How’s that for a nice helping of sheer bliss for Final Fantasy fans? Square Enix has today confirmed that its highly anticipated RPG will be making a long overdue appearance at E3 this July. But that’s not all, the chocolate sauce on this big scoop of vanilla ice cream is that Square also has plans for later in the year which should, in the words of rep speaking to Videogaming247, “shed more light on the release timings”. Though at this point a release date might be asking a bit much, we can at least expect something along the lines of “Spring 2009″.

This is refreshing news for those looking forward to the game. Final Fantasy XIII has been laying dormant for a long while now and with yesterday’s rumors of Versus XIII being on hold (which turned out to be untrue thankfully) things were beginning to look ever so slightly bleak. If Square Enix manage to get the ball rolling during the second part of 2008 they may recapture some of that earlier excitement that has since evaporated.