Square Enix is a company that traditionally sticks to its roots, rarely venturing outside the box. Most of its output over the last few years have been remakes of previous classics, which is why executive Shinji Hashimoto must be so thrilled about releasing Final Fantasy XIII on the Xbox 360. Like eating a hamburger after ten years of jam sandwiches.
Hashimoto has shared his excitement at being able to bring XIII to a new range of fans (though to be fair, it’s probably the old fans who were too cheap to buy a PS3) and also expressed his joy at being able to localize the game more quickly and efficiently.
Obviously, we announced the title for both the PS3 and 360, so in that sense we’re very excited to be able to appeal to a new user base and to fans that are users of both PS3 and 360.
…Another thing I’m excited about it that it’s traditionally taken about a year for localization to take place, so the Japanese version can reach audiences around the world. But with this titles we’re focused on decreasing that time gap. That means, right now, we’re not only involved in creating and developing, but also working hard to deliver the title in a fresh state to everyone in the world.
The localization issue is great news. With Infinite Undiscovery slated for a simultaneous worldwide release, it looks like Square Enix is doing its best to cater for all its fans at once, something which is actually rather rare for a Japanese publisher. Highly encouraging to see Squeenix showing a progressive attitude toward worldwide publishing, and one would hope that other companies follow its lead.
