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 along nicely. I'm looking forward to it.