Microsoft on Final Fantasy XIII

After Final Fantasy XIII was confirmed early last month for the Xbox 360, fanboys everywhere proceeded to collectively lose their s***. Among the grumblings, screaming, tears, and sweet joy (for 360 owners), were suspsicions. Yes, that's right: suspicions.

Speculations abounded Microsoft had to pay Square Enix in order to breach their exclusivity contract with Sony. But the platform maker says (sort of) this isn't true, and they're pleased about the deal:

“I think a lot of people assume a lot of things about why Square made that announcement,” said Xbox global marketing director Albert Pennello. “I think the most obvious reason that they made the announcement is just looking at the success of our console. I mean, we’re the leading console on a worldwide basis, we’re more than double the install base on the US."

“I actually think it’s a great partnership. Square has done games for us in the past, and I think there’s a point where Square just has to look at the Xbox 360, the install base and attach rates that we’re seeing and actually has to make a decision on their own that it’s the right thing to do for them."

“So, I think people make a lot of assumptions about what they read or the rumours that go around, but the reality of a lot of this is that we’re doing very well, we have a great install base, we have passionate gamers like you guys that buy a lot of games, and a publisher like Square can’t ignore that."

Notice he doesn't actually deny something occurred there. I mean, if you examine the language closely, it seems it could pretty easily it could be both (that both parties are happy and Square was paid for a contract breach). Not that it matters a whole lot either way; this would probably be one of the least sleazy deals out there in the industry, if it's sleazy at all. And in a sense, in the long run anyway, this could all be beneficial, depending how you want to look at it. With a franchise as big as Final Fantasy now on every platform, could we be on the path to Silicon Knights' Denis Dyack's one console future?