This is Rumor Has It – ya know, like that song the nice lady sang about the dude with the break up and something about rain getting set on fire. Whatever. What I’m getting at is that there are always rumors. We thrive off of them. We speculate what truth there is behind them. We build expectations from unconfirmed information. So, every week I’ll be sifting through our industry’s rumors to make sure we know exactly what to expect. Or maybe I’ll only help a little. Fuck it. I guarantee nothing. 

So, there’re a handful of rumors over the past few weeks. Yes, it’s been a while, but I’m back, so don’t you worry.

This week’s entry is all about game studios and their next project. There’s a peep about what Square Enix’s next game could be, and you won’t like what you hear. Also, LittleBigPlanet’s creator, Media Molecule, is scouring the job market for help with a new IP. And not to forget the big bomb drop that is the Half-Life concept art that leaked. There’s so much mystery afoot, you might as well call Scooby Doo. (Side note: That’s a joke, ladies and gentlemen.)

Final Fantasy XIII Oh my God, WHY! Edition: Yep. Square Enix just can’t leave this one alone. A few weeks back, I quoted a wise man in saying he hates Final Fantasy XIII. I thought such a revered man would be respected, but Square Enix took this opportunity to ruin everything one more time by hinting at a sequel to the sequel of one of the more disappointing games of this generation.

It’s pretty vague as to what Final Fantasy’s Director Motomu Toriyama meant when he told FF-Reunion, “Like Lightning advancing one step forward in the secret event, I think we want to take a step forward to advance our own project. From now on, I’d be happy if you could anticipate it.”

Okay. First issue: You’d be “happy” if we could anticipate the next project with Lightning in it. Unless this ends up being Dissidia 00058123: Tales of Bad Titles (which it won’t), I’m royally pissed off. So no, I won’t be happy, sir. I hope you feel my disdain.

I understand a sequel to a popular game. Final Fantasy X got a sequel (which sucked), so it’s not like we couldn’t see Final Fantasy XIII-2 coming. But another one!? Come on, Square! What happened to you?

This is probably true, which sucks. The only way I can possibly see this ending positively is if this turns out to be another Dissidia, because I hold that game right up there with Mirror’s Edge on my “Games that Don’t Get Enough Attention” shelf.

Little Big New IP: A few job vacancies opened up at Media Molecule, the British guys who made LittleBigPlanet. The opening asked for an “experienced gameplay programmer” and a “UI designer.” The user interface job stated the titles will be for different platforms. Plot twist!

We’re also told that the jobs are for “brand new IPs, even more ambitious than LBP.” The real ambition of LittleBigPlanet came from the community creators themselves, so it’s intriguing to see where Media Molecule will go next.

Since Sony bought Media Molecule a few years back, it’s safe to say the “multiple platforms” will be the Vita and Ps3 (maybe even PS4).

This is very exciting news. LittleBigPlanet and LittleBigPlanet 2 are two of the bigger marvels from this generation, so it’s fascinating as to what Media Molecule will do next.

Hold Onto Your Butts, We Have Buzzings of Half-Life’s Future: After five whole years of nothing, we have a glimpse into the next Half-Life game in the form of concept art. While I’m not such a huge fan of Valve’s flagship FPS, hearing about its future is exciting. Maybe this iteration will be the one that wins me over.

The original leak of these images came from ValveTime’s forums. An anonymous user posted a gallery of images that have all sorts of crashed helicopters. Also, these images were confirmed to be done by Andrea Wicklund, an artist at Valve, via Lambdagenartion.

So these images are real, apparently, but not very recent. All this concept art is from way back in 2008. This makes me believe Valve is ditching the idea of episodic entries in Half-Life and is going straight into Half-Life 3. There’s no way they can go five whole years and not have a full sequel.

And don’t worry, folks. We’re getting a podcast to you soon. Javi’s internet has been saved!