No Final Fantasy XIII in Europe, US this year

Square Enix's president, Yoichi Wada, has confirmed that the upcoming Japanese RPG Final Fantasy XIII won't be available in the US or Europe until 2010 in a comment to Reuters, via The Guardian.

The PlayStation 3 RPG will still be launching in Japan by the end of the year however, according to Wada.

More depressingly, Square Enix will not even begin working on the Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XIII, which was announced by the previously Sony-loyal developer at E3 last year to much uproar, until after the PlayStation 3 version of the game is finished.

The comments therefore reinforce the notion that Square Enix is hoping to launch the title on both platforms at the same time in the West, rather than giving Sony a years advance on the Xbox 360 in Microsoft's most successful territories.

When Final Fantasy XIII is finally released in the West then it will have been in development for more than four years, having been publicly unveiled back in 2006. The game was originally planned as a PlayStation 3 exclusive, but some pressure from fans (and Microsoft) saw Square Enix confirm an Xbox 360 version of the game too, somewhat controversially.

Exact details on what fans can expect from the game are somewhat scarce, but it is known that the game will return to the Active Time Battle system and will feature lots of very young, androgynous-looking boys and girls with neon-coloured hair. The graphics are set to be particularly spectacular too.

Are you eagerly awaiting the release of Final Fantasy XIII, or are you sick of samey Japanese RPGs? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.