Square Enix

Square Enix has announced their line-up for this years gamescom taking place from 15 till 19 August in Cologne (Germany). This four-day-event is like the E3 in Los Angeles, only larger and is the world's largest games event.

• Final Fantasy VII (PC)
• Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (PC)
• Final Fantasy Dimensions (iOS)
• Gameglobe (Browser)
• Hitman: Absolution (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC)
• Koozac (iOS, Android)
• Mensa Academy(iOS, Android)
• Motley Blocks (iOS, Android)
• Quantum Conundrum (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
• Qwirkle (iOS, Android)
• Sleeping Dogs (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC)
• SolaRola(iOS, Android)
• Tomb Raider (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC)

Notice that the majority of the games are mobile games and that the 3 Final Fantasy titles are from Square Enix.

Big news on the second day of VanaFest: Hiromichi Tanaka, the current producer of Final Fantasy XI, is stepping down and will leave Square Enix mostly due to health problems.

Hiromichi Tanaka started his work at Square in 1983 and was one of the earliest members and eventually headed up  Square Enix's 3rd development division. Later he became Corporate Executive Online Business.

At Square he worked on games like Final Fantasy, II and III, Secret of Mana, Xenogears and Chrono Cross. Besides producer of Final Fantasy XI he was also producer of Final Fantasy XIV till December 2010 (which was badly received by the fans causing him to step down).

Akihiko Matsui will take over his spot as producer of Final Fantasy XI.

After the closure of the E3 show floor last night for that day, Square Enix has shared an impressive over three-minute Final Fantasy realtime tech demo of Luminous Studio, their new game engine for the next generation. 

The trailer that you've just seen, which is called Agni’s Philosophy, is all in realtime, no pre-rendered footage. Yoshihisa Hashimoto, chief technology officer for Square Enix proved that by manipulating scenes in the trailer and showing it again.

This trailer is very impressive and makes me excited what's in store for the Final Fantasy series in the future. Time will tell.

Recently an image has been circulating the web about a new Square Enix title called Valiant Saga: Final Fantasy that will be released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The image shows that the game is developed by Eidos Montreal. There's also a Twitter account active with the default avatar.

Please note that this is no official announcement and is most likely a fake. Or not?