E3 has annually drawn thousands of journalists, retailers, exhibitors and others. It was originally started to give games publishers a platform to announce new products and consoles are available for testing. The Entertainment Software Association who host the E3 will stop being a trade show and become a more “intimate event.” According to the official press release from the ESA:

The world of interactive entertainment has changed since E3Expo was created 12 years ago. At that time we were focused on establishing the industry and securing orders for the holiday season,” said Douglas Lowenstein, President of the ESA, the trade association representing U.S. computer and video game publishers and the owner of E3Expo. “Over the years, it has become clear that we need a more intimate program, including higher quality, more personal dialogue with the worldwide media, developers, retailers and other key industry audiences.

Sony Entertainment recently held their anual PlayStation Awards ceremony with Ken Kutaragi, Sony Entertainment’s president at hand. The event winner was once again, you guessed it, Square Enix. Square Enix won a double platinum award for Final Fantasy XII, a platinum award for Kingdom Hearts II and a gold award for Dirge of Cerberus.

GoNintendo offered up a shaky-cam video of the new Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates trailer at the San Diego Comic-Con. The video is 21 seconds long, and it’s not very crisp, but it does give us a good idea of what type of game Square Enix wants us to see it as. The action in the trailer is very, very fast paced. If you’re looking for a multi-player DS game to get excited about, check out this video.

[YouTube] [GoNintendo]

Sorry for the delay in the news, but I’ve been off supporting a movie release. But while I was away, I did see this interesting piece of news: The buzz on the street is that the next update to the Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XI will add 32 “achievements” in the game. Apparently, Final Fantasy XI is “the only Xbox 360 game” to have never implemented a “Gamerscore” system. From my understanding, Gamerscores are an important part of the Xbox Live community in that they help to determine the top players on Xbox Live.

I do not have access to a Xbox 360, so if anyone has a better understanding of the whole situation, feel free to post in the comments.

[Balbadiax] [Joystiq]

In the last year the PlayStation 3 has had some serious problems over the last year, and it does not seem to be getting any better. The sucess of the previous version of the PlayStation is the amount of third-party companies making games for it. In a survey taken recently of many game developers, 90 percent said that the price of the console was far to high. Sony’s PlayStation business has always been backed by incredibly strong third-party support, but now for the first time that could be in jeopardy.

Source: DailyTech

Today, Square Enix released a statement on their website responding to the reports of a Final Fantasy XI sequel being developed. In this statement, they refuted the claims that they had announced a sequel to their existing Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. On the other hand, they did point out that they did announce that an unnamed MMORPG is being developed.

It should be noted that they did not deny or confirm that this upcoming title will be in any way related to Final Fantasy XI.

[Joystiq] [Square Enix]

IGN brought to attention today that the Japanese news site Nikkei Net broke the story that Square Enix is developing a sequel to their popular Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game: Final Fantasy XI. So far, the only information known thus far about this project is that it is being deeloped for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows Vista platforms. We’ll keep you all posted when more information comes.

[IGN] [Nikkei Net]

If you were excited about today’s earlier screen shots, you’re going to be drooling in anticipation with this flood of new screens. Go Nintendo was nice enough to provide a thumbnail overview of GamesRadar’s brand-new screen shots of Final Fantasy III DS.

[GamesRadar] [GoNintendo]

Famitsu has posted four new screen shots of the upcoming Final Fantasy III DS. In these four tiny screen shots, Famitsu introduces us to the characters of Cid (A Final Fantasy staple), and Eria. The more I see of this game, the more enthused about it I become.

[Go Nintendo] [Famitsu]

I was looking around Apple’s Dashboard Widget Browser today, and I came across this widget to help out those of you that play Final Fantasy XI. Apple’s site lists the features as:

- Earth to Vana’diel time conversion
- Airship schedules for all airships
- Current Moon phase
- Conquest tally date
- Selbina-Mhaura ferry schedule
- Moon calendar
- RSE calendar
- Day calendar
- Crafting guilds schedules and much more

If you play Final Fantasy XI, and you love your Mac, this is the widget for you.

[Apple]