In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, president of Square Enix Yoichi Wada has revealed that, while the Japanese version of Final Fantasy XIII is complete, the US and European versions of the game are “in the final stages” of development, as the team adds the “final touches” to the game:

“We’ve completed the master of the Japanese version,” said Wada, “and for the US and European versions we’re just adding the final touches. The last stage of development has gone very smoothly this time.”

This could mean that a release of Final Fantasy XIII in the West could be much earlier than anticipated, following the game’s PS3 release in Japan on December 17th.

Wada also touched on Square Enix’s stance on the current generation of consoles, and the company’s wish for a long hardware cycle this generation so as to eke as much mileage out of their current software technology as possible:

“The ideal situation for developers would be to have a single platform worldwide,” continued Wada, “but that’s impossible, so with multi-platform, if you can expand your user base, I think we have to accept that reality.

“For the current generation, the ideal for us would be a long platform cycle and the prices to come down gradually, so that we can expand that user base.”

“It took us a tremendous amount of time to develop the software for this generation, so that’s a lesson for the creators.”

You can read both part one and part two of the GameIndustry.biz interviews with Square Enix president Yoichi Wada over here and over here.

Additionally, while speaking to MCVUK.com, vice president of brand at Square Enix Europe, Larry Sparks announced that a new, “special” Final Fantasy XIII video will be released on Friday, which is said to contain “big news”:

“We have some very big news regarding Final Fantasy XIII; that we will be revealing Friday afternoon.

“We wanted to share the news with as many people as possible, so we have created a special video that will be unveiled on Friday. We hope you enjoy the announcement.”

Could this be the long-awaited release date for the game in the west? The revelation of a demo? Or some or other story reveal? We’ll just have to sit tight and wait, won’t we?