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A recent developer blog post by Square-Enix's Tetsuya Nomura revealed a great deal of new information regarding the Fabula Nova Crystalis project, which comprises the PS3 games Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy Versus XIII, as well as the cell phone game Final Fantasy Agito XIII.

The world of Final Fantasy XIII is called "Cocoon," and it uses crystal technology to create a highly advanced society. It is also completely surrounded by a large shell, which protects Cocoon and its inhabitants from all manner of evil residing outside of the shell, whose space is collectively called "Pulse." Cocoon's government reacts to the threat of the Pulse lurking monsters with "drastic measures," and uses the threat of exiling Cocoon citizens to Pulse as a means of controlling the people. Lightning, FF XIII's protagonist, is "chosen by the Crystal" to stop "those who would destroy the world," but Nomura (who is working on FF XIII as a character designer) was vague on any details otherwise.

Summons are going to be handled very differently in Final Fantasy XIII than in past FF games. They still serve as allies of our protagonist, but have some very unusual abilities; for example, the summon Shiva can now be transformed into a motorcycle, which Lightning can ride during battle. Somehow, this action-oriented feature is going to be implemented in a classic ATB system, but Nomura also stated that the game's developers are having "difficulties" implementing these new features.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII, an entirely separate game on its own, is supposedly set in a single kingdom within the same universe as Final Fantasy XIII and features a conflict centered over the last remaining crystal of said kingdom. The still-unnamed main character is a silver-haired swordsman who can teleport to any location where his sword is thrown. FF Versus XIII is being directed by Nomura himself and will use an action-oriented game engine based on the Kingdom Hearts series. Neither FF XIII nor FF Versus XIII has received a release date yet.

Final Fantasy Agito XIII is going to be a fully-3D cell phone game that centers on protecting another one of these crystals. That's essentially all that is known about Agito thus far, that and the fact that it doesn't have a release date either.

Source: RPGFan

Barely a month after launch, two of Wii's promised features will see the light of day. Internet-connected users turned on their Wii today to receive a message from Nintendo informing them that the weather channel was just a short system update away. Furthermore, the Wii web browser will debut on Friday.

The weather channel allows the users to select a city from which to receive a daily forecast, including temperature and wind speed. This might sound pretty boring, but the neat part comes when you can zoom out to view the entire globe, spin it around, and check the weather in all kinds of bizarre places. For the record, it's a measly 1 degree Fahrenheit in Antartica today, but at least it's not snowing.

Friday's content may be a bit more interesting as Nintendo release's the beta version of the Opera browser. Initially, users will be able to download this update for free; it will remain free until June of next year.

Finally, the last promised Wii channel, the News Channel, will arrive at the end of this coming January.

Source: GameSpot

Never one to take the market's resounding no at face value, Sony is making another stab at selling PSP owners portable movies. Sometime next year, a video download service similar to Apple's iTunes will allow PSP owners to download movies specifically for use with their PSP.

Few details have been released, but it is known that movies must be first downloaded to the user's computer, then transferred to a memory stick to play on the PSP. There is no word of which, if any, studios will be participants (presumably, Sony has at least someone lined up), but Hollywood can rest assured that this move will not exacerbate copyright infringement. Sony, always hard at work to implement draconian and even damaging copy protecting measures, will ensure that only one copy of the movie can exist per paid download.

Since PSP owners can already transfer DVDs they own to their computer and from their to their PSP, I don't see how this is much different from the failed UMD strategy. This time, users won't even have a convenient case with a pretty picture in which to store their purchase, and with DVDs frequently available for very low prices, I can't imagine an incentive to buy a virtual copy that can only be watched on my PSP instead of the real thing that I can watch anywhere.

Source: GameSpot

"Nintendo said Friday it will replace 3.2 million straps for its popular Wii computer game controllers after receiving a rash of reports that the devices flew out of the hands of overzealous players.

The recall is a bittersweet development for Nintendo — a costly hitch in its three-way battle with Sony Corp.'s (SNE) PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Xbox 360, but also confirmation of the enthusiastic reception worldwide."
Read the rest courtesy of Fox News

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It's an unfortunate happenstance for Nintendo that wrist straps would be wearing out so quickly after the launch of the Wii - one would expect that they would have a better quality assurance team after such a long development period - but Nintendo should at least be happy that people are getting excited enough about their system that they're flailing wildly enough to break a wrist strap. I'm a bit wary about the change simply from 0.024 inches to 0.04 inches, because if 0.024 inches can wear out in a short month, does that mean the new straps will only last two? I'm hoping that they also made some sort of change to the fabric to ensure that it will at least last a good amount of time.

The website Wii Have A Problem is a good resource of Wii-related accidents that have been occurring, and it currently has a side-by-side snapshot displaying how the difference in thickness is. I have never seen the controller in person and was shocked to see just how thin it was and still is - even knowing the measurements, I was still thinking in my head that it would be as thick as the part that you can see in the photo that goes around your entire wrist.

The entire ordeal, as the article mentions, will cost Nintendo "several million dollars" but it ends up being decent PR that Nintendo would actually fix a documented problem and make it right for all Wii customers.

In an effort to make a "YouTube for Games", Microsoft have released new software to allow gamers to create a home grown custom slice of gaming fun. The program, called XNA Game Studio Express, will allow XBox 360 gamers as well as windows users to create their own games and distribute them via XBox Live, and has been under trials since August.

Doubtlessly also a small effort to compete with the Wii virtual console and PS3's similar efforts, this also is reminiscent of home-made games from the mid 1980's onwards, and has parallels with the "black playstation", Net Yaroze, which allowed the creation of games... if one forked out a few thousand notes on a special PSX which cost around £500 via mail order, and not to mention the PC, internet connection, and the basic knowledge of C++. It nonetheless produced some surprisingly good games, distributed via the official UK PS magazine's demo disc.

Of perhaps greater note and of a greater parallel, PC's have always had various low-budget shareware games floating around, and possibly more as XNA Game Studios can of course be used to create games for a Windows PC, further evidence that the line between PC and Console is still blurring.

Those aiming to make their own homebrew videogames via XBox 360 however will have to subscribe online to the creators club, for $49 for four months or a $99 annual fee, or £35/65 in the UK.

It remains to be seen what will truly occur from an interesting repolish of an old concept, but if the number of people these days trying to be programmers is anythign to go by, there will be significant intrest and maybe a few gems will emerge.

Source: BBC News

Yes, you heard correctly. The ninth entry of the fabled RPG series is going to be on the Nintendo DS. Very little concrete info has been released thus far, but we know that it's going to be called Dragon Quest IX: Defenders of the Stars and it's going to be co-developed by the Dragon Quest dearm team (Yuji Horii, etc.) and Level-5, virtually the same team that brought us Dragon Quest VIII for the PS2 a year ago. Horii himself stated in the press release that this DS game is "not a gaiden or side-story, but a true part of the series."

This is great news for fans of the series, who are unfortunately accustomed to long delays in between DQ titles (there were five years between the releases of DQ VI and DQ VII, followed by four years between DQ VII and DQ VIII). It is certainly unexpected for Square-Enix to put the next iteration of such a major series on a handheld system, but it might just be a testament to the overwhelming popularity and developer support of the Nintendo DS in Japan. In any case, the tentative release date for Dragon Quest IX is "mid-2007."

source: N-sider