If things went differently, we could have actually been romping around Vana'diel and consorting with Shantotto on the PS3. Turns out that Square Enix had plans to release Final Fantasy XI on the PS3 as well. According to Hiromichi Tanaka, the PS3 version could have seen the light of day if only Sony didn't fall short on the bargain. More so, continuing plans of getting the MMORPG on the console are proving fruitless because PS2 backwards compatibility across all PS3 SKUs is looking quite impossible.

It's banhammer time! In order to streamline their system with Master Accounts, it looks like Electronic Arts is also resorting to some strict measures along the way. Upon explaining the new Command & Conquer forum rules, forum admin eaapoc said that getting banned in the forums now gets you banned also in the game. Oh, not just a game, but effectively all other EA games (which require your Master Account) too.

FiringSquad reports that Sony along with other major video game publishers will not be gracing the inaugural E For All Expo. Earlier reports had Sony pegged for at least some booth presence at the event.

Aside from Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), FiringSquad reports that Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), NCSoft, Sega and Capcom have also declined to take part in the event. Microsoft, meanwhile, has apparently not decided whether or not it will grace the event.

Back in March, Nintendo of America signed on as an anchor exhibitor for the event. Electronic Arts was also confirmed as an exhibitor earlier this week. FiringSquad also notes that the IDG World Expo website lists THQ, Konami and Namco as event exhibitor along with hardware companies Intel and NVidia.

The E For All Expo, which is being promoted by IDG World Expo as a replacement for the old E3 format, will take place in Los Angeles on October 18 to 21.

Keiji Inafune may have implied, quite bluntly and painfully, too, that Clover Studio's primary failure was the bottom line. It was a failure of marketing, not of development. That (though not Clover) was the theme of an MI6 Conference workshop headed by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and Insomniac Games marketing chiefs Torrie Dorrell and Ryan Schneider, Next-Gen reports.

If Clover and Capcom had done what SOE does, would the studio not have met its demise? Torrie revealed that in each of SOE's projects, the development head is "married" to a marketing head, and the two are expected to work together to get the game to market.

This means that we see less of, say, the very aggressive developer who pushes away everything that marketing says. But it also encourages marketing to understand the point of view of developers and the challenges they face. It makes the relationship much less adversarial.

Same thing at Insomniac: Ryan describes it as "bringing everyone together," an all-hands evolution. Sometimes it even involves outside people: Torrie mentions focus groups (no matter how devs may hate them for... cramping their style, like).

Does it really have to hurt development and creativity? Torrie points out that Marketing's job isn't to tell the developers what to do with their games, but "only to recognize the facts that we need to know to make the best game that we can and sell as many copies as we can."

Again this goes back to: with better marketing support, either insisted by Capcom or insisted by Clover, would Okami have been a bestseller that knocked everyone's socks off? Loved the game, but the sales don't do it justice. Perhaps the solution to bringing creative and inspiring games to market (and not just more clones) doesn't only lie in creative games production, but in excellent marketing as well.

Gaming is a business, after all. But who says business had to be stagnant?

Who else is dropping by at the much-coveted GDC this year? Guess no more, 'cause we have the updated list right here. As of the current press time, there are now 35 speakers confirmed to show up to share their expertise. Here's the new list of the who's whos:

• Kevin Bjorke - Art & Technology Evangelist for the NVIDIA Corporation
• Ramon Axelrod - CTO for AIseek
• Bart House - Development Lead - Windows Server Performance Team for Microsoft
• Robert Mitchell - Senior Programmer for Sony Online Entertainment
• Mike Goslin - Vice President, Virtual Reality Studio for Disney Online
• Scott Brown - President and CEO of NetDevil
• Joseph Ybarra - Vice President of Product Development Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment

If you're interested to go, but still has not registered for it, then you'd be glad to know that you still have time to do so. In fact, this may be your last chance to get it at a deal as this is their final week of offering over 40% off on-site registration rates. Hurry, 'cause March 1 marks the price hike from US$ 195 to US$ 345.

A gaming website called PCN recently interviewed Josh Robinson, a 3D artist with nine years of experience. The guy's most notable gig was for Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) where he worked for many games such as the PlayStation 3 Engine Demo, Field Commander, Untold Legends 1 and 2 , Everquest 2 among many others. He was let go by Sony due to his comments about the PS3 and is now working for EA's Xbox 360 game, Medal of Honor: Airborne.

The interview is a bit hefty so we'll just give you the meatier parts of it. He earned the ire of the Sony execs because of an article he wrote about Sony's showcase at E3.

Some gaming sites then took advantage of this and that's where he got into trouble with the SOE honchos - the headline "PS3 artists bashes Sony" will of course not sit well with the SOE folks. Now, he speaks about what he thinks of the PS3 and this is what he had to say:

I have spent a lot of time on the 360 and have watched the ps3 and watched a lot of demos on it.  It’s alright but there are something’s like when you are downloading you can’t do anything else.  Why would you ever do that?  Also, if you go onto Gamespot or any other site displaying comparative screen shots of identical games, the Xbox 360 looks better for some reason.  It seems like the ps3 is washing things out a bit more.  Its ok, I don’t think I will be buying one; I’m not interested in spending that kind of money.

As to what words he has for the Nintendo Wii, he mentions that the Wii have a really strong connection in the beginning. He continued by saying that:

The Wii I think is a little more niche and I probably more like a 5 year system.  I just don’t think it will have the longevity.  In terms of 3rd party developing, Nintendo has always done what they wanted.  Often times its some crazy off the wall Japanese style of game play or system and it always seems to work out for them.  So I’m always surprised. I believe it may hinder them a bit, but I think 3rd party developers will actually find ways to create games using the Wii technology, rather than chose to not develop on it.

You could read the word-per-word account of the interview by clicking on our read link below.

In light of the multiple speakers per update we say for the GDC, you might be surprised to see this news snippet carries just one guy. We're sure you know him, though - Phil Harrison.

Yup, it has just been announced that Sony Computer Entertainment (SOE) World Wide Studios president Phil Harrison will be making his presence known at the upcoming Game Developer's Conference this March 5-9, at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

Phil Harrison's keynote, titled "Game 3.0: Developing and Creating for the Third Age of Video Games", is expected to discuss the potential game developers will experience in light of the sheer connectivity current gaming consoles carry. Phil's keynote will be happening from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the Esplanade Room of the Moscone Center's South Hall on Wednesday, March 7.

We've said this before, we'll say it again - GDC 2007 is turning out to be a star-studded event, with Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto also making a keynote to the event. Sadly, we don't have any news if Kutaragi-san will be making an appearance -  that would have been interesting.