Fans start petition for more transparency on Versus XIII

[Wolf Kanno]

Final Fantasy Versus XIII Delays Inspire Fan Protest

So after years of little info, punch-you-in-the-face updates about future updates, rumors of being upgraded to being FFXV, and even rumors of the game being canceled, fans have started a petition to get SE to finally put up or shut up.

While the success of an online petition is iffy, this is just another example of fans being upset with SE's curious PR campaign for the missing Versus XIII.Square has only released three videos, a few pictures, and name dropped about two characters and have given the most vague idea of what the game is about and how it plays. The title has been a no show for every major gaming expo and Squenix event since 2010. The game has been in development since 2006 and still has no release window. It entered full production last year.

[Slothy]

I can't really blame fans for being frustrated on this one. When they finally released some trailers a couple of years ago or whatever I was intrigued and wanted to actually play the game. They were getting me excited damn it. Then there was nothing since save for statements about it going into full production last year (what the hell did we even see in those videos?) and assurances that it hasn't been cancelled.

When you have to make specific statements reassuring fans that the game does still exist there's something wrong there.

[nirojan]

For anyone who missed the gameplay trailer from last year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkZvdT3QS4k

vivi get on it!

[Raistlin]

Good for them, though it won't do any good. At most, Square will make an announcement to expect a future announcement that there will be some more information announced at another date.

[Wolf Kanno]

I can't really blame fans for being frustrated on this one. When they finally released some trailers a couple of years ago or whatever I was intrigued and wanted to actually play the game. They were getting me excited damn it. Then there was nothing since save for statements about it going into full production last year (what the hell did we even see in those videos?) and assurances that it hasn't been cancelled.

When you have to make specific statements reassuring fans that the game does still exist there's something wrong there.

What really bothers me is that they simply said it wasn't canceled, they didn't show fans an update to prove it. Though they gloated about seeing some cool city engine builds but no screenshots or a simple 45 second video. So technically, the Kotaku rumor could still technically stand since SE hasn't really proven the game is still being worked on, though Kotaku is pretty trout.

Yet honestly, after six years of production, you would think they would be leaking better info, at least some pre-production sketches, some screenshots or at least some better info on the gameplay and world design. The 2010 trailer was pretty impressive but two years later with no-show is a bit alarming.

[charliepanayi]

Think of it as the video game equivalent to Chinese Democracy. And then hope when it sees the light of day a decade down the line it's better than that was.

[Wolf Kanno]

Long development times don't usually lead to better games, what generally happens is that it leads to high expectations and poor receptions. This is largely due to long development times meaning problems behind the scenes.

[Jinx]

My thing is, when you watch the one video that exists, the graphics are pretty outdated now. So, if they're planning on putting out this game, they probably have to re-hash what they've done, etc.

I doubt we'll ever see this game.

[Slothy]

Often long development times mean that they just didn't have a sweet clue where to take something. Unless you're Valve anyway (although I do believe that happens with Valve, they've at least always been smart enough to not release a game until they were happy with it). At this point, honestly, I'm not convinced that the team ever really had much direction which is kind of odd for a Nomura title. He seems like the only one getting anything done usually. Then again, maybe there were rampant technical issues or something, or perhaps they got overly ambitious with early ideas. So many things can, and probably have, gone wrong with SE's bigger titles.

And I actually had seen that trailer Nirojan. I thought it came out before last year though. Am I crazy or was that Youtube video uploaded after it was released?

[Edge7]

If they're gonna cancel the game, I'd at least like Nomura to come out with the plans he had (it looks so interesting). The music from the trailers would be pretty nice too.

[Wolf Kanno]

Often long development times mean that they just didn't have a sweet clue where to take something. Unless you're Valve anyway (although I do believe that happens with Valve, they've at least always been smart enough to not release a game until they were happy with it). At this point, honestly, I'm not convinced that the team ever really had much direction which is kind of odd for a Nomura title. He seems like the only one getting anything done usually. Then again, maybe there were rampant technical issues or something, or perhaps they got overly ambitious with early ideas. So many things can, and probably have, gone wrong with SE's bigger titles.

And I actually had seen that trailer Nirojan. I thought it came out before last year though. Am I crazy or was that Youtube video uploaded after it was released?

It was the 2010 TGS trailer actually.

My feeling is that Versus XIII is probably dealing with the initial issue that XII suffered from, which was that the vision for the game design was so overly ambitious that most of the game's development time has been in R&D trying to make the vision plausible on current hardware. XII's open world was hindered because the Ivalice Team didn't want to force players to use the Sony Hard drive attachment like XI. So they had to figure out a way to make massive expansive world on the PS2 from scratch. If you read the early interviews for the type of stuff Nomura wanted Versus XIII to do, he's basically taking the stuff in XII and taking it to the next level.

Of course, I also feel that Versus XIII is being slowed down in it's production cause the team is most likely developing new ideas to implement throughout production. Partly cause they feel it will make a better game but I also wouldn't be surprised if the feedback from fans on other FF titles is also shaping it. So it's possible that it's actually the feedback from fans that are making Versus XIII be in development limbo while SE uses the XIII trilogy to gauge what fans want, and then put it into Versus XIII. This is of course pure speculation.

[Depression Moon]

I almost don't care about the game anymore.

[Goldenboko]

I wouldn't say I don't care about this game, I'd love to see it be released and be great, but I feel we know so little about it it is difficult to have a real connection to it.

[maybee]

It's not going to work. I mean how many petitions did FF VII fanboys make when the FF VII remake hype was around a few years back and SE basically said no ?

SE doesn't care and will do whatever they want and bring it out whenever they want because listening to the fans is too mainstream.

[Goldenboko]

I think you are overstating there maybee, they listened when it was unanimous that FFXIV was a disappointment. I think with all of the FFXIII projects they started at the same time, they bit off more than they can chew!