A few newsbits concerning Square have surfaced in the past day or so, including information on the company's upcoming Final Fantasy XI and some news on the company's financial status. Much of the news has to do with the peripherals, and their impact on the title. First off, Sony has announced plans to ship roughly 150,000 - 200,000 units of the PlayStation 2 broadband adapter in Japan over the course of this week. As this represents a significant shortage, Square will reduce its planned shipment of FFXI correspondingly, sending out a comparable number of copies of the title on its expected Japanese release date, May 16.

Despite the potential hindrance to sales represented by the shortage, Square has announced an upward revision of their earning forecast for the current fiscal year, based in large part upon the success of Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy X's strong North American performance. The company has bumped their sales forecast by 7.9% from 25.3 billion yen (roughly $198 million US) to 27.3 billion yen (close to $213.1 million US), which, though lower than last year's 28.8 billion yen (just shy of $221 million US), is still a sign of improving fortunes for the RPG giant.

In other peripheral news, Japanese electronics manufacturer Logicool has announced plans to release a revolutionary controller device in Japan later this month. The unit will combine keyboard and dual shock units into one omni-controller, suitable for such online efforts as FFXI. Whether such an innovative piece of equipment will find its way to North America in time for FFXI's release is anyone's guess, but such a device would doubtless be a huge asset to gamers frustrated by switching between keyboard and controller.