April 2006

Here you can find news items that were posted on Hell and Heaven Net in the past.

Hell and Heaven Net

Earlier this week I've opened a Dutch Advent Children website. On this website you can find information (in Dutch) and media about Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children that just has been released in the Netherlands. So, for all the Dutch viewers, check it out by clicking on the link.

» AdventChildren.nl

Oh, and with the European release of Advent Children Square Enix has opened their European official website. There you can find the story, character information, trailers and wallpaper downloads.

» Official European Advent Children website

Square Enix has released their line-up for this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo that will be held on May 10-12.

Console
- Dawn of Mana [PS2] (trailer only)
- Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus [PS2] (playable demo and trailer)
- Final Fantasy XII [PS2] (playable demo and trailer)
- Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria [PS2] (playable demo and trailer)

Handheld
- Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime [NDS] (playable demo and trailer)
- Final Fantasy III [NDS] (playable demo and trailer)
- Final Fantasy V [GBA] (trailer only)
- Final Fantasy VI [GBA] (trailer only)
- Seiken Densetsu DS: Children of Mana [NDS] (playable demo and trailer)
- Valkyrie Profiles: Lenneth [PSP] (playable demo and trailer)

Online
- Final Fantasy XI: Treaures of Aht Urhgan (playable demo and trailer)

Mobile
- 3D Space Invaders (playable demo and trailer)
- Brave Shot 2 (playable demo and trailer)
- Chase HQ 3D (playable demo and trailer)
- Elevator Action 3D (playable demo and trailer)
- Final Fantasy (playable demo and trailer)
- Final Fantasy VII: Before Crisis (playable demo and trailer)
- Megatouch Mobile Arcade (playable demo and trailer)

Check Square Enix's E3 website for more information about the games.

» Square Enix's E3 2006 website

Today is the day Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children finally will be available in stores across Europe! The movie will be released on DVD (2 discs) and UMD. The DVD will cost €19,99 and the UMD €24,99. So go get it if you loved Final Fantasy VII. Just get it even if you downloaded the movie. We don't want Square Enix to lose a lot of money, right?

Tomorrow the movie will be released in North America.

Edit: Well, I don't know how it's in all the rest of Europe, but here in the Netherlands the movie will be available for buying on April 27th. April 25th is the day you can rent the movie.

Final Fantasy III

Square Enix has opened their Final Fantasy III website. The DS remake will feature 3D visuals and a WIFI online mode. You can only see a teaser now at the website.

» Official Website

I'm sorry for the downtime Hell and Heaven Net had today. My hosting company had put the website offline due to a leak in a script. And someone is executing exploits due to that. And that is causing the server to be unreachable.
I've updated some PHP scripts and I hope the leak is now closed. Some scripts are temporary taken offline, but will be back soon hopefully.

Edit: The leak seems to be closed.

Yesterday Square Enix release a press announcement about illegaly uploading Advent Children on the internet. Somebody was caught putting the movie online at Google Video. Google had removed the movie after Square Enix asked them and they investigated who was responsible for this and prosecuted him. On April 17th he admitted that he illegally uploaded the movie and he agreed to pay a confidential monetary sum to Square Enix for damages.

In the press announcement Yasuhiko Hasegawa (Square Enix's General Manager of Legal Affairs) said this: "In connection with the release of the movie, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, we are actively pursuing those who commit intellectual property infringement against our company. Any illegal activities, including the illegal uploading of Square Enix content to Internet sites and the unauthorized copying of Square Enix games, music, movies, images, and other intellectual property, will be prosecuted. While Square Enix appreciates the enthusiasm of its fans, and values its relationship with them, it is also obligated to protect its intellectual property rights or risk weakening or losing the very rights that enable the company to continue to provide its fans with an exciting entertainment experience."

Advent Children will be released in North America on 25th April and in Europe one day earlier.

» Square Enix Press Release

Square Enix today lowered its forecast for the fiscal year 2005/2006 which ended on March 31st. The company now projects a consolidated net profit of 10 billion yen ($84.67 million US) on sales of 125 billion yen ($1.06 billion US). These figures are 42.9% and 8.1% lower than the figures provided in previous forecasts.

While strong sales of major titles, such as Kingdom Hearts II, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy XII drove sales during the six month period from October 2005 to March 2006, these successful releases could not compensate the lack of big selling games during the first six months of the fiscal year.

While the company's flagship MMORPG Final Fantasy XI is still performing well, newly introduced MMORPGs were less well received by fans. This is the likely explanation behind Square Enix's decision to end operating EverQuest II in Japan only one year after the game's launch. While the mobile contents division reported rising sales, its operations outside Japan did not manage to generate any profit during the second half of the fiscal year. Since the returns on prior investments have been delayed, the division had to face rising costs. Subsidiary Taito also failed to post a profit.

The sole bright spot of today's announcement were the positive results of Square Enix's publishing division, due to the continued popularity of the products like the manga magazine Shounen Gangan. The continued success of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children also resulted in better than expected results for the company's other operations.

Source: RPGFan

Sony Pictures has updated their website again with 2 new previews from the English version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. The previews are called "All the Friends Reunited" and "Reunion". The previews can be viewed from the catalog website.

» Advent Children at SonyPictures.com

I'm sorry for the lack of site updates I did the last 2 weeks. I've been really busy with school, doing tests and stuff. Now I have 3 weeks vacation, so I can update the site more. A new site layout will maybe come soon. I still have to start making it. Expect more integration with the forums.

That's all and I wish you all a Happy Easter!

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children will also be showing in Amsterdam on the 22nd edition of the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival that will be held from the 19th till the 26th of April. The movie will be showed twice, on Friday 21st and Sunday 23rd.

Square Enix

Today UbiSoft released Dragon Quest VIII in Europe! Finally European gamers can play a Dragon Quest game.
I quickly bought the game myself and found something interesting in the manual. On the last page an ad is showed about Kingdom Hearts II with the text: "The Story Continues, Late 2006". So expect that the game will be released by then. I made a scan of the ad so you can view it yourself.

» KH2 Advertisement

Update: Square-Enix Europe opened a website called I Love Dragon Quest. There you meat Nobu, the world biggest Dragon Quest fan. You have to distract him from doing the longest marathon play. It's a silly game.

» I Love Dragon Quest

Advent Children will be screening as part of the 5th edition of the London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film. During Animé All Night, on April 29th, the movie will be one of the featured movies. This will be the theatrical premiere for the movie in the UK.

» Film Festival Website

UbiSoft has announced that they will be releasing Final Fantasy XI: Treasures of Aht Urhgan for the PC and Final Fantasy XI for the Xbox 360 on April 20th in Europe. Treasures of Aht Urhgan is the 3rd expansion next to Chains of Promathia and Rise of Ziliart.