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.

As if Millions of Gamers Suddenly Cried Out In Terror, etc. etc.

Hands clutched to hearts and eyes moistened earlier today when it was reported that The Last Guardian disappeared from GameStop's system, rendering all ability to pre-order it null and, even more worryingly, suggesting that the game was not going to come out.  Okay, it possibly wasn't all that dramatic, but the very idea that the latest game from Fumito Ueda, who has recently left Sony but is working on TLG as a freelancer, would not see an actual release is a realistic one in a lot of minds and that alone makes it a possibility to be feared.  Just the fact that Ueda left under the circumstances he did suggests that there has been some sort of strife internally, which only leads credence to the idea that the game has been scrapped.  And from what I've seen, it was a few long, miserable hours at least before any real clarification against the gigantic rumor mill that is the internet and games journalism came out to relax and assuage our fears.

First came a statement from Patrick Seybold, SCEA's Senior Director of Corporate Communications stating simply that the rumors of The Last Guardian's cancellation were, simply, "not true".  Mind that this is different if only because he didn't spout the normal company line of "Sony doesn't comment on rumors or speculations", which....sort of implies that they do.  Sometimes.  When an issue is clearly pants-on-head stupid to consider, as the cancellation of The Last Guardian is.  Still, that wasn't enough for some people and it certainly didn't help that the only people who picked it up at first seemed to be Kotaku and IGN (withholding links; IGN gets enough from me using their Screenshots and Kotaku.....urgh.), but eventually a statement from GameStop itself (yes, apparently Joystiq thinks it was a GameStop store or the entity of GameStop that issued a statement, since they couldn't list whoever issued the statement) that really sorts everything up.

"The Last Guardian has not been cancelled by Sony as we incorrectly stated in an automated call to reservation customers. Because the game did not have a specific release date, GameStop made the decision to remove the game from our system. The Last Guardian will be reinstated for pre-order when a firm launch date is known."

So, basically, GameStop unlisted the game because it hasn't had a firm release date in the entirety of its stay within their database which isn't entirely unreasonable at face value.  Of course, again this is The Last Guardian and it's going to come out, but it's also going to take a hell of a long time.  That's just how it is, and you gotta be ready to ride that out.  Common logic dictates that if the game had been in the system for as long as it's been, the best thing would be to just....y'know, put it back in now, rather than waiting for a release date, but I guess it's not an issue.  I just don't think it's likely taking up that much space.  But at the very least, GameStop did come out and say "our bad" since it was, indeed, their bad.

Perhaps I'm able to be passive about the entire situation since it had clarified by itself by the time I came around to find out about it, but I imagine I would've been highly speculative of it anyway.  After all, GameStop's system hasn't been all that accurate on Pricing and Release Dates in the past, and there are numerous examples of that.  Still, I'm sure there were plenty out there that believed this at face value, either by seeing the different outcroppings of 'news' stating that it was 'definitely' cancelled, or by speaking to people who had seen things and made it all seem worse than it was.  Any other company, and I'd almost expect them to capitalize on this to send out a new trailer or something but with Ueda/Team Ico....

Well, they'll just keep on truckin'.  And you can't help but like them for that at least, if not for the feelings you'll have when you finally play The Last Guardian.  Because trust me, there will be feelings.  Plenty of them.