It's been six years since Square Enix first showed Final Fantasy Versus XIII's debut trailer. Six long years. When that trailer premiered, George W. Bush was president, Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden were alive, and the global financial crisis had not yet hit. 2006 was a different world, a long, long time ago.

Now Kotaku has learned that Final Fantasy Versus XIII is no more.

Kotaku has heard from several sources that the game, as originally intended, is done for.

One source tells Kotaku that Final Fantasy Versus XIII was officially cancelled within the last few weeks. The decision impacted morale at Square Enix and staff were reportedly saddened by the move.

Square Enix, this source added, has also decided to let Final Fantasy Versus XIII die quietly on the vine and fade away, instead of officially announcing its cancellation. This would likely be due to the fact a public acknowledgement of a Versus' cancellation could impact things like Square Enix's stock prices.

Final Fantasy Versus XIII has been M.I.A. for the past few months, save for the occasional, brief mention. Earlier this spring, Final Fantasy Versus XIII designer Tetsuya Nomura spoke with Japanese game mag Famitsu about the title, which has only ever been seen in trailer and screenshot form.

"We're almost done with preparing the latest info for the game," Nomura told Famitsu. "Because of a totally unrelated reason, there are circumstances in which that info cannot be released."

That was March.

Then in May, Nomura once again commented on the game, saying to Game Informer, "We would like to ask for your patience on an official announcement for this title. It always takes time when tackling the challenge of doing something completely new, but we are doing our best to bring information to the fans as quickly as we can. Your patience is greatly appreciated."

Then E3 came and went with no sign of Versus, which wasn't that strange if you remember the game was not at last year's Tokyo Game Show either.

Whatever happened to the game over those six years—whether it underwent radical changes or simply couldn't come together—it seems Square Enix has finally decided to cut its losses.

Another source tells Kotaku that, a few months back, Final Fantasy Versus XIII's development and resources had actually been folded into another game, which is to be the next numeric Final Fantasy title, Final Fantasy XV. Whether this meant actual game assets and code or simply the movement of staff was unclear. This information was independently corroborated by yet another source, though it's important to note both had learned of the "folding" prior to the more recent news of its outright cancellation.

The Final Fantasy XIII branded types have not been set in stone: another spinoff title Final Fantasy Agito XIII had its name changed to Final Fantasy Type-0. So what was originally planned as an entire mini-franchise by Square, with multiple titles spanning various platforms, looks now to be focused on the adventures of Lightning.

Whether it's been cancelled entirely or had resources absorbed into a newer, larger project, the game we once knew as Final Fantasy Versus XIII would seem to be no more. Even if Final Fantasy Versus XIII has been cancelled, I'm inclined to believe that whatever Versus was, or whatever had been created for the game, will turn up in some form in Final Fantasy XV. Surely, Square Enix would not cancel a game and completely dump all the work it's done? Right?

When Kotaku contacted Square Enix about whether or not Final Fantasy Versus XIII was still in development, the game maker released the following statement: "We have no information on the status of Final Fantasy Versus XIII, but will be sure to update you as it becomes available." Keep in mind, I wasn't asking for an update per se, I simply asked if Square Enix was still making a game it had already announced six years ago. Square Enix did not reply to Kotaku's requests for clarification regarding whether Versus was still in development or not.

Square Enix has a Final Fantasy event coming up in Tokyo in late August and September. One of the stage events is centered on the Final Fantasy XIII Project and the Lightning saga (so a Final Fantasy XIII-3 reveal?). None of the announced stage events center around Final Fantasy Versus XIII, something that Japanese gamers were quick to point out on game sites and blogs.

So, is Final Fantasy Versus XIII finally and officially dead? Without confirmation from Square Enix, we can't say for sure. While these reports certainly indicate the long-awaited game has been cancelled, Square's reluctance to acknowledge them means those desperately wanting to see more of the project still have a glimmer of hope to hold onto.

But if the game fails to make an appearance at either the upcoming Final Fantasy celebrations or the 2012 Tokyo Game Show? Then yeah, given what we've heard (particularly of Square's reported desire to kill the game quietly), you'd be a lot safer assuming Versus XIII is kaput and start looking forward to the next big FF game.

Cosplay cinematographer and convention hound Angel James de Ocampo was at Japan Expo 2012 this year, a French show that's fast becoming one of the best places in the world to see people dress up as people from other stuff.

What's cool about his videos is that, instead of just taking cosplay photos, he gets to show the models actually playing the part, which in some cases is a little awkward but in others - like the swordplay you'll see in the video above - looks terrific.

There's a second video below that's got a Captain Harlock so good you'll think it's 1981 and you're inside a TV set.

Geoffroy Thoorens is a French concept artist who currently works at Quantic Dream, the developers of Heavy Rain and the upcoming Beyond: Two Souls.

He's also done stuff for movies, TV shows and even board games, so the gallery you'll see here is a mix of all kinds of work, ranging from landscape painting to concept art for games like RUSE and Sonic Unleashed.

There's plenty more of Geoffroy's art available at his personal site.

To see the larger pics in all their glory (or so you can save them as wallpaper), right-click on them below and select "open in new tab".

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Reader Daniel, who's playing MMO The Secret World, made these panorama screenshots and asked if we thought they looked interesting.

I don't have the slightest care for the Secret World and looked at every single one of them, so yeah, I guess that's a yes!

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This is the V Motion Project, designed by some Kiwis as a means of creating "music through motion". It uses Microsoft's Kinect to capture the body movements of the "player", and then recreates them in giant-size up on the wall, adding a futuristic overlay to let you see what you're doing.

It's Rez meets Minority Report, basically. Which is way more interesting than a lot of other Kinect stuff we've seen lately.

V Motion Project – Part I: The Instrument [Custom Logic]

It's been over twenty years since some bright sparks decided it'd be cool to see Aliens fight Predators. Since then we've had good comics, good video games, bad video games and terrible movies based on the idea.

When people talk about the games, though, they almost exclusively remember the three first-person shooter titles. While the first two were awesome, the softest spot in my heart is reserved for Capcom's 1994 brawler Alien vs. Predator, which gave the dark, sci-fi universe a terrific Japanese animated touch, and let players control either Predators or humans in a sprite-filled battle to save the galaxy.

So stylish. So fun.

When I put Total Recall stories together, I use a ton of sources. My memory/brain, for one, but also specialised history and collector sites, weird blogs, books, all kinds of places. Wikipedia is, sometimes, one of those places.

It's also not always the most reliable. A great piece this week over on Hardcore Gaming reminds us why that is, focusing on the confusion over the original release date of Atari classic Adventure, which thanks to conflicting reports and iffy use of old interviews has been listed as being anywhere from 1978 to 1980.

Sure, it's an isolated and relatively minor case, but it serves as a great example of the perils of researching and writing about history, regardless of the era or the subject matter. Just because you read something and it has a source doesn't mean it's objectively true.

Don't let that drag you down into a Matrix-like black hole of OH MY GOD IS ANYTHING TRUE, though. Like I said, it's an isolated case, and one far more likely to happen to very old games than more recent titles.

Perhaps even more interesting than the dodgy dates, though, is the political mess behind it, as the post talks about the influence a single man, collector and Wikipedia editor has had on propagating a "fact" that there actually appears to be little evidence to support.

Adventure, a game released in the year of wedontknow; or: Wikipedia continues to be a danger to video game historiography and should never be used as a source [HG101]

Zombie survival sim DayZ is awesome, but its ability to really follow through on its promise is limited somewhat by the constraints of the game it's a mod for, ArmA II.

The War Z, which has an awful name, sounds like it's doing much the same thing, dropping people into a zombie-filled world and asking them to survive. Only, by being its own game, it might be a little more involved.

It'll also probably be a lot less realistic. Speaking with IGN, Eric Nordin, from developers Hammerpoint, says of the inevitable comparisons "The major difference is that DayZ is a fantastic mod for a hardcore military simulation game. We are creating a standalone game, with the entire world designed around a zombie apocalypse, so that players feel completely immersed in that environment."

It's got some richer RPG mechanics in there, unlike DayZ's brutal shooting gameplay, and...look, I'm going to stop comparing the two so openly now, because The War Z entered development last year, before anyone even knew what the hell DayZ was.

Despite coming out surprisingly soon - it's due in the Fall, and will cost $30 - there's no mention of how combat will actually work. Which, um, would probably be most people's deal-breaker in a game about shooting zombies.

You can read more about the game below.

The War Z — A New Zombie Survival Experience [IGN]

It's testament to just how damn pretty Guild Wars 2 is that, despite me being someone who'd normally rather set my face on fire than play an MMO, I'm quietly excited about sitting down the game.

Until that time comes, though, I'm going to have to content myself with watching these intro videos instead. Which, being heavy on the game's fine art, are just wonderful.

Caution: Nolan North ahead.

[via PC Gamer]

Delightful Swedish pair Rymdreglage, whose LEGO videos you may have seen here before, are making another LEGO video. This is a LEGO video about the LEGO video they're making. In which they left a camera running while they spent 71 hours sorting 65,000 pieces from 100 boxes.

Most of it is done by the one guy. That is a Herculean effort.

Plusieurs milliers de pièces de LEGO triées en vidéo Stop-Motion [NWE]