Well I didn't hate it, I just thought the ending could do with some work. (OK, understatement)

They've openly admitted that the main issue was having to spend all the time creating an engine from scratch and how they had no time left for all the various things we said were missing (reading between the lines, that would include half the story) and how Versus will be better because it's already in place. It doesn't seem too much of a stretch that they'd also stick with the same engine for XIII-2, plus a lot of the other work such as character designs is already done so they'd be able to concentrate on things like the story.

Of course if they do develop it and it turns out to be a stinker that'll probably be my exit from playing the FF series. It's nice to remain slightly optimistic though