SquareSoft has announced that Final Fantasy X will be officially released to U.S. stores on December 26, 2001 in the limited quanities previously reported (500,000 copies on the 26th and then regular shipments after that).
   Gamers who can't wait until Christmas should check out Square's forthcoming Consumer Demo Day. December 15, 2001, Square will give U.S. fans a chance to play the English-language version at the San Francisco Metreon's PlayStation store. In addition to playing the game, fans will have a chance to win prize packages and receive a free Final Fantasy promotional item, while supplies last.

   source | The GIA

   SquareSoft has announced that its president and CEO, Hisashi Suzuki, will resign on his own accord following the report of the company's worst half-fiscal-year loss ever. Current COO Yuichi Wada will replace Suzuki on December 1, but he will remain as the company's chairman. SquareSoft reported a loss of 13.28 billion yen (about $107 million) for the six fiscal months ended September 30, and it expects a fiscal year loss of 17.70 billion yen (about $143 million), after a profit of 700 million yen a year ago.
   Under Wada, SquareSoft said that it will initiate a restructuring of its business plan in the face of a rapidly changing video game market. Much of its losses can be attributed to the less-than-stellar performance of the Final Fantasy film, which grossed a little more than $30 million worldwide, well short of the expected $90 million revenue goal.

   source | GameSpot VG

   Yes it is true! I went ahead and put some change into the SquareAMP radio playlists. Nothing too dramatic at the moment, gone from the 24Kbps is Xenogears and Final Fantasy Pray, but in its place is Final Fantasy IX.
   Over on the 56Kbps I went ahead and mixed the OST from Final Fantasy Tactics in. The Hitoshi Sakimoto-composed works joins the already existing Yasunori Mitsuda works from Chrono Cross and Xenogears. Shoot me an e-mail if you have any ideas or suggestions! I can be reached at joshua@squareamp.com.
   Also note that on the main page I went ahead and added some more choices for those who want to listen. You can continue to click on the Winamp link to listen the way you always have been, but you can also listen now via Player365 - which works in-browser for IE or Netscape (4.7x only). The advantage of Player365 is that you can see what song track is currently played. We will be adding a Radio subpage soon that has full playlists as well as detailed instructions on how to listen to SquareAMP Radio on any one of your favorite media players.

   source | N/A

   Well - it is very early in the morning on Saturday and I just was able to get our About page up by using an older version we had up earlier in the year with new information spliced in. It is here that we put out our thanks and link to some of our favorite sites.

   source | N/A

   Earlier, it was reported that the U.S. version of Final Fantasy X would have a soft "stealth" launch in December, before the official January release. This is indeed the case. Unfortunately, the original source was erroneous in claiming to The GIA that the title would release before the holiday season. Since their original story, multiple sources have confirmed that Square hopes to have Final Fantasy X in U.S. stores just one day after Christmas, on December 26th, 2001. The "official" launch will proceed as planned one week later, on January 2nd, 2002.
   The official U.S. Final Fantasy X website also recently launched. Though most of the character, world, and story information is already well-known, the site does offer clear, extensive English voice acting samples for all of the game's major characters.

   source | The GIA

   Square is planning to quietly ship about 500,000 copies of Final Fantasy X by the second or third week of December. The launch is planned to be totally unannounced, with no advertisements of any kind until the official release early next year, so those hoping to play Final Fantasy X over their break would be well advised to keep an eye on their local video game retailer of choice as Christmas draws near.

   source | The GIA

   With Square's near-empty release schedule, the company can't deliver its big name demos in the usual way, by bundling them with a more low-profile release. Thankfully, this doesn't mean American gamers won't get the chance to try out Final Fantasy X before its January 2002 release.
   The Winter edition of Sony's Jampack, the company's biannual collection of trailers and demos, will contain a playable trial version of the upcoming RPG blockbuster. There's no word on exactly what form the demo will take, but it most likely is a translated version of the short, two-part demo that was on display at E3 2001.
   In addition to the Final Fantasy X demo, the disc will also contain non-interactive trailers for Jax and Daxter, Okage: Shadow King, Dynasty Warriors 3, Tony Hawk 3, and Splashdown, as well as demos of Kinetica, Extermination, Drakan: The Ancients' Gate, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, and SSX Tricky. The Jampack will retail for a mere $7.99 and should be in stores by next week.

   source | The GIA

   Further information regarding Square and Disney's upcoming Kingdom Hearts has surfaced, tossing more foreign characters and worlds into the mix. In addition to the previously announced characters, both Yuffie Kisaragi and Squall Leonhart will be taking a break from their respective Final Fantasies to assist Sora in vanquishing the Heartless. Yuffie has managed to steal a completely new wardrobe for herself, while Squall has settled for merely borrowing Laguna's jacket and hair. That Squall has aged eight years since his last appearance while Selphie actually appears younger in Kingdom Hearts is most likely due to dabbling in time kompression.
   Additionally, the Disney worlds of Alice in Wonderland and Hercules will be explorable in Kingdom Hearts. Travel in the game will be accomplished via Gummy Ship, upgradeable through various parts of a similar, presumabley delicious gummy nature.

   source | The GIA , Madman's Cafe

   Square revealed that they're planning to release new footage of their PlayStatio 2 RPG 'Final Fantasy XI.' From what has been told, the new footage will be bundled with a special edition DVD for Square's feature film 'Final Fantasy: Spirits Within' in Japan. Scheduled for release on February 22, 2002, the two-disc set will include the added FFXI trailer and a Final Fantasy game series overview. The special edition set is expected to retail for 9,800 yen ($80). For reference, Final Fantasy XI will be the first online compatible title in the series, and is tentatively scheduled for release on the PlayStation 2 in spring 2002.

   source | Core Magazine

   On February 20th of next year, Square is planning a concert titled simply "Music from Final Fantasy" at 7:00 PM at the Tokyo International Forum. For those of you fortunate enough to be in the area at that time, tickets will be available for presale from November 12th to 20th and go on general sale on December 8th at the price of 6000 yen for all seats.

   source | The GIA

   The latest Weekly Famitsu magazine talks to the designer of Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story, Yasumi Matsuno, about the future of his creations.
   The full translated interview can be found here.

   source | The GIA