Rumor: Microsoft has exclusive marketing deal for Final Fantasy XIII
Recently during the NBA All-Star weekend, a Final Fantasy XIII advert aired during the event. Many eagle-eyed gamers spotted this commercial and noticed that it ended with an Xbox 360 logo with no PS3 logo in sight. This caused many to speculate that Microsoft may have some sort of exclusive deal for marketing.
Normally for multi-platform titles you would see a commercial ending with a black screen showing all of the platform it’s available on. However, the first Final Fantasy XIII ad to air on TV clearly shows the Xbox 360 logo at the end. This caused many to speculate that Microsoft might have paid for exclusive marketing rights.
It could also be a situation where Microsoft and Sony are running their own commercials independently like it was done for Grand Theft Auto IV. Its hard to say what is going on here but exclusive marketing deals do happen from time to time. Sony recently secured exclusive marketing rights for Assassin’s Creed II for the PS3.
In the end its difficult to say how much of an impact these exclusive ad deals make towards game sales as the intended hardcore audience will probably be aware of every single detail about the game before the first commercial even airs.
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39 Responses to “Rumor: Microsoft has exclusive marketing deal for Final Fantasy XIII”
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February 16th, 2010
“Normally for multi-platform titles you would see a commercial ending with a black screen showing all of the platform its available on.”
Not where I live you don’t. I rarely see a multiplat that Sony & Co. bother to advertise, they usually always end with the 360 logo.
February 16th, 2010
“It could also be a situation where Microsoft and Sony are running their own commercials independently like it was done for Grand Theft Auto IV.”
You think?
I also saw a Batman Arkham Asylum commercial with only PS3 at the end of it before I left the States… if the company pays for the airtime they have the right to use only their product’s name, as long as they don’t say “only on” in reference to the game itself. What were they advertising besides the game? Their free DLC if you bought their version instead.
What is Microsoft advertising besides the game? Their “special” (insert lame) edition of the the FFXIII bundle. I would be pleased to see Sony bring their special edition from Japan to the States, just so Microsoft could eat it in sales because of their weak attempt at selling the overpriced 250GB hard drive which you cannot buy separately.
February 16th, 2010
nice! keep talkin shit about microsoft
February 16th, 2010
Microsoft Desperately Marketing FFXIII Sony Playing Their Cards Right
http://www.ironstarmovement.com/profiles/blogs/microsoft-desperately
February 16th, 2010
Microsoft better at marketing their games? Never heard that one before.
February 16th, 2010
“It could also be a situation where Microsoft and Sony are running their own commercials independently like it was done for Grand Theft Auto IV”
I’d put my money on that. Of course that still means that we’ll see a hell of a lot more 360 FF13 commercials than PS3.
February 16th, 2010
I wouldn’t read to much into this. I have no doubt that sony will advertise their own. The real winner here is square enix
February 16th, 2010
I guess we’ll see.
The pre-orders are a lot higher on PS3, so maybe they won’t bother. But that would be really stupid on Sony’s part.
February 16th, 2010
Phranc and BJ,
did you guys read the article I posted up there?
it’s basically saying that Sony is playing smart and letting MS advertise FF13 for them (since the name Final Fantasy is always attach to the playstation brand) and that will leaving Sony to focus on advertising GoW3 and MLB the show since both of those Sony first party games are coming out during the same month. so they are letting MS adverstise a game that will be available on PS3 anyways and it’s well known that FF is attach to the PS brand
February 16th, 2010
@Roca
The article was blocked at work. (I’m back boys)..cough cough…oink.
I think what needs to happen is like what happened with the PS3 port of Bayonetta. Sony needs it shown that their version is so far superior that it would make little to no sense to even bother on the other system.
If in fact the CGI movies aren’t even HD quality on the 360 that should be enough imho. If the quality of clarity is DVD quality vs blu ray quality I expect the 360 version to get grilled in the graphics dept by all reviewers worthy of that title.
February 16th, 2010
What you mean aren’t even HD quality? You do realise games aren’t read like an image file for your standard dvd?
Although I do see the need for multiple disks. I know quite a few ff fanatic 360 owners but can’t see this make them want to switch back to sony.
February 16th, 2010
@CON
I looked it up and the 360 version is HD. It’s 720p while the PS3 CGI is 1080p. It’s significant but not as significant as if the 360 version was only in 540p (DVD quality).
CGI is video files and not like normal games. You can put high quality 720-1080p on DVD but it takes up so much space they compress it or make the video quality itself less for storage reasons.
February 16th, 2010
Okay the only thing that will be significant will be the sales. It will be interesting to see how the 360 version fares.
February 16th, 2010
as a gamer, sells figures won’t be significant to me!
February 16th, 2010
If it hadn’t of been for the 360′s game sales figures ps3 wouldn’t have lost ff13 as an exclusive and you’d have been playing it a year ago. So as a gamer sometimes they are significant.
February 16th, 2010
@Mike
What is your source for this “rumour”?
February 16th, 2010
significant to you maybe
February 16th, 2010
I ain’t the one who had to wait over a year to play a game that was already made lol significant to you!
February 16th, 2010
If sales are what matters to make this “significant” keep in mind that the PS3 version of FF13 already has a 1.9 million head start on the 360 version.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say the 360 version of FF13 won’t even sell that much.
February 16th, 2010
Roca, idk I still don’t think that’s a great idea.
Also I received the new Game Informer. Guess which mulitplatform game didn’t send in a 360 version for review?
By the time they review and print the 360 review, the game will already be in the stores.
Really slimy move on SE’s part… AGAIN.
February 16th, 2010
1.9 million eh?
Okay that sounds like a bet
February 16th, 2010
“I ain’t the one who had to wait over a year to play a game that was already made lol significant to you!”
I was way too busy playing all the PS3 exclusive last year (infamous, U2 (GOTY), Demon’s Souls, KZ2 etc)…for all I care, it can be delayed another year. but then again well have to hear it from you whining about it. This game was a must for Sony when there wasnt big games to play (back in 2006-2007) since then, I could care less about when it would be released
February 16th, 2010
@BJ
read the article, it is explained better there.
February 16th, 2010
FF13 is going to go into Sony’s favor in terms of sales, so Microsoft SHOULD be trying to turn this around. It’s one of the biggest games this gen, and it would be a mistake to let Sony eat all of the cookies.
Off topic:
I just remember a funny story from back in the summer. Me and a friend went out to see District 9, and in the theatre we were arguing about PS3 vs 360. Since he was backing up the 360, and he didn’t even own one, he was sorely losing. Suddenly, a game report comes up on the screen and talks about 360 exclusive Forza 3. So he says “Ohhh, you WISH the PS3 has that!” (which I do admittedly), and he doesn’t even know what the game is.
Then, a commercial for Uncharted 2 pops up. He was just like o_o, and didn’t say a thing. Priceless
February 16th, 2010
is his name Happyhockum? or CAD?
February 16th, 2010
I come on.. Saber wouldn’t have friends as assine a Happy or CAD.
February 16th, 2010
Actually there are no 360 reviews for FF XIII anywhere. So Square forgot to send out review copies for everyone then? Highly suspicious.
February 16th, 2010
@BJ
yeah that sounds strange
February 16th, 2010
From the review I saw, it talked of the differences and I posted them in the other topic. That was basically it. They said the game was a great port and the differences are negligible at best.
February 16th, 2010
@Saber
I have seen Forza, and I am not impressed one bit. I will give the xbox one thing, its community does stick together, I.e they’ll buy up anything that is mediocre en masse just to have something to tout about, aka Halo, ( although the story and single player are garbage, multi is fun, gotta give credit) and Forza, which aside from damage and custom paint jobs, is way way below GTs graphical, physics, standards…to me all forza is, is a lame attempt at copying GT..
Now, if you bring up project gotham racing….now that’s a racing game I would much rather play than forza, and go so far so to say is funner, at time, than gt…could be I loved the series since the dreamcast…pgr is one helluva game..it even looks better than forza…
February 16th, 2010
Speaking of the devil..
* While facial detail appears largely unchanged, the characters’ clothes appear at first glance to be lacking finer details, with notably lower resolution textures.
* Incidental environmental objects and enemies appear less detailed, both in texture and geometry.
* The game’s CG is extremely compressed and pales alongside the stunning HD goodness which blu-ray offers.
“stunning HD goodness”? lol
http://news.vgchartz.com/news.php?id=7057&mp=1
February 17th, 2010
@ jojo
Well, we don’t exactly have a full-fledged racing game as of far, so I would buy it. However, I’m not a racing fan, and I can wait as long as GT5 is going to take. As long as it’s better.
February 21st, 2010
“forza is, is a lame attempt at copying GT..”
Right, that’s why Forza 3 is the DICE 2010 Racing Game of the Year.
February 22nd, 2010
“Right, that’s why Forza 3 is the DICE 2010 Racing Game of the Year.”
hahaha….you gotta feel good about that one huh? Froza had no competition and was the only award the 360 got meanwhile Uncharted 2 was going against Batman: AA, AC2, Demon’s Souls, Dragon Age, MW2 and more and it wont 10 awards (most by any games).
February 22nd, 2010
Microsoft Game Studios are the only one to have put out a universally acclaimed racing game this entire generation so far… maybe if Polyphony spends some more time on it GT5 will surpass it.
February 22nd, 2010
too bad the amount of DICE awards between LBP and Uncharted 2 vs Forza is “18 vs 1″
February 23rd, 2010
That’s great actually. They are well deserving. But they aren’t racing games.
February 23rd, 2010
but they are awards……Sony have not put out a full fledge racing game.
so enjoy your single award that happens to be in the category where there wasnt a single game from Sony
February 24th, 2010
“Sony have not put out a full fledge racing game”
True… so true.