Jack Tretton, president of Sony Computer Entertainment America, has said that he is unsurprised by the announcement that Final Fantasy XIII won't be a PS3 exclusive.

Speaking at a meeting with assembled game writers, Tretton reportedly said, "Am I disappointed by it? Yes. Am I surprised? No."

So, why the lack of surprise? "It's going to be harder and harder to hold on to franchises." He then reiterated the fact that FFXIII will remain a platform-exclusive in Japan. The eight Xbox 360 owners in Japan are no doubt gutted. Hearing one of Sony's top men signal that the company expects to lose franchises certainly doesn't bode well for the third-party exclusive.

It was announced as part of Microsoft's E3 press conference that Final Fantasy XIII will appear on the Xbox 360. The series has traditionally been console-exclusive to PlayStation where big, 'proper' entries into the franchise are concerned.

This resignation to not being able to hold on to third-party exclusives isn't new to Sony, however. Over a year ago Phil Harrison, then the head of Sony's worldwide studios, said that he didn't think the PS3 had the installed base to hang on to GTA IV.

Reading between the lines of comments from Square Enix producer Shinji Hashimoto, it looks like a line of thinking that applies to FFXIII. "We considered the hardware situation. Because of that, we considered the spread of the hardware, so that's why we decided that", he said.

For more on the future of third-party exclusives, see SPOnG's recent feature.

^{Source: Kotaku}