Keep FFvXIII PS3 exclusive

Time and time again in recent days, Square Enix rep Yoichi Wada has made it well known to the gaming community, including fans of Square Enix and the Final Fantasy franchise, that he intends to cater to the Western market by making the Final Fantasy franchise more friendly to new gamers.

As a result of this new business approach, we have seen evidence of a severe lack in quality from their products, the most recent disappointments being Front Mission: Evolved and Final Fantasy XIII.

Clearly, based on review scores, FM:E is a mediocre game, if that, from a traditionally impressive franchise. With the new focus of this title being to cater to a more "Western" audience, SquareEnix has left the traditional approach to this franchise in search of more cash. As a result, they produced a terrible entry to the franchise which was met with much criticism.

Perhaps the more controversial title this year has been Final Fantasy XIII. This title was set to be exclusive to the PS3, but has moved onto becoming a multi-platform entry due to implied bed sharing between Microsoft and Square Enix. Now, this being said, multi-platform entries are often good games. However, SquareEnix representatives as of late have made reference to the fact of reduced quality due to making room for the XBOX360. If a company decides to REDUCE quality to share exclusivity, that is a cardinal sin in the gaming world. it seems an immense amount of data was left out entirely in order to make room. (As it is, the game was released on 3 XBOX disks to PS3's 1)

In addition to all this, the gameplay in FFXIII was atrocious leaving nothing to be explored by the gamer. In and of itself, FFXIII produced impressive production values, but it completely betrayed the style of gameplay associated with the franchise leaving fans out in the cold. To compare review scores, although FFXIII did well with a metacritic average of 8.3, it is nearly a full point below other major entries to the series. Other FF titles have metacritic averages in the 9 point range (from 9.1-9.4 typically). This change should say something.

Now, as they did with FFXIII, SquareEnix is promoting FFvXIII as a PS3 exclusive, however with new job postings seeking designers with XBOX experience, it seems they are about to betray their loyalists yet again.