Monday, December 17th, 2007
Posted by Reeve at 12:27 PM EST
Crisis Core's North American Release Date Announced
Here's the news many of you have been waiting for: the North American release date for Crisis Core has been announced! This PSP prequel to FFVII will ship to stores on March 25, 2008.
Three other Square Enix games were covered in the same press release: Dragon Quest Swords (releasing on Feb. 26), Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates (Mar. 11), and The World Ends With You, aka It's a Wonderful World (a vague "Spring 2008").
Tuesday, December 11th, 2007
Posted by Reeve at 09:47 AM EST
Square Enix Wins Copyright Infringment Lawsuit
Way back in March of this year, Square Enix took the creators behind a music video to court over their blatant plagiarism of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. This video, by Korean pop singer Ivy, shocked many FFVII fans back then with its faithful recreation of much of the Tifa and Loz fight scene from the movie; Square Enix took legal action not much later. For those of you who have not yet seen the infringing video, you can view it here.
Today, Next Generation reports that the lawsuit has now been settled, with Square Enix as the victor. The judge presiding over the case ruled that Fantom, the media firm responsible for the video, "illegally used 80 percent of (Advent Children's) storyline, setting, characters and their styles of dress". Fantom was ordered to pay a fine totaling ten million won (approx. $10,900 US dollars). Additionally, the director of Fantom and the music video's director were each ordered to pay six million won ($6,500).
Friday, December 7th, 2007
Posted by Reeve at 11:06 PM EST
FF Dissidia and KH: 358/2 Days to be Playable at Jump Festa
PSP Fanboy reports that amongst the games to be shown at this year's Jump Festa, at least two of them will be playable. These games are Final Fantasy Dissidia, the multi-FF fighting game for the PSP, and Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, a DS game and one of three upcoming Kingdom Hearts titles.
It is currently unknown which characters will be playable in the Dissidia demo, though so far, Sephiroth is the only FFVII character confirmed for an appearance within the game itself. As for the new Kingdom Hearts games, it's not known if any FFVII characters will be making return appearances at all.
Other Square Enix titles being shown at Jump Festa (in one form or another) include the long-overdue FFVII: Advent Children Complete, as well as Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, Kingdom Hearts: Coded, and several others. The complete list of titles may be found here.
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007
Posted by Reeve at 09:53 AM EST
Square Enix President: Sequels are Necessary
RPGFan has posted a summary of a CNET Japan interview with Square Enix president Yoichi Wada. Among the topics discussed are the next-gen consoles, the potential of downloadable content, and Square Enix/Taito's position in Japan's game center business.
Of particular interest to Final Fantasy VII fans, given the Compilation of FFVII as well as fan pressure on the company to release an FFVII remake, is what Wada has to say regarding sequels and remakes of existing games:
Wada disputed his interview partner's suggestion that Square Enix had recently released a lot of sequels and remakes, by saying both sequels to existing IPs and original games were necessary to grow the business. He explained 60% of Square Enix's profits came from existing IPs, whereas 40% were generated by original titles. He also refuted the common held perception that Square Enix was overly dependent on its flagship Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series, saying they accounted for less than 50% of the profit. And while the company was trying to further reduce its dependence on these franchises, he remarked people kept asking about new installments of either series.The entire summary may be read here.
Saturday, December 1st, 2007
Posted by CloudANDTidus at 10:11 AM EST
This Month's Theme, Best Wishes
Our dear Webmaster is currently away on her honeymoon, so from myself and everyone at the Citadel, I would just like to extend a hand of congratulations to our new husband and wife, and wish them the best of luck as they are united together in holy matrimony.
Today's update brings our December theme to the Citadel, staring the macho Barrett and the shy brunette Marlene in their own winter wonderland! Even the moogles are out in style to get in the holiday spirit. Special thanks goes to Ardwynna Morrigu for this month's beautiful banner artwork, and as always you can find all the themes from previous months on the Tenth Anniversary page. As is the fashion with these things, you can also find all the information you would ever like to know about hard man Barrett Wallace in the Character Compendium.
