New Square Enix MMORPG Shifts Focus From PS3 ...

New Square Enix MMORPG Shifts Focus From PS3 To Xbox 360

Despite Final Fantasy XI's undoubted success as an MMORPG, I still feel like the Final Fantasy series truly belongs to the single-player realm. So when Square Enix first revealed plans for a new next-gen MMORPG some time ago (via a trailer shown prior to E3 2005), I was more than thrilled by the idea - especially after they denied the rumours claiming that this would be some sort of Final Fantasy XI sequel. Last spring, this original MMO was first and foremost being targeted for the PlayStation 3 and PC (Windows Vista), according to comments made by FFXI producer Hiromichi Tanaka in an Impress Watch report. But now the times are changing.

In a recent interview with Pro-G, Tanaka once again reminds us that they're working on a next-gen MMORPG, but this time he diminishes the possibility of a PS3 version, instead standing by the Xbox 360 and Vista versions:

"I'm still working on XI as it's on-going but we are also working on a next-generation MMORPG for 360 and Vista but PS3 is a possibility."

This statement still doesn't answer any of our questions from last year (such as what kind of MMO will it be), nor the one we have after Square's recent Unreal Engine 3 licensing deal: could Epic's technology be used for their next MMO? We may be inclined to think so, since Square's MMO has shifted from being a primarily PS3 and PC project, to one primarily developed for the Xbox 360 and PC. And so far this seems to be the perfect choice of platforms for a game based on Unreal Engine 3.

P.S. We sure hope that by "Vista" they mean "PC" in general.

(N.B. Archive text, links removed)