The Final Fantasy series of RPGs is one of the longest running franchises of its kind and certainly one of the most successful, selling millions of copies over multiple decades and gaming platforms. Final Fantasy XIII hits Steam for PC today promising revamped visuals. It may also include support for the Oculus Rift, if an option to opt in to the SteamVR Beta is any indication.
Update 09/10/2014: So FFXIII finally unlocked and indeed there is a menu option for users to opt-in to a SteamVR beta program, but activating it currently seems to do nothing. Furthermore, the game appears to run at a locked 720p / 60Hz which is hardly ideal. As we learn more we’ll update this article.
Update 09/10/2014 @ 22:30 GMT: The above pictured beta program option has now disappeared mysteriously.
SteamVR is an in-development virtual reality version of Steam, Valve’s digital distribution platform. SteamVR converts the software’s ‘Big Picture Mode’, intended for big screen TVs, into a virtual reality view that surrounds the user.
See Also: Half-Life 2 and Steam Get Oculus Rift DK2 Support, Here’s How to Make it Work
Final Fantasy XIII Displays Beta Program Option in Steam
Gamers keen to get their hands on a new PC version of the less-than-universally-well-received Final Fantasy games have been pre-loading the title ahead of the game’s launch later today (approx. 5pm GMT according to the Steam storefront). The first surprising note is that the game requires a whopping 60G of disk space, presumably chock full of HD video lifted from the PS3 Blu-Ray release, plus Japanese audio for purists.
For VR fans however, the bigger find is that once you have pre-loaded the title, once you’ve dived into the game’s properties you’re able to select to opt-in to the game’s listed SteamVR Beta Update. User EzioCroft over at the Neogaf forums posted a screenshot of the menu recently sending Oculus Rift owning JRPG lovers into a minor frenzy (OK, very minor). Whether the appearance of the option is a mistake or genuinely indicative of the publisher’s intentions simply isn’t clear right now. It seems no mention of such a development has been publicised beforehand.
Final Fantasy XIII was rumoured to be receiving a stereoscopic 3D version of the game on PS3 as Square Enix’s Yoshinori Kitase mentioned it was something that interested them. This S3D version however never materialised. Is it possible the advent of VR has inspired the developer to revisit the title in order to experiment with the PC version? We’ll have to wait until later today to find out for sure. We’re pre-loading the title ready to give you an update later.
Thanks: Reddit