Hi everyone. We’re very happy to announce that it we’ve teamed up with Square Enix to bring you some great discounts across a range of titles from the epic Final Fantasy franchise.

With over 100 million units sold worldwide this is one of the most successful gaming series in history, so if you haven’t already played it, you couldn’t have picked a better time to get started!

Make sure your wallet is topped up and remember that if you don’t have access to your PS3 or PS Vita you can; now purchase directly through the online store at store.sonyentertainmentnetwork.com.

These discounts will go live after the store update this Wednesday, 23rd January and will run for one week only. Enjoy!
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The loyal PlayStation Blog readers amongst you might have noticed that Square Enix has been unusually quiet here in recent times, but no longer! Today we come bearing gifts! For all our RPG-loving fans we’re excited to bring you the world’s first screenshots of FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn on the PS3 (Chocobos included)!

In our first PlayStation 3 reveal we wanted to give you a guided tour around the UI and menus. With a wealth of different options and commands at your fingertips at any one time it was important for us to create an elegant UI that is easy to read and navigate. Taking inspiration from previous games the look and feel of the new FINAL FANTASY will be instantly familiar to long-time fans of the series. (more…)

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So I was just passing through the Square Enix booth at E3 and I noticed a door slightly ajar. I can never resist a slightly ajar door so I poked my head in to find Hiromichi Tanaka, senior vice president of software development, sitting down for a Final Fantasy XIV round table interview. There was a spare seat so I sat down, whistling behind a newspaper, and asked a few questions of my own.

As an extra titbit, there was PC monitor running the game in stereoscopic 3D in the same room, although Tanaka told me that this was purely a technical demonstration and he wouldn’t be drawn when I asked if they had any 3D plans for the PS3 version of the game.

How do you feel about the challenge of developing the first MMO on PlayStation 3?

“We had a similar experience with Final Fantasy XI as that was the first MMO on PlayStation 2 [in Japan only]. So this time, things came quite naturally for us and it helped us having the technology in mind from the very beginning.”

How do you intend to reach out to those console gamers that haven’t experienced an MMO before and are used to more instant gratification in their games?

“Because Final Fantasy XIV is designed as a cross-platform MMO, there is no difference between the PC version and the PS3 version. We believe that previous attempts to bring MMOs to consoles have been unsuccessful because they focused too much on adapting their style to suit that audience and they lost the feel of a true MMO. Therefore, regardless of the platform, we are aiming to produce a real MMO with Final Fantasy XIV.”

How much co-operation has there been between you and Sony Computer Entertainment in bringing an MMO to PS3?

“Sony [Computer Entertainment] has been extremely helpful to us, particularly with technical data while we were at the programming stage of development. We’ve also held talks regarding PlayStation Network functionality and we will be making the most of what that offers, integrating trophies and other features.”

What do you think of the PlayStation Move motion controller?

“Unfortunately, we haven’t had chance to try it out yet but we’ve heard very interesting things about it and we’d like to look at supporting it in Final Fantasy XIV, if we get the chance to do so. However, at the moment I would say that there are no current plans.”

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