via Eurogamer


Square Enix has revealed that Final Fantasy XIII will be released in Japan next year.

A PS3 demo will arrive as a bonus disc with the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children animated film in March 2009. We're unlikely to see a sampler at the Tokyo Game Show later this year, though.

That's according to announcements from the DKΣ3713 event in Tokyo last weekend, where FFXIII director Motomu Toriyama said work has not yet begun on the Western Xbox 360 version of the game.

Square Enix has previously told us Final Fantasy XIII will launch on both platforms simultaneously in Europe and the US, which means we could face more than localisation delays as the Microsoft version plays catch-up.

"We haven't changed the direction of the development. We're making the PS3 version first, and then porting to the 360 later," said Toriyama in an on-stage video interview, translated by GameSpot.

"I'm telling [the development team] to not think about the Xbox 360 right now. We can think about it after the development kits arrive."

Videos from the show are rarely released, but reports suggest real-time footage of Final Fantasy XIII and action sibling Final Fantasy Versus XIII was shown.

Square Enix told us European plans for Final Fantasy XIII and the demo are yet to be confirmed.