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Aussie gamers wait til '07 for FFXII

Final Fantasy XII to arrive in Australia early next year, preceded by Dirge of Cerberus this November.

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SYDNEY--Square Enix fans in Australia are used to waiting months longer than Japanese and US gamers to get their hands on the publisher's latest titles. Now with the highly anticipated Final Fantasy XII, it's going to be same-old, same-old for gamers down under.

While Final Fantasy XII for the PlayStation 2 will be released in the US at the end of October (after having been available in Japan since March), Australian retailers won't receive the game until early 2007. Ubisoft is distributing the title down under and has confirmed that Final Fantasy XII will be released in Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, and the Nordic territories including Iceland no sooner than next year. Ubisoft did not disclose a specific date.

Ubisoft is also distributing the PS2 title Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII in Australia. Dirge of Cerberus was released in the US in August. An Ubisoft spokesman told GameSpot Australia that Dirge of Cerberus, which follows the adventures of Final Fantasy VII character Vincent Valentine, is set for release locally in mid-November of this year.

The last Square Enix game Australians waited months for was Kingdom Hearts II. The Disney-infused role-playing game was released here on September 28, which followed the US release by six months and the Japan release, in December of 2005, by almost a year.

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IcejunkTyrant

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Hey you guys, waiting has been an issue since gaming started in japan and alike Didn't we all expect this?.. I for one am happy that it's now officially released here in europe and I can't wait what's all this crap about language changes?... has there ever been another language FF from 7 and counting up?.. I thought there were only english en japanese ones ^_^; I live in holland and we get an english game, and I'm glad, cause I can't stand dutch =) Also, didn't Square Enix reward us with PAL versions in FFX Giving us the dark aeons to feast another 30 hours on and some other things? Tho they fooled us by not putting in a FFXII Demo in dragonquest VII =( but anyone, gotta go to the store and grab my copy of FF12!~^_^ Bye bye, A FF fan-

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shani_boy101

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[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]

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shani_boy101

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This is what those game excecutives probably say: Secretary: " The Game is done sir. Where shall we send the copies?" Excecutive:" Send them to Japan, and the US." Secretary:" What about Australia?" Excecutive:" Meh, Who needs them? Send it to em in about a year." I mean cmon first you "must" delay the PS3 comin to oz, then you gotta hold back all the good games? YOU YANKS ALSO STOLE OUR TIM TAMS!!!!!! Your'e pissing off a WHOLE CONTINENT. Get working!!!!!!!

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Web-sucker

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This sucks man. Now till next year.......

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pretzelmeister

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i'm so sick of waiting....

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JimmeyBurrows

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i can see why Japan gets it like a year before, which is fair, but why does America get it before all the other countries. i guess its down to the re rendering in the new formats, but its kinda annoying hearing about the whole game two or more monthd before it comes out! sucks!!!

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greymage_daan

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At least we get them....

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mystic_knight

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its already in PAL format to kill it all and they still delay us ... it seems crap if its in the hand of sony or ubisoft ... it pisses me off

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Arusu666

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It's been a really long time anyway. On the other hand, it's really unfair that we have to wait what, four months? As the others, I don't really get the system the games go through before they find their way in Europe or Aussie.

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ssjdagas

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I don't understand why it needs to take such a long time before we get the games in PAL. They already have the English translation so why not release the game in countries that know English like UK, Ireland, Holland, Sweden etc. We in Sweden get the game in English anyway (No one bothers to translate to Swedish and 95 % knows English anyway). If the French, Italians, Spanish, germans etc. can't understand English they can wait for the local version of the game. I see no reason why we should have to wait just because they are too lazy to learn English. I'm glad PS3 will be region-free that means I can import my games from NA if they decide that the PAL release is going to be 6 months later.

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Web-sucker

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well im patient enough to get dis game.....but i know the Pal version will take longer but thats ok.

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Kuriei

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I don't know about Australia, but i'm pretty sure PAL versions take so much longer than the US versions because it's 1 language/font change vs. like 13 and probably a whole new build so they only have to put out one version with a language selector. Considering it usually takes them 6 months to a year to get it out in the US even i'm actually surprised it only takes another 4-6 for PAL.

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qubeley

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Well if we import US games from eBay or when I bought them overseas while I was on holiday this year, a new release game is around AU$67 to AU$70. But if we wait till they release here, we are paying $100 for the same game 6 months to a year after...so you know the maths...how much time and money we can save if we just import instead of waiting :)

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CMakaCreative

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What type of changes need to be made on a game for it to be released in PAL territories that are different than the US version. I'm sure some translation but does it take that long (nearly 4- 6 months after the US get's their copy). If I lived in PAL territories, I'd definitely import. If I knew how to read Japanese, I'd import all the time. At least the stuff is in english, though I'm sure some of the stuff might not make sense, overall, you'll know what's going on. Hang in their my Assuie pals. How much cheaper/expensive is a US PS2 compared to a PAL PS2?

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qubeley

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BTW, buying games overseas are cheaper too. I bought Kingdom Hearts II in Hong Kong when I was on holiday there for around AU$67 (and it is a new release at that time) and it just got released here this week at AU$99. So why would I want to wait and pay more in the end? I am almost done with KH II while people here just started playing it. I remember both Baten Kaitos and Tales of Symphonia came out 6 months after I finished it (and I spent more than a 110 hours on BK and more than 200 hours on ToS already). Both games where bought as 2/3 of the Australian release price when they were new release in US. I just bought Baten Kaitos Origins and Okami on eBay at around AU$60 (both are just released in US) and they don't even have a release date for BKO and Okami is not coming out till March 2007. Now that's what we call ripped off.

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qubeley

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That's why I no longer buy games in Australia. Now that I've got a US PS2 I just buy US games when they come out in US. This is the beauty of eBay :) Haven't been buying games in Australia for ages. Couldn't be bothered to wait. By the time games come out in Australia, we are all dead and buried. These big companies cannot blame people for importing games and affecting the local sales because why should people like us who buy games to support these companies wait for nearly a whole year before we can actually play the game? This is inconsiderate and pathetic. If Nintendo can release Thousand Year Door and Metroid Prime Echo simultaneously in US and Australia, other people should be able to do so, instead of forcing us to wait.

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abhitronnus

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wah, i want ffxii now! sucks having to wait. oh well, ffxii better live up to the hype when it finally releases down under.

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Universquall

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We have Drakengard 2 out here. Not the rest though.

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Impostorzim

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I think this is bullcrap. I'm not an Aussie and I'm not from Europe, but what the hell? You guys if anything are closer than us to Japan. How can it be that we get it before you? and why is Sony messing up so much these last few years? Did you read that post here about all that crap about PS3 being postponed I believe? and it overheating a TGS? If I'm gonna play my $600 game console, it better not overheat halfway through my loading screen. and all this crap about blu-ray in the PS3 is giving me a rash. If Sony and Square Enix don't buckle down a bit, they will lose millions and millions. Good luck to ya'll.

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Hack__Hack

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racist

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Tebbit

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You think Australia has it bad? New Zealand has the same problems, but everything is $10 more expensive! Bah to Sony, first the PS3, then Okami, now Final Fantasy XII and Dirge of Cerebus...

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brucies_bubbles

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Why can't they release it in 60FPS like with Metroid Prime Echoes. And we always only get the kingdom hearts and Final Fantasy games. Where's the Grandia 3, Drakengard 2, Valkryrie profile and other square enix games. Konami do a good job normally of porting all there games to PAL. Next they will have a problem doing HD games in PAL. It's cheaper to import the games from the states in most cases i.e KH 2. They have to get better at translating the games to PAL or people will get sick of waiting and just download them off the net

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doolies

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Thats too bad for Ubi. I'll be importing and Playing FFXII by the end of this month with my swap magic. Best investment ever for my PS2. So tired of being jerked aroud.

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WESLY_SNYPES

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Don't look forward to Dirge of Cerebus because it is a crap game.

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TryMe01

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"Sucks .... Nintendo is the only one supporting us!!! Go NINTENDO!! " That is very true, we Australians are not the last ones to get the Wii and were the first ones after Japan to get our hands on the DS Lite

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Soul_Of_Snake

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Same for the U.K. too :( We all in the same boat... hope it worth the wait, looks like it will be!

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shannon_michael

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This sucks, Aussies always get the raw end of the deal!!

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Bathyj

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One of the best bits of news I've heard about PS3 is that it will be region free. We wont have to wait for these game all the time.

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priestkai

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Thank god for imports.

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pnoy_dude25

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that sucks...

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stunts1337

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tbh I was expecting this so its no suprise.

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daqua_99

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Sucks .... Nintendo is the only one supporting us!!! Go NINTENDO!!

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anamnawshad

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This sucks for Aussies :(

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Googeta

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WoW i don' understand it:D

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jakeboudville

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this isbad

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TheNay-Sayer

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Why doesn't this annoy me more like it should? I guess it's because all the years I've been playing games have beaten the expectation of ridiculous Australian delays into my head and for once this Christmas is busy enough without hours of FF to play through. My advice to everyone who wants timely releases for video games in Australia: Import your new consoles and import your games. Because sadly it seems that's the only option.

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solidte

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Oh this sucks big time, i really wanna play FFXII, now i have too bloody wait 3 months i know this has been done before but 3 more months is so long away and i am really hyped for this game.

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mjc

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mjc  Moderator

That's it...import system and import game are on the board.

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alent

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CRAP! Good news about Dirge of Cerberus though....but CRAP!! Sorry just had to let out some anger there... I thought 12 would be here this year for sure...now i wont have time to play 12 before i get my freaking Ps3...

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fantasyfacade

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imbacon: That still doesn't make sense. Most games in Europe only come out in one lanuage and that lanuage is English because the majority of Europe know how to read and write English. FF only comes out in English and if XBox(360), PC and GC games can come out here a month and less after the North Ameican release I don't see what the problem is about releasing PS2 games here within that time. As for censorship all of Europe follows the same censorship act and is done by the same group for everywhere. Countries don't do it seperate we do it as the European Union.

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imbacon

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I don't understand when people act shocked that EU and alike regions have to wait on a game. Ok, this has probably been covered for but lets break it down anyway... PAL is a different format then the game's native format, NTSC. Europe is made of quite a few countries, and guess what, not all of em speak the same language! In some cases in the past(I don't know if it still practiced today) censorship, which was VERY common back in the day, (Contra became Probotector, blood in several games was changed from red to green ,etc.). There's probably other factors I'm forgetting, but you see where I am going with this right? Doing a simultaneous release while ideal for all gamers, isn't ideal for the company who is making the game, the reason, cash flow!

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hemakm3

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ouch.

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Manaka-kun

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Bah! It's times like this that I hate being an Aussie...

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DELTAsnake

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This is no suprise, Sony has been a bit slow on getting PAL versions ready the last few years. Not to mention the fact that when the big games are finally released they dont get much attention. Sony seems to thing Australian gamers as third class citenzens.

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Star_Jump

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This is no big deal - happens all the time with everything Square-Enix. I'll be expecting it to come out in March next year then. It's a good thing PS3 is region free though, which means they won't (hopefully) have to place us with the other PAL territories (France, Germany etc the rest of Europe) which needs language translations.

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danteliveson

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sucks to be an Aussie

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dnzperson

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Yeah, it sucks in aussie with the release date and price etc - but in NZ the prices are like $119.99 NZD for 360 games - not to mention they didn't release the console down under until March. Atleast the Wii will be here Dec 9th, except it's for $499 NZD!! That's more than $250 USD - the NZ $ isn't that bad against the greenback. It's the same for everything in the video game industry, PCs, Consoles - they're always released way later in Oz and NZ (apart from rare cases like the wii). But I suppose there is a reason for it. The profit from the US will be far greater than Aussie and NZ combined - although I'm not sure what sales are like in Europe. They just don't see PAL as a money maker, atleast not as much as NTSC. But there are a few good things, like the Worldwide edition of FFX, which included extra content and bosses etc.

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crithon

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this is horrible? I mean considering that the australian gamers pay twice as much as US gamers this would be a perfect excuse for them to pirate video. Since the video game companies don't want to give them a break, at the very least when they release the game sell it for them at a budget price

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blackdamage

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Man, that sucks for you Aussie guys. And I'm sure it will be the same for us Europeans. Although I don't know if I'll buy this one seeing as my PS2 is temporarily broken, and as I'm temporarily in a phase of J-RPG loathing.

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