Late Night Consoling

While Square's CGI film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children was originally supposed to launch in North America simultaneously with the Japanese release, it was delayed several times before seemingly disappearing. Earlier this month, rumors surfaced that the film would be released around these parts "by the end of 2006," not exactly a very confident date. Fortunately for frothing Final Fantasy fans, the film will finally fall onto retail shelves on April 25. Of this year. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment today announced the date as well as the 2-disc DVD package's special features, which include deleted scenes, a "making of" featurette, and previews of the upcoming Final Fantasy VII spinoff games. Given the traditional lack of extra features on PSP movie discs, it is unknown what will be included on the UMD release.

One other bit of information that wasn't provided was whether the DVD will include the original Japanese audio track, something many fans surely desire. The announcement did, however, provide an exhaustive list of the film's English-language actors. The cast includes Mena Suvari (American Beauty) reprising her role as Aeris from Kingdom Hearts II, Steve Burton reprising his role as Cloud from Kingdom Hearts, Rachel Leigh Cook as Tifa, and many others.

As the list of confirmed developers and publishers preparing Revolution titles continues to build slowly, UK independent developer Blitz Games has announced an untitled game for the upcoming console. The company is currently working on a survival horror game called Possession for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC, and while rumors surfaced recently that Blitz may be preparing something for Revolution as well, they were not confirmed until now. Speaking about the unique properties of the Revolution, Blitz co-founder and development director Andrew Oliver said, "We're genuinely very excited to be working on the Revolution. Nintendo's innovation over the years has trail blazed new concepts and the new controller is no exception. It will give people new ways to play existing genres but moreover we hope it will spawn altogether new gaming experiences."

There is not yet a projected release date, but the project already has a "major publisher" on board and details should be revealed "shortly," so expect to see this one at E3 if not before. - Press release

In efforts to curb rampant inflation in its fictional world of Vana'diel, Square Enix has cancelled more than 700 accounts involved in the sale or purchase of in-game "gil" currency by way of real world currency. This practice is known as real money trading, or RMT. The press release states that, "Thanks to these measures, more than 300 billion gil has been removed from circulation, and the overly inflated prices of items have begun to fall to more realistic levels."

Square Enix is taking a markedly different approach with its MMO than that taken by Sony Online Entertainment, which recently began officially sanctioning real money trades on designated servers. Most MMO operators, however, including Blizzard with World of Warcraft, are explicitly against the practice. - Press release

Activision has officially confirmed recent rumors that the publisher will be handling a video game adaptation of the upcoming Transformers movie. The live action film will be directed by Michael Bay (Pearl Harbor, The Island) and executive produced by Steven Spielberg.

The game will ship in conjunction with the film's July 4, 2007 release date. It is in development by an unspecified studio for "console, handheld, and PC" platforms. Considering the far off release, don't expect to see it on current-gen home consoles. - Press release

Ubisoft today announced a deal to develop and publish a snowboarding video game franchise featuring Olympic gold medalist and six time X Games gold medalist Shaun White. No details are yet available regarding the game or any potential platforms. It will ship some time in 2007. - Press release

Echoing recent downsizing from rival Electronic Arts, publisher Activision has stated that it plans to reduce its workforce by something less than 7%. Approximately 154 jobs will be lost as a result of the move. This follows Activision's announcement of its third quarter financial results, which saw a significant drop from the previous year. Various factors left profits of several large publishers on the decline in recent months, but analysts expect the situation to improve as the next generation of consoles gets into full swing.

GameSpot has a developer interview on Ready at Dawn's Daxter (PSP).