in North America sometime next year.

Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase spoke to VideoGamer.com about the localization plans for the game, indicating that the company would like to get the European version out "sooner than a year later than the Japanese release."

According to Kitase, "Traditionally the Final Fantasy numbered series, it takes about half a year between the release in Japan and the release in North America, and another half a year before it's released in Europe. But we would like to minimise this, this time." Steps taken to minimize the wait include recording English voices during the development of the Japanese game, not after. English text localization is also in progress concurrent with work on the Japanese version.

Square Enix must have finally realized that the sooner it gets North American and European versions out, the sooner it can sell the game in Japan again as the "International" version.

Research group Gameplan Insights recently conducted a study, which highlighted the most anticipated Xbox 360 games. Its parent company, OTX, polled 1,000 gamers across various demographics every week through March and April, and discovered that Halo 3: ODST is the most anticipated game. Bungie's upcoming spin-off managed to narrowly best Modern Warfare 2 (if you can believe it), according to data Gameplan Insights provided to Gamasutra. Rounding out the rest of the top five are Madden NFL 10, Final Fantasy XIII, and Assassin's Creed 2.

What's odd about all of this is that Halo 3: ODST is the only Xbox 360 exclusive to feature in the list. The remainder, as you can see, are multiplatform titles. Perhaps Microsoft will rectify that with its upcoming E3 showcase.

[Via Gamasutra]

Eidos won't be releasing games before they're finished just to hit deadlines, according to Square Enix president Yoichi Wada. Wada told GamesIndustry.biz that alleviating worries like that was "what I hope to achieve for the entire group." However, he noted that Eidos's new parent company must also address a scheduling issue. "But we at Square Enix also have a problem - it takes too long for us to produce a game..."

Final Fantasy XIII, which just saw the release of its first demo, was announced at E3 2006. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers was announced at E3 2005, with details only now starting to be released.

Square Enix's problem seems to be based on conflicts between management and developers. "I personally believe that having a good cost performance and having a good quality game can co-exist - I think that this relationship is actually a positive one," Wada said. "But when you look to the creators they tend to think that if they're asked to pursue a better cost performance, they have to sacrifice quality."