This is the saddest thing I've seen in my life. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3014335937&category=11050
This person is an importer and managed to get to level 60 which is the level
cap so far which means he obviously have no life. Getting to lvl 60
seriously takes way too many months to count. On his screenshot, he also has
some nice items and armour. This guy thinks he can sell his lvl 60 character
for 700 usd HAHAHAHHAHAA. It would be even sadder to see a person bid on
it...

Final Fantasy Expansion box art revealed. The expansion alone is sold for
2980 yen. The set which includes Final Fantasy XI and the expansion is sold
for 7800 yen. These are all ps2 prices. None of the pc prices have been
decided yet. And if you look on the bottom, it has the square soft logo, but
it says "Sqare Enix Co. LTD."

On the first day of the release of Final Fantasy X-2, and amazing 1.8
million copies was sent out in many Japanese stores. An even more amazing
1.2 million copies was sold in the FIRST DAY. I guess all those advertisement
worked out.

Final Fantasy X-2 is now out in Japan as of March 13, 2003. How's the game
you ask? Well the Japanese magazine, Famitsu, gave it a fair rating. The
scores Famitsu gave was noticeably lower than the scores of Final Fantasy X.
Even after all the purple guns and the lower rating, FFX-2 still stands as
number one on the list of "most wanted games", in Japan. I don't think I've
ever seen a game with so many different ad campaigns and commercials. Just
go to Japan, you'll see a bunch of ads for ffx2.

Apparently, new magazine scans have revealed a couple other characters. Now
they have both a tidus wannabe, and a yuna wannabe. It reminds me of ffviii,
when they had Laguna which sorta resembles Squall.  Click on the pic to enlarge.

With Final Fantasy X2 releasing on March 13, 2003 in Japan, square and all
them thinkers are trying a final push to increase their sales. Final Fantasy
X2 has hit the top for the list of most wanted games in Japan. Two new
videos were released recently. One was a music video that showed some scenes
from ff x2 and Koda Kumi singing "Real Emotions." The second video has both
Koda Kumi singing, plus additional scenes from final fantasy X2, and the
debut of their second theme song, "1000 words."
 

Squaresoft and Electronic Arts have split up. There was a contract between
the two firms which had expired not too long ago and Square's merging with
Enix has led to this event. The Square EA name will be changed to Electronic
Arts Corporation by March 31, 2003. Square EA had started out on May 1, 1998
on the basis of a joint venture contract where EA invested 70% in the
venture and Square 30%. The two had joined forces back then so that they
could enlarge business sales through the joint venture.

Square EA sold Final Fantasy XI. The split up is said not to effect the
sales of FFXI. More news will surface later on.
 

Wonderswan is finally pulling out of the market after 4 years. The
Wonderswan made by Bandai is most famously known for their final fantasy
series. The first final fantasy 1 and 2 remakes made their first appearance
on the wonderswan. Final fantasy 4 also made an appearance on the
wonderswan. Game production for the swan will be continued for a short time.
Bandai has discontinued any plans for future handheld technologies.

Only 3.5 million unites of Bandai's wonderswan had been sold in the last 4
years. To give you a scale of how small that is, Nintendo is projecting that
their GameBoy Advance will sell 20 million units in the next fiscal year
alone. Bandai lost 1.7 billion yen on handheld gaming this fiscal year,
though the company will post a profit overall, thanks to lines such as
Dragonball Z and .hack.

Anyone worried about the company's own handheld games won't have to worry,
as Bandai also announced resumed software support for Nintendo portables.
 

The first beta testing of the North American version of Final Fantasy XI has
started. I have no idea why they would beta test a game that has already
been beta tested in Japan for half a year. Square does plan on an open beta
of Final Fantasy beta later on. Random accounts from their North American
playonline websites have been chosen to test this game. My experiences on
playing the Japanese version of Final fantasy has been horrible. If you mess
up on the class and race you choose, the game will be a torture for you to
level up or play any missions at all. Final fantasy XI may exceed some
people's expectations, but it really let me down when I played it.
 

3dlabs have announced that they will start production of graphics card for
the new PCI express. 3dlabs are best known for their professional grade
graphics cards. Their award winning Wildcat and Wildcat 2 series have really
built them a strong reputation.
PCI Express is a low-cost, highly scalable, I/O interconnect technology that
can be used to replace existing PCI, AGP and other bus systems. This third
generation technology currently runs at 250MBps per lane in either
direction, providing 16GBps bandwidth in a 32-lane configuration. So don't
bust your money on those NVIDIA FX or ATI RADEON 10000 cards just yet.

PCI express should show up on motherboards in about a year.
In my opinion, it would be cool if they had this kind of technology on a
console. Gaming would be taken to a new height, and that does include the
final fantasy series.
 

Below are the links for the opening movies for both the Japanese remakes of
final fantasies 1 and 2.

http://ruliwebfile.intizen.com/mpeg2/ffold/ff1op.mpg http://ruliwebfile.intizen.com/mpeg2/ffold/ff2op.mpg

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The new and official final fantasy origins site has opened. Click below to
view the website.

http://www.squaresoft.com/playonline/FFORIGINS/

If you haven't tuned in lately, here's the scoop. Final fantasy 1 and 2
remakes will be combined onto one collection for the North American release.
This collection is called "final fantasy origins." This remake is king over
all other remakes because it has added a monster encyclopedia, new music,
new quests, new movies, and most importantly NEW GRAPHICS!! Final Fantasy origins is due to hit stores in North America on April 8th. Not only that,
the two remakes will sell for a low low price of 30 USD.


 

The official FF XI add-on site has been opened. The site shows more
screenshots of other summons and release dates of the expansion. Visit the
website below.
http://www.playonline.com/ff11/ex1/01.html

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The new Nintendo game boy advanced sp will have a special edition released.
This package will include a special edition game boy advanced sp (duh) and
final fantasy tactics advanced. The set will be sold for about $150 USD.