Official confirmation (by way of extravagant YouTube ads) of the release date of Final Fantasy XIII is finally forthcoming; the Japanese PS3 release will just scrape in before the end of 2009 as promised, coming out on December 17th, with pre-orders opening shortly.

The title is a “PS3 exclusive” in Japan, but else where both PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are due, with some suggesting that the late Xbox 360 port is contributing to the delayed international release, due in 2010.

The issue with the lack of Blu-ray on the Xbox 360 has also apparently been tackled, with the game promised as fitting on 3 DVDs, although understandably the developers are not forthcoming on whether anything significant will be changed between the two editions.

The trailer in case you need to be reminded just how pretty it looks:

Of course, with game marketing being what it is do not be surprised if the final version looks considerably less impressive.

- From Sankakucomplex.com

Personally I think they should've delayed it a bit more (January 2010 or February), because nowadays most games are released with bugs. Not the case with console only games, but still... Otherwise, the game seems to be coming

Sales of the PS3 Slim in Japan have hit record levels, with the console selling 150,000 units in four days, 50% more units than the Xbox 360 sold in the entirety of the 2009 financial year.

The figures show the PS3 Slim to have sold 150,252 (the old model sold an additional 500 units in the same period) in the four days after its release, the highest since the console’s release.

This brings the Japanese PS3 sales total to 3,431,964 units, with the Xbox 360 trailing with 1,113,372.

Of course, the real question is how much this release will do to close the global 10 million unit gap between the Xbox 360 and the PS3, although just how many of those units are still working is open to question…

Via Hachimaki.

- From Sankakucomplex.com

In my opinion, this was a bit unexpected. I never thought the Slim PS3 would have sold nearly as much as the original one. It seems to be great, although the design of the old PS3 seemed to be better.

Xbox 360 users, stung by being the paying beta testers for Tales of Vesperia, a game touted as an Xbox exclusive and the sole reason many own their consoles, are launching a petition for redress from Bandai-Namco Games, who they accuse of “underhanded” and “unfair” tactics for daring to release the game on the PS3 in massively upgraded form.

Their petition lays out the following demands:

The games should not be dispersed across multiple platforms, they should be consolidated onto one platform [i.e. Xbox 360].

The games should be complete and properly made.

From now on, the porting of titles like Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Vesperia should be abolished.

An official apology should be made to Xbox 360 users for the abnormal number of additions made to Vesperia only a year after its Xbox 360 release.

The traces of the later additions found in the Xbox 360 edition should be explained.

Further bizarre product linkages should not be undertaken.

Elements of the Tales series [i.e. Patty Fleur] which cannot be enjoyed by all users should not be added.

Characters and the Tales universe should not be toyed with any more than necessary.

Certain platforms should not be favoured

The latest Strike Witches event has brought with it the announcement that Strike Witches will finally get a game adaptation in its natural genre, almost universally thought to be vertically scrolling shooting action.

The only details released so far are that the developer is CyberFront, the platform is the Xbox 360, and the genre is shooting. A release date is not given, but with the second season in the works we might think it likely to coincide with this.

For whatever reasons, the Xbox 360 is the normal platform for “STG” games, having quite a number of titles already released.

With the release of games like IdolMaster and Dream C Club, and now Strike Witches, it seems the Xbox 360 is targeting a very specific demographic in Japan…

In the mean time, the free doujin alternatives may still be of interest.

- From Sankakucomplex.com