Some really impatient Final Fantasy Fans may have made quite the discovery via a Final Fantasy XIII YouTube advertisement. Essentially the ad promoted that the release date would be announced tomorrow. Well, apparently in the URL of the page, the word “before” ended the text. Some very clever individuals simply typed in the word “after” instead and magically this image appeared. I guess we will have to wait till tomorrow for true confirmation. With the word out of Square Enix this date seems highly unlikely, but a move towards a comparatively uncrowded holiday season (especially with Q1 2010 filling up fast with delayed behemoths like Bioshock 2), this could be also be a smart move out of left field.
ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG
Although distributors have listed the US release as 2.22.2010–assuming this date here is the Japanese release date, then a Feb 2010 release in the US is pretty reasonable.
Actually, I would be really surprised if they would release it in February 2010 outside Japan. Assuming the localization process doesn’t take too long (they probably have most of the wrapped up already) it still leaves the case of finishing the Xbox 360 version for the simultaneous release.
Personally, Im expecting April or May… but any day sooner would be a blessing.