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Saturday, March 13, 2010

FFXIII: Is Microsoft Trying Too Hard?

I may not watch television much but during several recent sessions of watching recorded shows, I have only seen the X-Box 360 commercial for Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIII. I am almost certain that Microsoft is the one advertising the product because there is no indication whatsoever that the game is also out on the PlayStation 3 and the commercial would end with the special edition game + console bundle that is available for the X-Box 360. I am not sure if a PlayStation 3 version of the commercial existed but I am flabbergasted by this because if people are truly interested in the game, shouldn't they be informed about the choice that they are about to make? It is clear though that the commercial is aimed at those who still haven't adopted the 360 or the PS3 and I am sure that by closely associating the two brands together, those less informed about gaming in general may believe that the game only exists on the 360.


No custom faceplate nor specialized skin for the console.
It's a lazy bundle designed to cash in on the franchise with minimal efforts.

Still, all is fair in love and war so if more people ended up buying the game on the 360, the blame can only be placed on Sony for failing to react to Microsoft's heavy FFXIII campaigning. What is worse than the one-side FFXIII TV ad are the reviews by popular game critics. I don't read reviews in full because they almost always contain spoilers but for FFXIII, I was very curious to see how the X-Box 360 version's graphics would be criticized compared to the PS3 version and I must say that a lot of game sites didn't even bother discussing the difference between the two consoles, granting both versions with the same review score. Is this due to Microsoft's insistence or do these popular critics just love taking sides instead of telling the truth? I believe the latter but just remember this: whether you are able to get the game on the PlayStation 3 or not, everyone deserve to know the difference between the two versions. Kudos to those writers who champion the truth but if no mentions of discrepancies were evident in a review about the 360 version of the game, that's a sign that the reviewer just cannot be trusted.

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