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[kupoartist]

26th September 2003 according to www.gameplay.com . I wouldn't post this at all, if it weren't for Gameplay's spotless record for announcing games release dates well before the companies tell us: www.square-enix-europe.com gives us no hints (its barely finished, even if its identical to the original square-europe site), but gameplay gave us the release dates for Silent Hill 3, FF6, FF Anthology and FF Origins way before the companies told us, so are the right?

If they are, there isn't long to wait, and whats more: it looks like another Europe before US release. So how have Square Europe made this miraculous turn-around?

To quote a all-seeing all-knowing PAL god (Foz from FFOnline):
"The difference with Square Europe now is that they have access to Europe's biggest localisation offices - where most Sony-translated games used 2 people per language, Infogrames average 10-15. As long as the English voiceovers are done, there's nothing to stop Infogrames from putting the game out before North America."

Now that Square-Enix-Europe is partnered with Infogrames - the biggest publisher this side of the atlantic - they can knock out the French, German, Italian and other Euro languages very quickly. Infogrames' Disc Production facilities are also more extensive, so they can manufacture the product as quickly as Square-Enix-USA. which is great news for those of us in Europe. So long as the game doesn't have borders that could cure ethiopian famine (asuming that the black-stuff in the tv is edible. i haven't tried, so i don't know.)

Sadly, we won't be as lucky with FFXI, as Sony Europe are in charge of getting the Network Adaptor and HDD out first...