UK Ad Authority: PS3 FFXIII Better than Xbox 360

Who knew that the Advertising Standards Authority in the UK could make judgement calls in which version of a game is better? Well, it can. In fact it has.

It has upheld a complaint against Square Enix that the company used PS3 FMV of Final Fantasy XIII to advertise the Xbox 360 version. When we say "a complaint" we mean a single complaint.

In the adjudication, the ASA states that, "A viewer objected that the ad was misleading because the game footage in the ad was from the PS3 version of the game, which was of better quality to that of the XBOX 360."

Square's defence was that, "Square-Enix said the ad did not feature gameplay footage of images derived from a particular console, but rather contained full motion video (FMV) cut scenes. They explained that cut scenes were not generated by the XBOX or PS3 game engine, but were played back on the PS3 console to allow the advertisers to capture the FMV footage for the ad. They said it could have been captured on any device and was not content specifically generated by a particular console. Square-Enix sent the ASA a PS3 and XBOX 360 console, TVs and games to demonstrate the picture quality on both consoles."

So, the ASA got down to it. Here's how, "We tested the two games, on screens with an identical set up, and ran them alongside one another. We noted that there was a discernable (sic) difference in the picture quality of the two; the PS3 image in video sequences appeared sharper and colours were more vivid than those of the XBOX 360.

We considered that, because the ad promoted the game on the XBOX 360 platform, it should have featured footage derived from that console. Because it did not, and because we considered that the use of PS3 footage in the ad exaggerated the quality of the footage available on the XBOX 360, albeit marginally, we concluded the ad was misleading."

As far as the ASA is concerned then, the PS3 version of FFXIII is better.

See the full ruling here.