PS3 sales spike 288% in Japan, no US FFXIII demo on Blu-ray

Over the past two months, Famitsu publisher Enterbrain reported that the PlayStation 3 outsold the Wii in Japan during March and April. Today, the company told Yahoo Japan that a major reason the two-month period saw PS3 sales spike 288 percent year-over-year was the April 16 release of the Final Fantasy XIII demo. A sample of the widely anticipated Japanese role-playing game was included in the Blu-ray disc Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete, which features the 2005 computer-generated film based on the titular game.

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that the PS3 will be getting a similar boost stateside. Following months of official silence from Square Enix USA and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, which is distributing Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete in North America, confirmation has apparently come that the US version will not have the FFXIII demo.

"The type of demo version we released in Japan, we currently have no plan of doing that abroad," producer Yoshinori Kitase told Videogamer.com. The reason for the omission was "partly because we are going to carry on with the project alongside the Xbox [360] version, so we really can't just make it available only for the PS3." Square Enix is now considering releasing it at as download on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live, said Kitase.

Though neither Sony Pictures nor Square Enix would officially confirm nor deny them, Kistane's comments indicate that the "Exclusive Sneak Peek at FINAL FANTASY XIII" listed on the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete table of contents is only a trailer. Though Sony reps say the company has still not officially announced a release date for the Blue-ray disc, retailers such as Amazon are listing it as going on sale June 2. It is already available on DVD and UMD domestically.