Square Enix revealed a number of interesting details regarding the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII at the Gamescom Expo which has been taking place in Cologne, Germany. Little information has been released since the game was announced at E3 in 2006.

Square Enix told the press that the game will ship simultaneously on PS3 and Xbox 360 in Spring 2010, so we can expect a release around April next year.

Apparently the PS3 version is 90% complete and the Xbox 360 is 70%, with game producer Yoshiniro Kitase stating that they are aiming to fit the entire game onto three DVDs for the Xbox 360 release, although he did ad that “This is not the final count as we’re still working on it, but we’re aiming for about three discs for the Xbox 360 version.”

Yoshiniro also stated that they are working hard to ensure that the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions are “pretty much equal, both in terms of content and the visuals as well. Since the hardware is different, there might be some subtle differences if you compare screenshots side by side, but the team’s being very careful about the compression of the data and the visuals, so that it’s exactly the same on both.”

A new area was announced called Lake Bilge – The Waters Stilled, and the developer showed the Paradigm shift system whereby the character setting can quickly be changed, similar to the strategy settings players could use on their party members in previous games, such as Overwhelm, Peacemaker and Aggression.

 

The early 2010 release date will come as a pleasant surprise to fans of the series as Square Enix previously stated that it would only be released late in 2010.

 

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