We’ve been wondering why it’s taken Square Enix so long to churn out another installment in the core Final Fantasy franchise, seeing as how the last game came out approximately forever ago. The answer recently came in the latest Dutch issue of Official PlayStation Magazine, which contains a revealing interview with Squeenix’s Yoshinori Kitase. According to a fan translation of the interview, Kitase said “Final Fantasy XIII was originally meant to be a PS2 title, but we had to switch systems due to the arrival of the PS3. That cost us about one and a half years and was constantly a case of trial and error.”

Considering it took Square Enix roughly “one and a half years” to develop and release Final Fantasy IX, that’s a pretty substantial amount of time lost. Hopefully the developer will have an easier time when working on the next current-gen Fantasy.

[Via VG247]

FFXIII development started on PS2, delayed launch by a year and a half originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In a recent interview with the New York Times, Dante’s Inferno executive producer Jonathan Knight responded curiously to a query about the possibility of upcoming adaptations of the other two installments in the Divine Comedy, Purgatorio and Paradiso. According to the Times, “Knight said his team was focused on the release of Dante’s Inferno as well as on additional downloadable content for that game,” though he later confessed “I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t thought about that.”

We think Visceral’s missing out on a great chance to kill two birds with one stone — why not make Purgatorio and Paradiso DLC packs for Inferno? For instance, a few months after the game comes out, release a patch that makes the game’s load times last for 49 days. Boom. Purgatorio in the bag.

Visceral Games prepping DLC for Dante’s Inferno originally appeared on Joystiq on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alright, alright, you kind of already knew about the giant blue dragon in the upcoming Dragon Age: Origins ‘Awakening‘ expansion pack, but you hadn’t seen her (yes, her) in all her rage-filled majesty, scaring the crap out of those venturing into Blackmarsh. Between her and Skeletor, we’re getting pretty psyched for March’s DA:O content infusion. Sure, there’s that other BioWare RPG that we’re obsessively playing for now, but how long will that last before we feel the urge to venture back into the fantasy realm? We’re guessing about two months. And hey, if nothing else, it’ll give us something to talk about at PAX East during the Joystiq / Blueberry Muffintops Breakfast.

Dragon Age: Origins ‘Awakening’ DLC has a giant blue dragon originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve already heard from Nintendo’s Satoru Iwata on Apple’s most recent handheld (spoilers: he doesn’t care about it), but the Wall Street Journal recently asked Sony’s John Koller how his company’s reacting to the device. Rather than outright dismissing it like the Nintendo prez, though, he said he’s looking to the iPad for boosted PSP sales. Seriously.

“Apple’s entrance into the portable gaming space has been a net positive for Sony … when people want a deeper, richer console, they start playing on a PSP.” In fairness, it’s part of Koller’s job to rep Sony in these situations, but it’s not exactly impossible to argue with his logic in this case — as the WSJ points out, sales of the PSP have “nearly tripled” since June 2007 (when the iPhone first launched). This would normally be the point where we point out other mitigating factors in year-over-year sales increases (say, games like God of War: Chains of Olympus and GTA: Chinatown Wars coming out, or a new console iteration being released), but we’ll leave the comments section below to handle that.

Sony: iPad consumers will graduate to the PSP originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Further expanding on LittleBigPlanet’s catalog of costumes portraying PS3-exclusive game protagonists, Media Molecule has revealed that the next set of in-game duds will come from White Knight Chronicles on February 25. According to the PlayStation.Blog post announcing the new content, the costume pack will include the garbs of four of the RPG’s legendary heroes: The White Knight, Black Knight, Dragon Knight, and … Leonard. One of these things is significantly less awesome than the others.

White Knight Chronicles costumes coming to LittleBigPlanet originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There is no shortage of button-mashing action titles coming in 2010, and Dante’s Inferno is right around the corner. Promising buckets of blood, brooding and boobs, the team at Visceral Games hope to capture the overlapping fans of both literary masterpieces and punching monsters in the face. It’s like an obvious Venn diagram of awesome. Well, until someone finally turns Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret into a collectible card game.

Your obligatory violent gameplay video of the day is Dante’s Inferno originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We certainly didn’t see this coming. While it may seem strange to doubt the release of another Disgaea game, Disgaea Infinite is not what you might expect. No, it’s not a SRPG. It’s not even a platformer. Instead, it’s a visual novel game — an interactive story-based adventure, akin to the Phoenix Wright series. According to a press release, this will be NIS America’s first visual novel published in America.

Disgaea Infinite promises to keep the same over-the-top humor the franchise is known for. Players will assume the role of a Prinny on the hunt for an assassin trying to take down the demon Laharl. With the power to take over other characters minds and bodies, Prinny will be able to solve this almost-murder mystery. Expect it on PSP this May.

Disgaea Infinite visual novel for PSP releases this May originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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VideoGamePriceCharts.com, a site that tracks average online prices for video games and consoles, has released its year-end report for 2009, and if you were buying and selling games speculatively (we all do that, right?), you’ll want to check it out. Okay, so maybe you weren’t picking up the now-discontinued Demon’s Souls Deluxe Edition because you hoped it would get rare, but if so, you’re in luck: That game topped the list, raising in value from an MSRP of $69.99 up to a high of $116. Grand Theft Auto IV’s Lost and Damned retail box (which contained a code for the DLC) is another big collector’s item, and if you were so lucky as to nab a copy of Bass Pro Shops’ The Strike (with Fishing Rod) for Xbox 360, then reel in the money, because it raised in value over 50%. Whew! Welcome to the exciting market of video game price speculation!

For a little more practical information, you can also see which companies and consoles kept their value in 2009 — turns out MTV, Atlus and Nintendo games all did well at resale, with the Wii (surprise!) topping the market for overall value held among its games. Of course, you should really be buying games (and supporting developers) for their quality, not for their resale value, but it doesn’t hurt to figure out which ones will give you a few more bucks in return when you’re done.

Video Game Price Charts reveal biggest resale prices of 2009 originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 06:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While things around the track have been quiet, Capcom is finally spilling the oil regarding DLC for its upcoming racer MotoGP 09/10. At this week’s Silverstone event, Capcom revealed that two free DLC packages will be released for the motocross title “shortly” after the game’s release.

Before the MotoGP 09/10 turns the final corner onto store shelves, Capcom will release an Xbox 360 and PS3 demo “about a month” prior to the game’s launch. The demo is slated to feature the world-famous Mugello, Italy, track as well as all three bike classes and will probably make any race fanatic’s wheels spin with joy. Whether you’re looking forward to its upcoming March release or not, one thing is certain: The racing references in this post need to end, immediately.

Vroom. Okay, now.

MotoGP 09/10 free DLC and demo info revealed originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 07:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Japan is currently in the midst of a No More Heroes drought. Not only has Marvelous yet to give a release date to No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle (which is out this week in North America!), the publisher has also announced a delay for the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 port of the original game, called No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise.

Originally set for release on February 25, Heroes’ Paradise won’t be delivering upgraded graphics and inappropriate new costumes for the female characters until April. Siliconera postulated that Marvelous is moving things into its next quarter in an attempt to boost profits in that period.

[Via Siliconera]

No More Heroes: Heroes’ Paradise delayed in Japan originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 21:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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