Square Enix does 360

Square Enix is developing a game to be released exclusively on Xbox 360. But don't get carried away - instead of a Microsoft-only installment of Square's renowned Final Fantasy series, the Japanese developer is creating a shooter for the next-gen platform, codenamed Project Sylph.

Set in a far-flung future where humans are travelling across galaxies to colonize new worlds, the game sounds like a deep space dogfight, with the possibility of planet-based air combat too. A trailer for Project Sylph screened at a recent Xbox event in Tokyo, showing off a cutscene clip of sci-fi spacecraft blasting each other with lasers.

"This won't be just an ordinary shooter," says Yousuke Saito, exec producer for Square Enix, stressing that they "will be adding a level of drama." Project Sylph will be produced in collaboration with Game Arts and could be related to that developer's Silpheed series from PS2 and Sega CD. Solid gameplay details haven't been confirmed, but we're looking forward to finding out if Project Sylph's action manages to preserve the Square Enix magic.

April 7, 2006

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games.