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Information is scant at this point, but a live stream from Sega at TGS that was looping through trailers revealed an official sequel to the beloved 2000 Dreamcast original. According to secondhand source Segabits, the game is projected for a 2011 release date and is confirmed for at least the PC platform. A trailer was recorded and put on YouTube from the stream, but almost immediately was taken down due to a copyright claim by Sega. If anything, we can probably assume that this isn't some elaborate hoax. There will no doubt be more information following Sega's official announcement.

It may be interesting to see how a high-budget online Phantasy Star will end up playing in a post-World of Warcraft world. The MMO market is so huge right now that it's possible that Sega will strip some of the more unique elements of the series and structure their game more similarly to Blizzard's behemoth. I have a few fond memories of the original, even though I never took it online, so I'm really excited to hear more about how this game will play.

Source: Segabits, Sega's live TGS stream

EDIT: Segabits uploaded the trailer from Ustream onto their blip.tv account. Most of it is retrospective from the series with some gameplay footage from the upcoming Phantasy Star Portable 2: Infinity (what a great name), but the announcement is at the end of the trailer. You can watch it here (scroll down).

The Tokyo Game Show snuck up on me - for some reason I remembered it being later in the year than this last year. Wiki tells me that this is indeed a week earlier than last year, but still, surprise surprise when I woke up this morning!

The actual show doesn't technically open until 16 September (and not to the public until the weekend, sorry to our zero readers comfortably close to Tokyo), but as is always the case, relevant news has started to come in already. andriasang brings us, first, the map of the Square Enix booth for this year's TGS. It's a good way to work out what the big games are going to be, according to the folks at Squenix; note that on the map, virtually all of the booths are the same size, with the biggest single block being dedicated to Kingdom Hearts Re: Coded, The 3rd Birthday, and the new Dissidia Duodenum [duodecim]. Also notable is that Versus XIII and Agito XIII won't be on their own in the booth at all, that Final Fantasy XIV has very small real estate, that Squenix is pushing Fallout: New Vegas (their first game in Japan labeled with the Japanese equivalent of Adults Only) as they publish for Bethesda in Japan, and the curious "Square Enix Online Manga" niche next to FFXIV. I don't remember hearing much about the last one, there, but apparently Squenix rolled out plans for e-distribution of manga in several locales this summer.

If you're one of the folks aching for the new Dissidia, the first screenshots are out featuring Kain and Lightning. Looks like Kain will be fighting on the side of Chaos and Lightning for Cosmos, assuming the factions remain the same in the sequel; the screenshots show Kain spearing Cecil and Lightning fighting against Garland - or, that's what Siliconera say, and it looks more or less like that is what is happening amid all the screen-filling nuttiness going on. [duodecim] isn't expected until 2011, but TGS will have a playable build.

The last news on right now for TGS is some more discussion of what is undoubtably the most important feature of The 3rd Birthday: you can turn the fanservice up to eleven by destroying Aya's clothes. Apparently Aya's so tough now that she doesn't even seem to mind fighting in her underwear - however, game director Hajime Tabata says that it isn't the point of the game, despite the fact that they've shown a lot of interest in the clothes coming off but pretty much zero interest in explaining how they might get rebuilt. Additionally, Tabata has asked players not to play the TGS demo specifically to see the clothes get ripped off, but then also gives hints on how they can most easily be torn off in the demo build. Way to stay classy, chief, and - by the way - also make the game look like it's going to completely suck if you're not buying it specifically to see skin on your PSP screen.

More as the week goes on, no doubt, from the Tokyo Game Show.

Source: Siliconera, andriasang, Square Enix North America

Lots of stuff going on in the monolithic, despairing towers of Square Enix since the last tidbits. The biggest news of this week has been twofold - well, really only onefold unless you're in Japan.

First, as most of you already know but didn't submit to the news section, Dissidia: Final Fantasy is getting a sequel. It's going to come out next year, and it's apparently going to be called Dissidia: Duodecim, which I feel I must from now on reference as "Dissidia: Duodenum." Looks like Lightning and Kain are locked in as new entries, which is sure to please some people at least. For more discussion about this upcoming game, you can hit up the other, less news-posted thread.

Next, despite the Xbox 360 in a decided last place in this generation's console war in Japan, Squenix announced this week that they're porting Final Fantasy XIII to the console for the Japanese market. It's an "International" edition, and it's going to have an "easy" mode (because Westerners are stupid), and all the voice and sub work will be in English. Should be a pretty easy port, that said, hence the rumored release date of 16 December 2010. As one might possibly expect, a good number of Japanese gamers are up in arms about this turn of events.

Still on the topic of Final Fantasy XIII, you might remember that Motomu Toriyama implied at the Japanese launch of the game that downloadable content expansions could be in the cards, a first for a non-MMO entry in the Final Fantasy series. Nearly a year down the road, though, he's now backtracked, confirming that there once were plans for DLC, but now those plans have withered and died, like a summer blossom in mid-September (okay, so I took some poetic license there). I'm not sure how to feel about that. It seems that the single-player JRPG, as a genre, has survived for many good years without needing to bolt on extra content, and I'm not sure how dedicated the Square Enix teams are to adding new content while still keeping it relevant - were they to release DLC, I have a hunch that it would be primarily minigames. Or maybe Final Fantasy XIII Versus. Who knows?

Last week, Square Enix announced that their Japanese operation is pairing with an unannounced American developer for a new "AAA" game. For those not in the know, a AAA game is one of those that is also known as a "console seller," or a "killer app," one of those games that people fall all over themselves to buy and play. They've got big budgets and big expectations, and a lot of hype. This all sounds well and good, but the presentation announcing this was done as a Powerpoint presentation. Yeah, I know that's how most big games start, but doesn't it kind of melt your enthusiasm to know that the business folk are out there announcing how their goals include a "Metacritic score over 90," "intended for core gamers?"

In the not-news, I noticed the other day on Kotaku that Canadian popstress Lights cut her hair like Lightning. Yeah, nobody cares, but she's cute and so is her music. No sense not giving her a bit of play.

Oh, and speaking of not-news, I just yesterday finished up a hack to our beloved forums. You'll note that I've removed the IM client buttons from everyone's posts, so if you want to find someone's MSN, AIM, Y! Messenger, or... ICQ... you'll have to hop into their profile. However, you might also note that in their place I've installed a spot where you can put in your Facebook ID or vanity name, or your Twitter username, and those will now show up with each of your posts. I, naturally, have added links to both the CoN Facebook page and the CoN Twitter account for mine, because why on earth would you want to see what I myself actually have to say? Big thanks to Death Penalty for helping test this across all our forum skins, and for some quality feedback as well.

Source: SiliconEra, Kotaku

Final Fantasy XIV is coming. The closed beta is now winding down, and European and North American gamers will all be able to jump into the open beta sometime overnight between August 31 and September 1. That is, in fact, only five days and counting, so if you were bitter about folks that got into the closed beta but couldn't do much due to the limited hours and crashing, you need no longer be jealous. Also new is this brand new trailer, which is of course made of unfiltered pretty, but as befitting its upcoming open beta shows more gameplay than previous trailers (and breaks out lots of epic tunes to boot).

For those who have not been following, it appears that Final Fantasy XIV won't let you grind as if you're getting paid to do so rather than paying for the privilege. While, just like in Final Fantasy XI, you can change jobs fairly easily, you are going to be allotted only eight hours per week of full experience earning in each job, and only another seven hours per week of steadily-decreasing EXP. After fifteen hours in a job in a week, you will get no experience at all in that job. Naturally, this has caused an uproar among the hardcore MMO players, as their desire to play their game with every free waking minute might not be met by the new Final Fantasy. For me, though? It actually kind of makes me want to try the beta, and I've never said that about any MMO. The fewer hardcore players there are, the more I think I'd like it.

The launch date for PC is still tagged for the end of September worldwide, and for PlayStation 3 in March of 2011. No break yet on the impasse of bringing it to 360.

The Tokyo Game Show is now on the horizon since Gamescom is over, and it's time to start looking at what might crop up there for Square Enix. Mindjack will almost certainly be part of it, but it's hard to tell where the game is at, because some retailers are moving the North American release date out to January 2011. There could be a soccer title in the works, as Square Enix Europe has filed new trademarks for titles including "Manager," including "Championship Manager Legends." Dedicated soccer fans know that Championship Manager was once the premier soccer sim in the world, and that Eidos still holds that brand even though the original developers left to create the Football Manager games instead. Might only show at TGS if you can manage a J-League team, though. SaGa might appear, as Squenix have launched yet another of their famous teaser sites, this time with "SaGa" in the URL. I bet The 3rd Birthday will show up, too, as it's nearing release and getting lots of play over in Japan. And for Parasite Eve fans out there, andriasang reports that the success of The 3rd Birthday will dictate the future of the Parasite Eve franchise.

What probably won't be at TGS, though? Final Fantasy Versus XIII. Despite having seen more of it recently, Square Enix won't commit to launching the game anywhere in 2011. There might be some level of visibility at the show, but it probably won't be anything much more than we've seen previously. What could be taking so long, one must wonder - it's a single-platform game, after all. Perhaps Squenix are just spreading their employees too thin.

Final note for the day, and it's not Square but CoN. Over the years, I've prattled plenty about Alexa rankings, and how they mean nothing but are still fun when they show CoN climbing the ranks. Now, the folks at Nmap have created a side project around Alexa and site favicons (those little icons that show up next to the URL in your browser, or next to the bookmark you no doubt created for CoN long ago). The software they wrote grabbed the first 288,945 favicons starting at site number one, and then scaled them in size based on the site's popularity and inserted into a giant mosaic. Of course you have figured out by now that CoN is in that mosaic - search for it and you'll see! I will warn you, though, since naked ladies are a big part of how the internet works, you might find some icons in searching around that aren't safe for work. Search at your own risk!

Tetsuya Nomura has been busy on Twitter lately, and some of his comments shed (or attempt to shed) a bit of light on Final Fantasy Versus XIII. First of all, it won't be at Gamescom. The folks over at IGN seem to suspect that it will be showed at the upcoming Tokyo Game Show (September), however. Nomura did reveal that voice casting is currently taking place for the game, as well as its sister project, Final Fantasy XIII Agito.

He also made a comment on the game's world map:

"There have been many questions regarding fields. It's not a completely open world. It's like the 2D FF games in HD. Although, in terms of looks, it's not a top-down view, it's like the screenshots that have been released. You'll move through the world from that view."

While I really have no idea what that means, it certainly does sound interesting.

Nomura also said that there was a lot more to announce in regards to Versus XIII, but that he was currently not allowed to say anything more. Does all this mean that Versus will finally be approaching some playable form? We can only hope so, as I'd like to get my hands on it, you know, sometime while I'm still alive.

Speaking of Gamescom, the European video game show is coming up (August 18 through 22), and even though it isn't as big as E3 or the Tokyo Game Show, there's still a fair amount going on. Deus Ex: Human Revolution will be treated to its first-ever public showing, which looks to be rather exciting. In addition, there will be scheduled presentations of Final Fantasy XIV, which is set to see release for the PC on September 30.

Square Enix will be showing several other titles at the show, including Front Mission Evolved, Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep and The 4 Heroes of Light.

To close, why not a bit of Aeris speculation? Yes, there is more less-than-news surrounding Final Fantasy's favorite death, and yes, it doesn't really reveal anything. Pop Fiction, a video game myth-busting series on GameTrailers.com, recently produced an episode devoted to whether or not Aeris could be revived. Well, believe it or not, she can't. The show closes with the speculation that a PS3 remake of FFVII may keep Aeris alive instead. This. Better. Not. Happen.

Source: IGN, Kotaku, More Kotaku

Final Fantasy is a great set of games; what would CoN be without them? Nothing, that's what. They all seem to take place in a mystical sort of world; and contributing to that is the mystical music. From "Town Theme" to "Matoya's Cave" to "One-Winged Angel," the music of Final Fantasy is an integral part of the experience (besides, that victory theme is so dang catchy). Naturally, people are attracted to it and want to hear it, and not just in their games. Concerts are set up playing this music (you've surely heard of The Black Mages) with huge orchestras and stories with plots that no one pays attention to anyway, because I came here to listen to the cool music, dagnabbit.

Anyway, there's a big ol' concert happening in the San Francisco Bay area on October 16, 2010. It's called "Hideo" and it has a standard-for-the-genre "boy out for revenge, won't rest 'till he gets it" story. More interesting though, is, of course, the music. They'll be playing selections from Final Fantasies 4, 6, and 8, as well as Chrono Cross. They'll also be playing music from Mega Man, as well as Fullmetal Alchemist, Cowboy Bebop, and some other games/anime.

Their site is http://hideoconcert.com/, and their promo video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY9n17gmC-0. If you live in the SF Bay area and you can get to UC Berkeley, should be an interesting show. Tickets are on sale, and if you watch the promo video you'll know they're very excited about you buying some tickets. Very excited. And hey, if nothing else, there's fun music playing in the background of the video. Check it out!


Source: HIDEO, Promo Video