Rumor has it that Sazh, one of the more popular characters from Final Fantasy XIII, may not appear in Final Fantasy XIII-2. A reveal from a Japanese magazine suggests that he'll be absent from the main story, but may appear later as downloadable content.

Read more: 'Final Fantasy XIII-2 will continue after release' »

Square Enix hasn't laid down a solid release date for Final Fantasy XIII-2, but the company is already hedging its bets with what appears to be a registration of a domain for Final Fantasy XIII-3. Square could just be protecting itself against domain squatters, just in case it decided to pursue a third game, but we saw similar rumors pop up in January with the FFXIII-2 registration.

Read more: The growing Fabula Nova Crystallis series »

Final Fantasy XIII may be seeing an official sequel, if a new domain is any indication. Siliconera reports that the domain name "Finalfantasy13-2game.com" has been registered, fueling rumors that we'll see the continued story of Lightning and her friends.

The domain registration itself would be unremarkable if not for the associated name: Corporation Service Company. It's been used for the registration of other domains for Square, like the original Final Fantasy XIII which is registered under the similar domain, "Finalfantasy13game.com." Read more »

Role-Playing: Mass Effect 2

In the far reaches of space, one man (or woman, if you'd prefer) holds the key to the salvation and preservation of the human race. In Mass Effect 2 players are introduced to a host of new characters that fight alongside Commander Shepard. While Shepard can be crafted to be as good or as bad as you want him or her to be, the character manages to remain a completely memorable figure in the world of video games for what he or she is able to accomplish. Read more »

It's time for a little corporate shilling, but it's the good kind of self-promotion that helps you find some good games on the cheap.

Bioshock 2

Developer and publisher Square Enix has reported that last year's profits were the highest it has recorded since being formed by the merger of Square and Enix in 2003.

Profits for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, were a stonking 27.8 billion Japanese yen (roughly $300 million US), beating the previous best year of 2007 by 1.6 billion yen. Read more »

SCE Santa Monica's brutal PlayStation 3-exclusive sequel God of War III took top honors as the best-selling console game in the United States during March 2010, research firm NPD Group revealed today in its monthly update on hardware and software sales.

"For the first time since its launch in the US, the PS3 has four titles in the Top 10, and was also the leader in console software sales," noted NPD's Anita Frazier. Meanwhile, only two Xbox 360 titles--Final Fantasy XIII, Battlefield: Bad Company 2--made the chart: Read more »

There's been no shortage of opinions on Final Fantasy 13 since its release last week to the rest of the world outside of Japan. Its new battle system stands out as one of the more hotly debated topics. Despite some familiar pieces like the active time gauge, fans are divided over the speed and flow of the fights and only controlling one character in the party. This became the center of the conversation when I sat down with Director Motumu Toriyama and Battle Director Yuji Abe not long before the game's release. Before we were done, I not only had a better sense for the combat, but I had learned Abe's favorite approach.

Read more »

Do you love Final Fantasy XIII so much that being away from the game is too much to handle? Would looking at pretty pictures from the game make it better? If so, Square-Enix has the iPhone application you're looking for...

A collection of hi-res pieces of Final Fantasy XIII artwork with a clock and calendar or as Square calls it: a "digital art book". Read more »

Speaking at Game Developers Conference on The Crystal Mythos, Final Fantasy 13 director and scenario writer Motomu Toriyama offered some insight into how the current game came to be and where the future of the series is headed.

Dipping back in their history for a moment, he pointed to Final Fantasy 10-2 as the point where Square Enix started thinking about multiple games in the same universe--i.e. expanding the overall mythology of one particular entry, such as Final Fantasy 10. Read more »

With Square Enix's long-awaited role-playing sequel Final Fantasy XIII having just hit Europe and North America, the company passed along some shipment figures.

In all, over five million copies of Final Fantasy XIII have shipped since the PlayStation 3 version hit Japan in December 2009. Of that sum, the North American and European shipments of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 editions make up over three million. Read more »

The batch of Final Fantasy XIII screenshots released last Friday contained doctored images of the Xbox 360 version, publisher Square Enix has now confirmed.

Suspicions arose as PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 screenshots were identical except for the control overlay, which reflected the control scheme of the appropriate console.

[Update] Square Enix has confirmed that "altered screens" of Final Fantasy XIII on Xbox 360 were "mistakenly" included in this batch, explaining "this was obviously not intentional" as "we don't feel there is a need to enhance [FF13 on Xbox 360]." [/Update]

Continuing to dole out fresh glimpses of upcoming games, The Media Train&trade has now stopped at the Final Fantasy XIII station, unloading a wealth of new screenshots from the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Square Enix's anticipated role-playing game. Read more »

Microsoft has announced a $399 Xbox 360 Final Fantasy XIII bundle, due to be released alongside the latest entry in Square Enix's long-running RPG series on March 9.

The Xbox 360 'FINAL FANTASY XIII' Special Edition Bundle packs an Xbox 360 with a 250gb hard drive, two wireless controllers, a headset, "exclusive downloadable avatar items" plus of course a copy of FFXIII--in this case the standard edition of the game. Read more »

In anticipation of the European and North American releases of Final Fantasy 13 this March, producer Yoshinori Kitase and director Motomu Toriyama recently responded to fan-submitted questions about the RPG on PlayStation.Blog.Europe.

Toriyama and Kitase discussed topics such as the game's 50-60 hour length -- about ten hours of which they said are cinematics -- and the optional side-missions that can effectively double the play-time. The possibility of a CG movie adaptation along the lines of Advent Children was also mentioned. Read more »