Xbox Ad Uses PS3 Footage, Gets Busted

This is both funny and sad at the same time. A commercial for Final Fantasy XIII has been taken off air by the British Advertising Standards Authority. This comes after a conscientious and over-analysing viewer made the observation that the commercial, which was for the Xbox 360 version of the game, made use of footage from the PS3 version. It seems a rather innocuous thing to do but as is usually the case with such games, there is a noticeable difference between the Xbox and PS3 versions of the game.

The ASA then proceeded to investigate the claim:

“We tested the two games, on screens with an identical set up, and ran them alongside one another.”

“We noted that there was a discernible 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.”

The advert was shortly discontinued, although this didn’t really matter at the time since the game had long since been released but the it’s the thought that counts, I suppose. in Square Enix’s defence, the footage was taken from the game’s pre-rendered cinematics and the studio claims that the difference is only noticeable when played in HD and “reviewing the material forensically”.

The PS3 footage was apparently used because the console allowed advertisers to capture FMV footage for the commercial. We’re not sure what ad the whole incident is about though and neither does anybody else. It literally does seem to have disappeared.

[Source: Kotaku]