Leave it to Nintendo to start rumors about their own products. The Nintendo 3DS would be the 5th generation in the ever growing DS lineup (DS, DS Lite, DSi, DSi XL). 3D is all the rage in recent months and Nintendo is clawing to stay ahead of the iPhone/iPod Touch. The release of the DSi camera and DSiWare are obvious jabs at the Apple lineup. While I think it’s wrong to release new hardware every time some hint of competition shows up you can’t ignore the numbers Nintendo has posted with its DS products.

Nintendo has confirmed the 3DS will be officially revealed at this years E3. There are rumors that the 3DS will also feature a 3D joystick and finally some good old force feedback.

Square Enix will look into Final Fantasy VII Remake

There they go again, trying to pull us back in with Final Fantasy VII rumors. After a week full of comments by Final Fantasy XIII creators hinting at wanting to remake Final Fantasy VII, Square Enix’s CEO says “We’ll explore the possibility – whether or not we’re going to do it, if we’re going to do it, and the platform”.

I would love to see Final Fantasy VII remade as long as it doesn’t hinder the creation of Final Fantasy XIV. In addition, I think a lot of people are still waiting for a Final Fantasy VI remake for the DS. However, the reception of a Final Fantasy VII remake would be too huge to pass up and would likely push aside any development of the aforementioned titles.

I got through the third week of lent, but it wasn’t easy. Temptations were thrown in my direction in the form of roommates playing the Starcraft 2 Beta and my pre-ordered copy of Final Fantasy XIII landing on my doorstep. Amazon’s release day delivery actually works! Sadly, I can’t even take advantage of it.

On the plus side, Starcraft 2 looks like it’ll be an amazing game with a life span possibly longer than the original which will be 12 years old on March 31st. While many players are involved in the Beta, those who aren’t will likely continue to play the original Starcraft up until the official launch of Starcraft 2. On second thought, the fact that the game has been announced as a trilogy it may take a few years for the final part of the game to be launched. This will only lengthen the life span of Starcraft 2.

As for Final Fantasy XIII, I haven’t played it yet but I read through the entire manual last night. The game seems like it could get pretty complicated with all the Paradigm shifting. I’m still sad to hear that the game doesn’t include the Japanese voice track. I think Square Enix still doesn’t understand that North American consumers would highly appreciate it as an option. The saddest part is how they blamed the Xbox’s DVD capacity for not including the additional voice track on the PS3 Blu-ray. After years of ignoring Microsoft they all of a sudden want to support the Xbox 360 and the Playstation owners suffer? Console wars rage on.

With these games buzzing around my head I took evasive action and stayed away from home quite a bit during the weekend. Also my company bought me a sweet new laptop to keep me occupied. With an Intel Core i7 Extreme and 8GBs of RAM, I won’t be complaining on how slow Eclipse is running anymore. In a few days I’ll be halfway through this challenge and a little closer to some binge gaming.

Luckily for Sony this also means the Xbox 360 version won’t be released for a while either. If Final Fantasy XIII was released today for both systems I think the Xbox 360 would definitely sell more copies here in the United States. It’s simply due to the install base and the lower price of the Xbox 360 console.

Personally, I’ve been waiting for the right time to purchase my own PS3 yet I still haven’t seen the PS3 break through the barriers to claim the top spot in the console market.

So this past week the world found out that Square Soft sold out and will no longer make Final Fantasy XIII a PS3 exclusive, except in Japan. Did Microsoft buy them out or is this a strategic move on Square’s part? I would think it’s a little of both.

First, there is no doubt in my mind that Microsoft offered money to Square to persuade them to make Final Fantasy XIII an Xbox 360 exclusive. This would be a terrible move on Square’s part since just about nobody in Japan owns an Xbox 360. The Japanese consumers are the most important thing to to Square. However, this situation would be great for Microsoft. They could finally break into the Japanese market and sell some consoles in Japan, formally known as the Mecca of the Gaming Industry. If this were to happen, many Xbox 360 consoles would be sold but less copies of the game would be sold due to the console barrier. So in the end it looks like Square decided that it was more important to win the sales war in Japan than to receive a load of money from Microsoft. Also by not releasing any Xbox 360 copies of the game in Japan they remain loyal to Sony in a way. There will be no console competition in Japan when this game drops and they still receive a little cash from Microsoft.

Next, why would Square want to sell Xbox 360 copies of Final Fantasy XIII everywhere else in the world? Simple, the market is there. If you want a huge number of sales you sell on multiple platforms, just ask the guys of Call of Duty 4 and GTA4. Now unless you have a huge market and advertising campaign for a game like Halo 3 you can go exclusive and still make record sales. Gears of War 2 has been deemed the new Halo for the Xbox 360 but I have a feeling we won’t see it shattering the Halo 3 numbers. Metal Gear should have been one of these mega selling games but the PS3 is still weak in America, and if you want record sales you need to sell in America. That’s exactly what Square intends on doing.

How does this effect us? Well it’s great for Xbox 360 owners. We finally get a really good Japanese RPG to play. For PS3 owners, it doesn’t change anything. Unless you were planning on bragging to your friends that you’re the only one who could play the new Final Fantasy.