Welp, NeXtBox Is Gonna Be Dumb

wait, I actually have to type stuff after that?

So, uh, meet Adam Orth, Creative Director of Microsoft Studios.  Some guy who is going to get very, very popular over the next day or so.

In what is either something that is rather telling or the worst timing ever, Orth decided it was a good idea to try to speak out Always On things on the same day that Kotaku ran yet another rumor about the NeXtBox requiring a constant internet connection to function.  Seeing as this is like, the tenth rumor in months from different sources (even if you discount Kotaku at face value which, to be fair, most of us do), it's a bit worrying without Orth's involvement.

When you then have Orth on the same exact day, near the same time, stating things like "I want every device to be Always On", arguing common complaints with terrible analogies and generally being a condescending prick as you see above, it's...well...kind of disconcerting.  To say the least.  Of course, I'm not explicitly saying the NeXtBox is going to have an Always On requirement, it's just that, at this point, it's more believable that the NeXtBox is going to be shaped like a Chibi Girl to attract more Japanese Marketshare than that it won't have an Always On requirement.  Because there is just a mountain of evidence at this point that points to it being a reality and, well....to be fair, when has the internet been -wrong- about something like this lately?  Nailed the PS4 specs before it was announced, nailed when and how it was going to be announced, and has given us the skinny on plenty of other things that seemed less-than-feasible.

Like a lot of people, this is going to be a make-it-or-break-it thing for me.  I don't necessarily worry that my internet -isn't- stable since it's up more than it's not these days (hope I didn't just jinx it), but I -have- had plenty of issues with it in the past.  Some issues that lasted nights in a row with which I took to my PS3 or PSP or Vita to assuage my fury.  To imagine that my gaming could be impeded by an outage that is already taking away a lot of my social ability and other means of entertainment (Youtube, mostly) is pretty much doubly infuriating which is exactly I won't be buying into it.  There's still time before this thing is announced that they can change it up, but at this point, I'm not hopeful.  Hell, even if it -is- announced as something that you can play offline, I'm going to be skeptical, because in my mind, it's something that was built to be played online all the time.  It'll be interesting to see how it plays out either way, I suppose.

Squeenix Says FF Versus XIII is Not Dead, Internet Remains Skeptical

I briefly considered simply updating the previous post about Final Fantasy Versus XIII in which everybody believe Kotaku for some reason when they said that Final Fantasy Versus XIII had been quietly cancelled and would not appear at TGS.  Or...you know, anywhere else, for that matter, since according to their 'inside sources' the game had been cancelled weeks prior and was in the process of being folded into a different project.  I figured that maybe it would just be enough to put down a paragraph at the end of that Versus post with the thing that says Squeenix CEO Wada says Versus isn't dead and elaborates a bit.  I was really, really leaning towards doing this, but I decided against it - not because this is something that I feel I can be long-winded about, or that I really want to talk of at length.  The simple reason I'm throwing this down as its own post, rather than an update, is for the simple fact that an update simply wouldn't be quite as cathartic as doing this post, and I simply cannot have that.

First off, as I do want to make this as fair as possible, all that happened was that Yoichi Wada tweeted that Versus was not cancelled and he had, in fact, just been in a meeting about the game in which he was shown things that he assured would cause everyone else to fall on the floor in amazement.  Nothing else was shared.  We are, in essence, exactly where we were before Kotaku decided to stir the pot and not really better for it, since the game is still nebulous in many, many ways.  That place where we were is a place where Versus XIII 'totally exists you guys' despite all indications to the contrary.  That place is a nice place nevertheless, but it's a place that we've known for years now, a place that we didn't really need to be reminded of its existence.  It is not, despite what several people say, a place of 'victory' in any sense of the word and would, in fact, likely be the exact opposite of that.

You see, in lieu of everybody feeling really goddamn silly at news of the rumor getting 'officially' debunked, everybody is instead turning this around and saying that it was in fact Kotaku's rumor-mongering that 'forced' Squeenix to respond.  Since Kotaku reported it, and then everyone else reported it, citing Kotaku's 'inside sources' as a valid font of information.  By having this wave of unease swarm out through the whole of the internet in an 'official' fashion, it -needed- to be stemmed by Squeenix, which is what they did.  I....am sure that I don't have to inform you that this is not how news works.  Even if you take 'gaming journalism' and throw all of the quotation marks around it indicating various levels of snark and such, this is not how it works.  We all have our favorite sources, I'm sure, that we cite as our favorites because we can expect them to keep a level-head in the face of knee-jerk reactions, but unfortunately nobody really survived this one intact as I was quick to point out in the post I made.

While nobody got it as bad as IGN for their "REPORT:  Final Fantasy Versus XIII Cancelled" headline, I really don't think anyone put it in the right light.  I don't cite myself as a 'source' for news, so I won't even suggest that my post on it, the post I really expected the majority of the internet to put down rather than what we saw, did the right thing.  I know the easy counter-argument is that "Hey, everybody just said it was a rumor" and yes, they did, save for IGN, but that's clearly not the point.  It's less in the actuality of what was said and more in the method, just in the way it was given credibility for absolutely no reason.  I could say anything in this post and say "But it's just a rumor, remember", like saying that Final Fantasy Type-0 is totally getting remade for the Vita with new features and Near integration.  And say that I have "inside sources" suggesting this is truth, that this is how the West will receive Final Fanasy Type-0, as a Vita game.  Because it's just a rumor, right?  If it gets picked up and Siliconera, IGN, etc. start reporting what I said in even just a little more credible manner than I did, we'd have the exact same situation.

And that is why this is cathartic.  Yes, it is rather petty to sit here and say "I told you guys so", but goddamnit, I did, and I shouldn't have had to exist as the voice of reason in the situation.  Not that I consider what I'm doing on the same level or anything, but you guys know what I mean.  As I said, we have officially gained -zero- ground after the whole situation, since before Kotaku posted that thing, the line was Squeenix saying it's being worked on and fans being skeptical.  Now, Squeenix is saying that it's still being worked on and fans are still skeptical since Squeenix refuses to show anything.  The only thing that can be gleaned from all of this is that people believe anything that Kotaku says.  I don't.  Hopefully after this, the trend will start moving back this way.

Kotaku Says FF Versus XIII Is Dead, Internet Rages

First thing's first, I would like to make a note of the fact that I am doing what most are -not- doing, which is keeping cool on this matter.  I'm not doing some knee-jerk "Final Fantasy Versus XIII is DEAD" titled post, nor even alluding to the fact that there is a real possibility that the game has been cancelled.  I'm not saying "Report: Final Fantasy Versus XIII Cancelled" like it's gospel truth.  I am merely taking something that is not only of personal interest to me, as well as a fairly big, recent story, and putting down what's been said of it, not only just so it gets out there, but also so that it hopefully does so in the correct manner.  Since I see so many people are doing it wrong.  (At least, wrong in the sense of just trying to post up stuff versus trying to ensure something is read by a bunch of people who will completely misinterpret what's there.)  Considering the, er, 'origin' of this story, I think it's a particularly egregious misstep for many folks out there, but not a surprising one, I guess.

So let's not dawdle and just lay things out on the table so that we may explain them, yes?  Kotaku (yes, they're still around, yes, the site is still miserable) has said that 'various sources' have confirmed to them that Final Fantasy Versus XIII is no longer a thing in development.  They are claiming that the game itself has been quietly cancelled, where the lengthy development time and results are merely being folded into another project which may or may not be a numbered Final Fantasy title.  This is all, both the quiet nixing and the folding, are apparently on the hush-hush because Squeenix fears that the mere notion that they are dumb enough to put six years worth of costs into an entirely new game without releasing the game they were attached to will scare away investors and affect the overall stock price.  Which is pretty much the only bit of any of this that does, in fact, make a little sense.

So yes, that means that the entirety of the story is that Kotaku has made a post about something that very well could be true without providing anything to back it up beyond what 'sources' have claimed.  Just let that sink in for a moment while I repost IGN's post on it titled "Report: Final Fantasy Versus XIII Cancelled" which is in no way a thinly veiled criticism or anything of the sort, let me assure you.  And when I point out that the actual Kotaku post itself which started all of this ends on this note: "So, is Final Fantasy Versus XIII finally and officially dead? Without confirmation from Square Enix, we can't say for sure. [...] But if the game fails to make an appearance at either the upcoming Final Fantasy celebrations or the 2012 Tokyo Game Show? Then yeah, given what we've heard (particularly of Square's reported desire to kill the game quietly), you'd be a lot safer assuming Versus XIII is kaput and start looking forward to the next big FF game." which is about as non-committal as can be, it's certainly not me indirectly stating my disappointment and dissatisfaction with the various news sources who have not only gone full-bore on something with a shaky leg to stand on, but have done so on something Kotaku themselves isn't even fully behind.

Is it easy to believe?  Absolutely.  Versus XIII is quickly on its way to becoming another Duke Nukem Forever considering that in the six years since it was shown off first and announced, we have received maybe half a dozen trailers, some screenshots early on, and some sketchy information that you generally...you know, back up with it being in motion which obviously Squeenix has lacked in doing.  If any other site had broken the 'story' first with something at least a tiny bit more concrete than 'inside sources', it would definitely be at least a little more believable since who honestly know just how much of Versus is done?  It only officially entered 'full production' last September, which I'm assuming means that they at least had an Alpha build of the game built at that point.  Which suggests, you know, kind of more of a game than one that you'd want to cancel, barring if you're Activision and have gone somewhat crazy.  But I don't think we're beyond thinking Squeenix is capable of doing something on that level of dumb.

I'm clearly a little unconvinced, of course.  I whole-heartedly believe that this is a thing that is possible, in spite of the fact that GAF (who is a surprisingly valid source) has people who has said Versus will be shown off at TGS and the fact that Theathrythm has recently received DLC (in Japan) featuring songs (a song?) from Versus XIII.  Strictly because Squeenix has done nothing to earn my, nor anybody else's, good will with something like this.  The actual fate of Versus, specifically just how the final product will turn out, has been nebulous since day one beyond "Action/RPG in a modern setting" which, in all fairness is more than enough to begin to generate the hype.  But you've got to follow up and follow-through, which Squeenix has simply failed to do.  So, much like Kotaku (ugh), I have to say that we'll just have to see how things go at TGS.  Perhaps it's just my own hope, but I think it'll be there.  Unfortunately, I'm not willing to back that up with 'inside sources' which may or may not exist.