Jump Festa '09 is drawing closer, with only but a couple of weeks to go before the event unfolds. Square Enix is making sure that you'll be dropping in as they prepare a hefty lineup of goods to show for you.

Yep, we may hear something good about Square Enix' Final Fantasy XIII soon. According to the latest issue of Famitsu (which also has a nice feature on Idolm@ster's sequel), the Japanese magazine will have new FFXIII info come January 25. It didn't say if we can expect any release dates or a heads up on how far Squeenix is in development, but we're still excited. Head over to the full article for more details.

So Jump Festa 2008 has come and gone. Curious about what demo titles you didn't get to play? Some of the games in Jump Festa we've already reported on but you might be curious to see what else was present during the event. Check out the full article for the demo titles featured in Jump Festa 2008.

 

It is reported that Square Enix will be holding a spring gaming pavilion (eherm... otaku party) this coming May 12 and 13 – just in time for the Japanese launch of Final Fantasy Tactics: The Lion War.

The previous "conference" last 2005, attracted well over 45,000 visitors.

No reports yet as to what exactly Square Enix will be showcasing, but if 2005's gathering is to be considered, then it is likely that they'll host playable demos, and show previews of upcoming games, and probably do a lot of explaining. Most noteworthy from the 2005 event was the announcement of the street date of Final Fantasy XII in Japan. This time around, word on Final Fantasy XIII is most likely.

The event will be held at Makuhari Messe, a venue well known for being the home of the Tokyo Game Show and Jump Festa.  Admission is free, the plane ticket though, isn't.

There's hasn't been too much word about Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts. And for most of us, the closest we ever got to a preview of what's to come was the ending trailer in KHII, which looked more like something out of a Sentai show.

Then there was Square Enix's highly photographed presence at Jump Festa, with the enigmatic "New Project Starting in 2007" message that popped up shortly after their trailers. And that's why we're happy to be reporting this bit of news, courtesy of IGN, who picked up the tidbit from Famitsu, who in turn extracted the info from producer Tetsuya Nomura.

Nomura-san's apparently promising that there are multiple projects underway for the Kingdom Hearts franchise. While he can't provide for any concrete details on the said projects, he does say that new info should develop midway next year. So there you have it - We advice the fans to keep calm and just wait for other news snippets that might crawl out of the woodwork, and for now, satisfy themselves with the swarms of Sora cosplayers on youtube - there's plenty to go around.

Japan featuring anime and manga">Jump Festa, as we told you many moons ago, is one of Japan's events gaining mainstream pop status. It started out as an annual event mainly for anime and manga, but Jump Festa has grown to become the time and place for many Japanese companies to show off their newest shiny stuff.

Square Enix certainly took the opportunity to generate a tsunami-grade buzz for its upcoming multi-platform line up. And they have the pics to prove they didn't penny-pinch at this year's Jump Festa. This is another convention that's fast becoming a must-get-there-at-all-cost event! Next year, unlike this year, we promise we won't let our cheapness get in the way.

More pictures at the Full Article.