January 2007

Tomorrow it's 10 years ago that Final Fantasy VII was released in stores across Japan. So far it's unknown if Square Enix will plan something on this birthday, because also the Final Fantasy series will celebrate its 20th anniversary in December.

A few days ago we posted an article about Square Enix releasing 5 titles in Japan this year, but Tetsuya Nomura didn't say what the 5th title will be. But it should be announced soon.

So maybe Square Enix will announce something around Final Fantasy VII tomorrow on its 10th anniversary. We will keep you updated.

This year its the 20th anniversary of the Final Fantasy series and because of that Square Enix will release Final Fantasy Anniversary Edition and Final Fantasy II Anniversary Edition for the PlayStation Portable in Japan. Both games will be graphically enhanced and will have new features and have been completed for 80% and 75% already. See the enclosed scans from Famitsu for the first screens.

Final Fantasy I and II have been remade so far on the WonderSwan, PlayStation and Game Boy Advance.

» Scans: 1 2
Source: GameFront

Edit: Square Enix has opened the official website which can be founded here.

Final Fantasy reports on the third spot as best selling videogame franchise ever with 68 million reported sales beating other popular franchises like The Sims and Grand Theft Auto.

The number 2 and 1 are (with insane distance) Pokemon and Mario with 155 and 193 million respectively.

The full top 20 list, with sales figures, is as follows:

1. Mario, 193 million
2. Pokémon, 155 million
3. Final Fantasy, 68 million
4. Madden NFL, 56 million
5. The Sims, 54 million
6. Grand Theft Auto, 50 million
7. Donkey Kong, 48 million (centre)
8. The Legend of Zelda, 47 million
9. Sonic the Hedgehog, 44 million
10. Gran Turismo, 44 million
11. Lineage, 43 million
12. Dragon Quest, 41 million
13. Crash Bandicoot, 34 million
14. Resident Evil, 31 million
15. James Bond, 30 million
16. Tomb Raider, 30 million
17. Mega Man, 26 million
18. Command & Conquer, 25 million
19. Street Fighter, 25 million
20. Mortal Kombat, 20 million

source: CVG

According to the German website Wunderlampe Square Enix is going to sell 2 of their series. This is because of the high development costs the company has. Buena Vista Games is one of the companies that can take over the Kingdom Hearts series and Mistwalker the Chrono series rights. Let's just hope this is a rumor.

-- addition by alexanderpas: --
Wunderlampe doesn't state anything which franchises will be sold nor who the buyers are, just offered some possibilities
However! GameFront say that it could be the Mana and Kingdom Hearts franchise, which will go to Disney, because they started their own developement studio named Fall Line in November 06. Now for the wildest thing (imo) in this speculation: Fall Line was created to produce for Wii, DS and GBA.

thanks to NeoGAF