If you are experiencing freezing in Final Fantasy XIII, report it to Xbox support.
Toll free: (800) 4MY-XBOX or (800) 469-9269
9:00 A.M. to 1:00 A.M. Eastern Time
Have your console serial number ready.
Be in front of your console for troubleshooting.
My Xbox 360 started freezing up last night after a few hours playing Final Fantasy XIII. Either the screen would suddenly go snowy/blank with a bluish-gray tinge, or it would freeze/lock up but keep displaying the last ‘frame’ of whatever was happening. This happened maybe three times, and each time I had to power off at the console, because while the first segment of the ring on the console and the controller stayed lit, the console stopped responding to the controller. There was no discernible difference in the CD ROM activity at the point of lock-up, or before or after it.
I figured that maybe the unit was overheating, and I was falling asleep anyway, so I called it a night.
Today, I turned it on, loaded my last saved game, and no more than turned my character around to face the other direction when it froze and gave me a blank screen.
Because the unit had been on for less than 4 minutes, it seemed that overheating was pretty unlikely. I started to Google around to see if this was affecting other Final Fantasy owners, but didn’t find much. My game is freezing during Chapter 3: Branded, at Lake Bresha – The Waters Stilled. Each time I turn toward a group of Cie’th, it freezes. If I just sit at the spawn point and watch the fireflies for awhile, I don’t seem to have any problems.
Microsoft’s support page for Screen freezes when you use your Xbox 360 console has 7 steps for troubleshooting this sort of issue. I’ve gone through each one.
I checked the DVD and it’s pristine – it has been handled exactly once, when I removed it from the case and carefully put it into the drive.
I tried another game (Lego Star Wars) and played it for about half an hour with no problems. I’ve messed around in the Dashboard menus for about 5 minutes with no issues.
I haven’t been connected to Xbox Live since I bought the game. It’s not even connected to my router.
I set the console upright instead of on its side, well away from anything that might be blocking airflow and still crashed.
I cleared the system cache, tried again and locked up.
I made it back to the save point, saved the game to a memory card, and then crashed.
I loaded the game from the new save on the memory card and crashed.
I removed the hard drive, loaded the game from the memory card save, and played for about 2 minutes before crashing again.
I loaded the game from an earlier save point and it crashed within a minute at a point that I played through fine the night before.
At this point, I’m out of ideas. It’s gotta be the game making the Xbox do something that it can’t handle, or a defect with the disk that is not due to mistreatment. My Xbox was actually one I got in exchange from Microsoft when I shipped back a unit suffering from the RRoD. Its date of manufacture is 2006-12-16, so maybe that has something to do with it.
Update: 13 March 2010
I called Xbox support last night and asked if anyone had reported freezing in Final Fantasy, and the guy said I was the first. He suspected the disc, and suggested I return the game or try the disc in a different Xbox. He was pretty surprised to hear that the freezing occurred while the hard drive was disconnected. I asked if they still did replacements like in the RRoD days, and he avoided answering, pointing out that the problem seems to be isolated to the one game.
In a last ditch effort, I decided to install the game to the hard drive and run it from there. It didn’t make any difference – the lockups continued to happen within a minute or two of loading a saved game.
I also figured I’d get on Live and see if there were any patches or updates to download, but none are available so far.
I air dusted the Xbox and the power supply brick, too.
My feeling is that it’s a GPU issue. The last time it froze, instead of blank/snow or a frozen frame, I got a series of blue vertical lines.
If the problems continue today, I’m going to:
a) exchange the game and try different discs,
b) put my hard drive on another unit and test, and
c) bug Xbox support again.
Update: 13 March 2010 (Part 2)
I exchanged the game, popped in the new disc, removed the hard drive, loaded from the save on the memory unit, and it froze. So, to rule out a corrupt save somewhere, I started a brand new game from the DVD with the hard drive still disconnected and it froze in the middle of the second battle. It is not a media issue, a hard drive issue, or a corrupted save issue.
The only thing potentially odd about my setup is that I’m running at 1280 x 720 widescreen resolution output to VGA via a Microsoft Xbox 360 HD AV Cable instead of the usual component output. I’m running Dashboard: 2.0.8955.0.
Update: 14 March 2010
I tried changing the resolution to 1024×768 and it still froze.
I called Microsoft for the second time.
The tech support girl on this call also was unaware of any other reports of Final Fantasy XIII freezing, and sent me through the same basic troubleshooting script, with the addition of disconnecting and reconnecting the cables (something I’d already really done) and verifying that I had enough free space on my hard drive to install any updates (check, 5.9 GBs free). She asked me to turn the console on and off, which I did. While I didn’t realize it until after the call was over, Final Fantasy had started up and then froze at the title screen. I pointed out that I had logged 4 hours of game time without any problems, and haven’t been able to play for more than 3 or 4 minutes at a time since the first freeze, that I was freezing in brand new, unsaved games, with and without the hard drive attached, while online and offline. At every opportunity, she countered with “If it plays other games, then it’s not broken.”
All she could offer was a recommendation to first verify that the game disc was fine by playing it in another console, then send mine in for a $99.99 out-of-warranty repair.
She asked me when I bought the Xbox, so I got to tell her that I didn’t buy it – Microsoft sent it as a replacement to my RRoD’d unit. This makes me think they should offer a life-time replacement guarantee on their replacements, rather than a 1-year warranty.
After I got off the phone, I played two hours of BioShock without any problems.
Basically, the situation is this: I need to get my hands on another Xbox, prove to myself that the disc is fine, then decide whether to have my unit repaired or buy a new one.
Option 1 – Repair: I give them my 2006 Xenon Xbox and $99.99, wait for them to troubleshoot it and then ship me a replacement. This will most likely be a refurbished unit of unknown age (probably an Opus).
Option 2 – Replace: I keep my otherwise perfectly fine Xbox, go to Target and buy a brand new Jasper Arcade for $199.99, or roll the dice with a refurb from Gamestop for $159.99.
Ideally, Microsoft will come around and replace the unit for free, but if it won’t, I’d rather pay the extra $100 and get a second unit, a new power supply, and another controller.
Update: 15 March 2010
I submitted a support ticket to Square Enix at https://support.na.square-enix.com/ after 10 unsuccessful minutes trying to find a phone number.
I began to wonder if the problem was with my 64 MB memory unit, so I moved my profile from the memory unit to the hard drive, removed the memory unit, and put the second disk in. (It’s bad troubleshooting procedure to change two variables, I know.) I started up Disc 2 and tried to open the Settings menu and it froze with the blue vertical stripes. I guess this rules out the disc and the memory unit.
I air dusted the CD ROM drive again for good measure.
I did notice a good deal of heat buildup at the bottom of the console toward the back, right underneath the fans. I checked to make sure both were spinning, and they were. I see only a very little bit of dust on the fan blades and heat sink fins. But this puppy does pump out hot air like nobody’s business.
I played another 2 hours of BioShock tonight, and about 1.5 hours in, the game hiccupped a few times – freezing momentarily, for maybe half-a second or so, but then resuming. Eyebrow-raising, but not enough to convince me that the system was bad. But at the 2 hour mark, it completely froze. This wasn’t entirely unexpected, but I’m bummed none-the-less, because it was working fine for 2-hour (or longer) sessions of Modern Warfare 2 just a few weeks ago. Still, why would I be able to play one game for hours before having problems, but another game freezes before I even have a chance to load a save? And was FFXIII the straw that broke the camel’s back?
Update: 16 March 2010
Now I’m worried that the unit is really damaged, that even if a software patch comes out, it will be too late. What’s more, I don’t want to test the game in my nephew’s Xbox for fear of causing similar damage to his system.
I spent some time Googling today. There are lots people reporting this issue, and many of them have exchanged their discs. None of the posts that mention exchanging the game report that it resolved the issue. Of all the dozens of reports of problems, there are no known resolutions and no acknowledgement by Microsoft, Sony, or Square Enix that a problem exists. Hilariously, a number of people have posted that their calls to various tech support numbers have all been ‘the first they’ve heard of this’. Another surprisingly common observation is that while the problems were first noticed in FFXIII, both Xbox and PS3 consoles quickly began exhibiting problems in other games. Most of the problems occur on older, out-of-warranty consoles, but some newer machines are affected.
On the other hand, I’ve found a few threads wherein people claim that mass breakdowns of consoles occur with each large release. There’s some substance to that, I suppose. Consoles probably wear out at a pretty consistent rate, but around the time of a release, you get lots of people playing a single game and if a console happens to fail at that point, the game is blamed. But I don’t think that this is what’s happening here. Too many people are noting that they’re not playing FFXIII more than say BioShock 2 or Modern Warfare 2, which were other recent big releases. Their systems were operating normally until they started playing FFXIII, and in many cases continued to play other games normally. Less often, but still not uncommonly, once the problems begin, they happen in other games. I was in the former group (and may still be, with luck), and still feel that the game itself is problematic.
The game is also freezing on PS3s, maybe moreso than on the Xbox, and that community seems much more vocal about it. There’s a 7-page thread at http://boardsus.playstation.com/t5/Final-Fantasy-Series/Final-Fantasy-XIII-Freezing/m-p/45391106 and a 5-page thread at http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/Technical-Help/Final-Fantasy-XIII-problems/td-p/10379629 of people having problems, mostly with older systems. Here’s a video of it freezing, but more exist.
In an attempt to document the scope of the problem, I’ve put together a list of links:
Final Fantasy XIII freezes/locks up
http://forums.xbox.com/31685195/ShowPost.aspx
Final Fantasy XIII | Final Fantasy XIII Freezing Up
http://forums.xbox.com/31660983/ShowPost.aspx
Issues with GPU begin after playing FFXIII
http://forums.xbox.com/31681685/ShowPost.aspx
Final Fantasy XIII Crashing Consistently
http://forums.xbox.com/31660975/ShowPost.aspx
Final Fantasy XIII | Game Freezing
http://forums.xbox.com/31627724/ShowPost.aspx
Final Fantasy XIII | Annoying Freeze Issue?
http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?p=2890734
Xbox 360 | Final Fantasy XIII | freezing issues
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=950899&topic=53897064
PS3 | Final Fantasy XIII | Warning !! PS3 old fat 40g version , Game freeze!
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=928790&topic=53841505
Update: 17 March 2010
I played another 2.5 hours of Bioshock without any issues at all. My fear that FFXIII’s freezing did some lasting harm to the Xbox may be unfounded.
It’s heartening to see that the problem is getting some attention from sites like Kotaku and GamesRadar. Many of the comments to those stories are from people who aren’t experiencing the crashing. While only a small percentage of FFXIII owners are getting the freezing, it’s still quite a real and annoying problem.
Update: 17 March 2010 (Part 2)
Square Enix emailed me this:
Dear Customer,
Regarding your request for technical support. Please find your answer below.
We hope this letter answers your questions.
We apologize for the problems you are having with your SQUARE ENIX Xbox 360 game stalling. Here are some things I would recommend to clear up the problem:
*Be sure to check if there are any scratches or damage to the disc which could cause the laser to have a problem reading it.
* If you’re experiencing problems in some other area of the game, or it is inconsistent to WHERE the game is freezing, it might be something within the system. You may want to try using a cleaner for your system, which can generally be purchased at any video game retailer.
* If you are playing with your Xbox 360 laying flat, you may want to try placing it on its side and playing with it vertically.
* If none of those tips work, try the game in another Xbox 360 at that point to see if it does the same thing. Video game retailers usually have systems for demonstration purposes, and they are usually cooperative when this type of request is made.
*We do highly recommend to install this game on your HDD (which the new Xbox Dashboard update will allow). Doing so here in the office did assist in a smooth gameplay with no problems of frame-rate or graphic/loading problems.
*If you have already installed the game, please now try to uninstall the game and try playing. Another suggestion to correct this may even be to change the resolution of your display. This can be done within the Xbox 360’s display settings under “My Xbox”.
If the problem persists after that, then you may have a defective or damaged disc. Contact our customer support at http://support.na.square-enix.com and if your game is still within the 90-day warranty period you can obtain a replacement.
We hope this information has been of assistance.
Thank you for contacting the SQUARE ENIX Support Center.
I may pursue the replacement discs, but I really doubt that it will make a difference. I’ll confirm that the discs are fine on another machine this weekend. With the exception of cleaning my DVD drive with a lens cleaner, I’ve exhausted their suggestions.
This state of being not-quite-broken is pretty frustrating, and it reminds me of Yossarian’s jaundice in Catch-22.
Yossarian was in the hospital with a pain in his liver that fell just short of being jaundice. If it became jaundice they could treat it. If it didn’t become jaundice and went away they could discharge him. But this just being short of jaundice all the time confused them.
If my Xbox would just completely fail, I would replace it and be happy. But because the problem is with just one game, I keep waiting for a logical explanation and a fix.
If a representative from Microsoft or Square Enix would like my system and discs for troubleshooting, just ask.
Update: 20 March 2010
Here are a few more threads:
Loading/Freezing issue
http://finalfantasy-xiii.net/forums/showthread.php?t=11664
This game and freezing up!
http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?p=2900889
Final Fantasy XIII Freeze issues
http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=27230003
Per the email from Square Enix, I uninstalled the game from the hard drive. When I tried to launch it from the disc, I got an unreadable disc error. I removed the DVD and cleaned it, but no joy.
My DVD drive is shot. When the tray closes, it makes two thumping noises and then a little whir. The disc never spins up. This affects all discs.
I rather doubt that FFXIII is to blame for this hardware failure. I acknowledge that systems wear out with use and it could be simply coincidence that my system failed after I bought FFXIII. I’m still looking for an explanation as to why the game played normally for a few hours before freezing the first time, then failed dozens of times within a few minutes of starting up, while other games continued to play for hours.
Certainly, some of the PS3 owners believe that the game is burning out their lasers, but the PS3 game is on dual-layer Blu-ray while the Xbox game is on standard DVD, so it doesn’t seem likely to me that the Xbox DVD drive is working harder to play this game than any other.
I tested the Disc 1 and my most recent save on a different console and everything played perfectly.
I’m left to wonder how much longer my system would have kept going if I hadn’t bought FFXIII. Would it have still failed on the next game purchase?
In the next few weeks, I’m going to buy an Arcade, but my lasting impression of this is that FFXIII is going to end up costing me over $260.
Update: 1 April 2010
I bought an Arcade back on March 21st, and it’s been playing FFXIII from the hard drive without any problems since. It seems that the brief flurry of attention given to the problems associated with FFXIII has died down, too.
The choice of an Arcade instead of something with a HD seems pretty savvy in light of the news that USB memory support for the Xbox 360 is coming on April 6th. So I’ve gone ahead and ordered a 16 GB stick that should look pretty slick.
Hey, just searching around the net and stumbled upon this. Having the same problem, although I can’t even get through Chapter 1 without crashing. It’s crashed in a bunch of different places, but I literally cannot get past the part where Hope and Vanille engage in their first battle.
I took the whole machine apart and cleaned everything, and it looked for a second like it was going to work, but nope. I tried installing the game to the HDD, but that actually made it worse – I couldn’t even get past the point where you have to select which Hard Drive to store saves on.
Glad to know I’m not the only one. Hope there’s a solution somewhere.
you are not alone, seems its not a hardware problem since many ps3 users (included me) got that problem
Happnes on xbox 360 ps3 every version patch and type of ps3 too. Kills the ps3 and xbox and corrupts hd’s and console.
http://community.eu.playstation.com/t5/Technical-Help/Final-Fantasy-XIII-problems/td-p/10379629/page/3
Theres a tone of problems and sony blames square and square blames sony
I got the same problem i got a new disc in case there was a scratch and it still froze…I can run every other game I have just fine final fantasy is the only game it freezes up on.
FF 13 is also freezing for me on xbox 360. It’s freezes at the point where snow et al fall into the ice lake, Lake Breeche or something, once you battle there, it then freezes.
To go one step further, my xbox 360 suddenly has the rings of death! All I know is that I played the game, it freezes, I restarted and now i get the rings of death! It’s now friend my xbox…
Is a stretch to say that ff 13 caused my rrod?
I did get the rrod before, but I sent it off to microsoft for repair, and they returned it and it has been fine for 2 years. And now I play ff13 and I get it again straight after it crashes!
Hi Ardamis, same here , the xbox 360 just went frozen for the very 1st time since I bought this console.
It frozen when i was in the middle of ff13, back and forth for a few times. And next day in the morning, I turned on xbox 360 … it came out with three red light !!! And I checked the trouble shooting for this matter, and it said the console overheat and might need some “cool down” solution.
To be honest, I desperately want to play ff13 badly, so I paid some website to learn how to repair an xbox360 with 3 red lights problem.
So guess what? after few hours work, I turned the machine on again, it works !!! BUT … just for a while, I was in the middle of the game for not more than 5 minutes, and the screen went frozen AGAIN !!! And I turned this off and on again, its not last than 1 minute in ff13 !!!
Afterwards, I tried the other game, and it last only for about 10 or 15 mins , and went frozen again.
This never happened before until I played ff13 … and this totally screwed my xbox360 up !
I need some expert advise on this, should I change my console to ps3 ? I don’t feel like getting another xbox360, since I seldom play games with xbox360… and I don’t think my “stuffed up xbox360” going to work anymore.
But before I getting a ps3 , I just want to know… is it perfectly work in ps3 ? I don’t want another similar experience in ps3 when playing ff13 … it will be extremely frustrating !!!
The same exact thing has happened to me. I played the game up to the beginning of Chapter 3. It was getting late, so I saved at the save point. When I started up the next day, I froze after about 2 mins. Went back to an earlier save, also froze.
I called Square-Enix and was told (1) first they had heard of this (2) try the disc in another xbox (3) exchange the disc at a retail store.
Interested to hear how this works out for you. The fact that it freezes in the same spot for all the posters here suggests it is a bug, but I guess we will have to wait and see if square-enix finds and patches it.
Hi guys, IMO the xbox360 cannot sustain the ff 13 graphic performance, and the thing heats up easily. From my memory, I have used my xbox360 for 2 years and never come across such thing, and I think ff13 graphic performance requirement is too high, and it overloads the Graphic processor up until certain point and froze.
I even checked the other players who using PS3 , they also have similar experience. Just google around for the freezing issues, I think many peoples are complaining about this.
Just thought I’d add my name to the list as well. FFXIII has frozen on me multiple times.
I’ve been posting on this thread on the Xbox 360 forums.
http://forums.xbox.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=31655617
Unfortunately no one seems to know what to do… 🙁
mine to, at first removing the game from my hdd and clearing the cache worked, but now the game wont even load my save spot, i start a new game on another profile and the same thing happens, its a bug and needs to be patched, which sucks because i want to be playing this right now ive only been waiting 3 years…. and the only reason i bought an xbox instead of ps3, was because square announced this games release on both consoles…
I’m convinced ff13 has given me the rrod, first time microsoft repaired it but this time around it’s out of warranty.
I rang the support line and told them that after experiencing freezing, then rrod. Of course they said ‘this is the first we’ve heard of it’ spiel. Most I could ask was that they lodge the complaint in case others rang in about similar problems.
Goodluck fellas, I’m undecided whether I want to buy another 360…
I’ve got the same problem here. Final Fantasy is the only game that’s ever frozen on my console.
for me, it freezes just after you’ve fallen onto the frozen lake. just at the end of that first battle. it tells you your battle score then *blip*… frozen.
it can’t be coincidence that at least three other people have had freezing issues at that EXACT MOMENT OF THE GAME. clearly there’s something wrong here.
Having same problem….im guessing its the graphix card…i heard that was the other major problem with Xbox…..I knew i should have gotten a PS3
On top of the Freeze, i was having little glitches in the FMVs at the begingin of the game….This is getting really irritating….for 60 bucks a pop you would think they would sell you a game that works
I have gotten further in after Hope and Lightning split from Vanile and Sasz. It goes into a cut scene between Lightning and Hope where Lightning wants to know what Hopes grudge is against Snow and right after he says “Hes the reason my mom died” It goes to a white screen and keeps playing music but never shows anything. I can pause the game and hit skip but the game just goes to the loading screen and never does anything else. I sat there for 10 minutes waiting before I reloaded and the same thing happened.
XBox doesnt even answer my calls.
Ok here is what I just posted on the ps3 forum. Crazy to see, this is not just happening with PS3 users XBOX as well!!
WOW I can’t believe this. I get to chapter 7 fight the end boss, game locks up before the next cut scene. After that, all hell breaks loose.
Pretty much everything everyone here described.
I have a 40 gig ps3, had for almost 3 yrs now, never had a problem until game locked up on chapter 7.
I tried restarting the game and I couldnt get it to load for a few tries kept getting the 800 something error which Im’ not worried about writing about at the moment (which i read was either firmware related or bad sector on the hard drive )
in short the game locks up now. I copied the data to a flash drive, tried a system restore, even formatted the system ,
restored data same issue. Repeated process, started a new game, same issue. Basically this issue rendered my ps3 useless.
If i get lucky after 2-3 attempts the game loads up than locks up after a cut scene or a battle, half the time i can’t get it to load.
This game basically corrupted either the disc reader or the firmware. I have yet to test other games like heavy rain but from what everyone is saying here good chance it will lock up too. it is rather disheartening to see that all the support have denied this issue when its clearly happening to so many people. My thoughts now, the only way I’m going to get to play my copy of FF13 is if I replace the hard drive or buy a stupid SLIM… I am so disappointed. Waiting all this time for just this game, and it fu$ks up after chapter 7..
Hi Kain, are you sure slim ps3 will work perfectly with ff13 ? so far I discovered lot of players having trouble with ff13 are using old ps3, but not sure slim ps3 has issue with this game or not
wow i have the same exact problem with my ff it keeps freezing on the loading part on chapter 3 lake breshka *********SPOILER AHEAD IF U HAVENT PLAYED CHAPTER 3 DONT READ AHEADD!!!!!!!!!!****** RIGHT after i fought and captured the eidons and u return to fighting with lightning it freezes when i fight those pantherons every time…Im also on a xbox 360 that was a RRoD replacement.contemplating buying a FRESH xbox.
Hmm…I did some searching on the web, and I discovered that everyone who said that their game froze lived in USA…
Whoops, I meant froze on 360’s lived in USA.
Same thing on my 360. Several freezes early on in the game with the game seizing up completely after the the Paradigm tutorial battle once you hit the frozen lake. Not sure what to do about this as exchanging discs obviously doesn’t fix things… has anyone actually found a way to resolve this yet??
Hi 17. From what I can tell, after all my researching the problem seems to be more with the older PS3 (fat models) although I have seen a few posts of users who have the 150 GIG SLIM and experienceing the same.
The fact that XBOX users are haing this problem leads me to believe it might have something to do with the coding of the game, or even possibly the firmware although I would blame the firmware for the ps3 (3.15) but not the xbox so I’m still puzzled atm.
The freezing issue has to be too wide spread for Square Enix to claim that everyone is the “first to report this problem”. I’m on Chap.7 and the game has frozen on me at least……30x. I own a 360 and I’m sure the game is the problem and not the system. I played Modern Warefare 2 for hours, then Assassins Creed 2 for hours, then Mass Effect 2 for even more hours w/no problems. Only when I play FF13 do I have that freezing issue. The freezing issue totally has blown my FF13 high……
I’m currently playing on my PS3 Slim, Just arrived at Gran Pulse, chapter 11, I think. Been playing for periods of 4 to 6 hours straight and no problems untill now!
Though, I had problems with Heanvly sword… but i think the disk was to blame…
i was having the same freezing problem during a couple cut scenes but i got past it. I got to the point of putting in the second disc and then i wouldn’t read the disc. i called square and they told me to return the game. i returned the game and now it will only read the first disc. i’m going to try it in a different xbox to see if that works.
Its not just usa i live in the uk and it happens here too
Ok, So after 24~ hours of play I had my first experience with the freezing. In chapter 10 when you start the cut scenes for the Cid Raines fight the 4 minutes of cut scenes run perfectly fine, however after he changes into his “icey” form or what not and the camera is zooming around to begin the fight my box froze and wouldn’t respond to anything.
I figured it was overheated and what not from playing for 4 or so hours, so I just cut it off and went to sleep. BUT now that it’s the next day there’s no reason it should fail. Unfortunately for me it did.
I tried everything I can think of and was about to pack my things up and leave to trade out my game for a new copy, even though it wouldn’t help, when i thought about turning down the graphics to the standard RWY cables. So I switched it to standard def and turned down the brightness on the settings to as low as it would go and charged into the fight. IT WORKED! This leads me to believe it has something to do with the high def graphics.
Hope it helps
Well, I am happy to report that I tried out cdgfencer’s suggestion and it seemed to have fixed my inability to get past Chapter 7 without freezing/locking up. Mind you this is for the PS3 not XBOX360 I do want to mention one thing, which I’m sure really doesn’t matter to much. I just turned on the PS3 from last night for the first time today and turning off the BD 1080p 24Hz output seems to lower the quality of the graphics a bit, but it could be just me tripping out.
Soon as I find a save spot I’m going to repeat chapter 7 again with the BD 1080p 24Hz graphics set to AUTO to see if it locks up again.
I’ll post an update when possible.
Go to Setting>Video Settings> BAD 1080p 24Hz output> change this setting to OFF.
Hi! It’s not just USA and UK, I live in Finland and I’m having same problem. My 360 had RROD issue last summer, so they fixed it for free at Germany. Everything was fine until I bought FFXIII, it installed an update and worked fine for one night. But on next day I tried to play it, and it froze up at the frozen lake. Well I sent it to fixed up again..2-3 weeks and I should have it back. We’ll see if it still keeps freezing after repair..
Returned original FF13 purchase to Gamestop and they claimed it could have been a “bad burn”. I hurried home hoping he was right. HE WAS WRONG!!!!! I got past the trouble area only for it to freeze during the next cutscene. Now it won’t go past that point at all (Ive tried about 10x). Maybe the graphics are too much for the graphic processor on the 360 to handle.
Goodbye 360, hello slim ps3…..
I’m so extrememly frustrated, I can hardly stand it. You wait forever for a game that costs a bundle, then it screws up and no one wants to take the blame for it and no one can figure out what to do about it! It started acting up in chapter 11 (I haven’t read of anyone else having problems in that spot) where you explore that vast amount of land. Oh boy, from then on, freezing, it won’t play voices in battle, the graphics go haywire, and on and on…I LOVE this game, and the thought of not finding out what happens next is driving me insane.
Going to exchange it today (though I know it probably won’t work) and wait until somebody figures out what the hell is going on. Someone better take responsibility for this.
I broke down and just bought a ps3 slim. My old 40 gig is a brick. Suprise suprise.
I live in the UK, my copy of FF13 (pre-order) keeps freezing during certain cut scenes, once I know which cut scenes, I just skip that scene to continue.
WTF!!!
Got the game replaced – it went past the freezing point! Gonna keep going, praying that it works okay. *gulp*
Add me to the list of XBOX360 users, except I was 31 hours in on the third disc. I’ve tried allthe standard tricks and the troubleshoots to no avail. It doesn’t skip in the exact same spot each time, anywhere from the title screen to a battle or two into the game.
I’d say just keep posting out there and Microsoft or Square Enix will acknowledge.
mine freezes just after i beat part 1 of the final boss
I also have problems. Mine started a week ago when I bought my game. I’m trying to get a hold of Square Enix through email to get a replacement and hopefully an acknowledgment of the issue. I’m also a 360 user.
Go to Setting>Video Settings> BAD 1080p 24Hz output> change this setting to OFF.
does it works?
I’m comment number 21 above as well.
After giving up because of game freezes as above and the disc being un-readable when installing to HDD, I exchanged discs this morning. Oh, I had also tried the resolution and display setting changes to no avail.
When I loaded from the save point using the new disc, the game still froze and crashed the first time.
I then loaded from the save point before and ignored all the prompts to save the game after cut-scenes. This time after the first battle at Lake Brescha the game thought about freezing but then carried on as normal. It’s been fine ever since.
The new disc also installs to the HDD without problems.
I’m not sure what the issue was or if its properly fixed, but things seem OK now.
Well now my XBox freezes on the Dashboard. I can’t do anything now. My XBox worked perfectly before this game. I had just got done beating Assassin’s Creed 2 and now I’m pissed because of this.
ugh 40hours into game and i get freezing and intermittent rrod. Called xbox and apparently im the first to have this problem… I can repeat the freezing w/ them on the phone but because i cant get 3rings they are giving me grief about warranty. … sigh… disappointment…
does all of you having the freezing issue has connected to xboxlive/psn as well?
Xbox 360 user chiming in here. Had several freezes in the game including a few that were bad enough where I had to turn off the console manually because controller interface stopped entirely and I got to the start of disc 3 at about 24hrs and then it refuses to load keeps telling me its the wrong disc. I tried multiple times still nothing. Replaced the game for a faulty disc hoping it would fix my problems and I’m still getting the same song and dance. I re-beat the boss, skipped the cut scene after and when it wants me to insert disc 3 it refuses to read it and says its the wrong disc or just cuts to a xbox 360 logo and won’t do anything.
I had this issue when going to cut scenes. I installed to hdd and it fixed it for me.
I’ve noticed that when mine freezes it happens when I’m exploring. If I follow the linear path, I have no problems. If I attack an enemy trying to get an item that’s off the well-beaten path, it freezes every time. Otherwise, it’s ok.
Hey, I’m having, or rather had, the exact same problem with Final Fantasy XIII. It froze a number of consecutive times within a span of twenty minutes after we got some solid play time out of it all weekend. My Xbox had previously been ripped open for modding, we took out the x-clamps and re-applied our own coolant to the heat sinks after getting the RRoD. Afterwards the box ran much louder but it worked and it wasn’t overheating at all. After playing FF, the game froze a few times (most of them were yesterday, and happened numerous times) before the machine died on me. Red bar in the lower right quadrant which means a hardware failiure.
I’m going to be buying a new Arcade system and just using my HD and such and hopefully the game will run on that. I would love it if you would let me know how that goes for you as well since you’re doing the same thing. I’m glad you’re getting this out there because the problem seems to be mostly swept under the rug by Microsoft and SE.
Thanks again,
Bryce.
So, this is what happened when I first got the game Final Fantasy 13. My XBox 360 froze within the first couple hours of play, but I would be able to get past that point if I reloaded. Until I got to Snow vs Shiva sisters. That’s when it got bad. I would beat them, watch the cutscene, and then it would freeze. I probably went through that over 10 times. Then I tried installing to the XBox 360 hard drive… didn’t do anything. I deleted it and left my 360 alone for a couple days. When I came back to it, it wouldn’t even load past my dashboard. It would start making weird noises, going to blank screens of random colors, or just freeze on the dashboard. The 360 only started that after I left it alone for a couple days. I think that maybe the game is causing some kind of strain on the systems(being XBox 360 or Playstation 3, in general), more than the usual amount. I believe that the damage is permanent, and the damage pertains to the hardware. Perhaps the laser is reflecting and causing damage inside the game systems. I don’t know, but I do know that it is a problem with the game, and that Square Enix is responsible. I’ve seen people on other message boards talking about their experiences with Square Enix, and the Square Enix is blaming Microsoft and Sony. But, how can two different companies be having the same problem at the same time with a massive amount of people? It’s not possible, unless it is the game. I believe that Square Enix needs to take responsibility for their mistake.
add my name to the list my 360 keep locking up only on FF13
so just got off phone with square they said they haven’t been able to reproduce the freezing in there office they wont me to send my game to them at least he said there are people complaining about.ugh im done with FF
Yeah, I’m having the same problem too. the first thing I did was take the game back to the store and exchange it for another one… still froze, so I bought another Xbox360….. and it gave it a rrod. I thought I was alone in this. I really hope someone mans up, and fixes this problem.
I’m Having the same problem on the 3rd cd (xbox360). The 1st 2 worked fine for me, one had it once on the 1st cd and i restarted it and worked good as new, the 2nd cd had no problem but the 3rd it keeps freezing on me in battles. I also contacted xbox support, twice and square enix once. I was told the same thing that it might be my system overheating. I tried other games on it and it none of them freeze like FF13. I want to finish the game but at the same time if i play and there is no save point near by it might freeze on me, i lost a total of like 3 hours of gameplay due to the freeze bug.
Add my name too. I can’t go pass a certain area. Have try everything. Using standard TV, and different HD settings. Installing on HD seem to make problem worst. So, it seems I cant play it 🙁
Keep talking about the issues. It’s ridiculous. Older systems should be able to play newer games. People aren’t made of money. Development times and Q&A Sessions should be longer if glitches/freezes are present. Instead, developers crank out technically challenged games and wait to do the patching after enough people complain.
Don’t let Sony, Microsoft, or SquareEnix play dumb. Someone *needs* to step up to the plate an address gamer’s concerns! Media attention would be nice.
Quit playing Final Fantasy 13 if it freezes; it might ruin your system (X-Box 360 or Playstation 3)! Do NOT buy another copy. You’ll be giving the above companies an “A-okay!” to rip you off. Your money shouldn’t go down the drain.
Yet another right here. Barely have time in my life to play this game, much less sit here and not play it. I do have an original 360 that has never been put online, but it still should work. Feel sorry for the guy thats gonna buy it off me on craigslist, but hey, thats life.
Mine just froze today as I was playing it. It was around the middle of disc 2. I was on top of the airship and had just saved my game. I have an XBox 360 arcade model and bought a 120GB hard drive separately. After turning the console off and letting it cool for a few minutes (although I knew that wasn’t the problem because it didn’t feel hot and I’ve played games much longer without ever having a problem). Anyway, turned it back on, same problem. Turned it off for a few minutes, turned it back on and then it started freezing just on the dashboard alone so now I know my system was failing. Sure enough I got the red ring of death and am awaiting a mailing slip from Microsoft so I can send it in. Luckily still have some warranty left. This is truly ridiculous though and never should have happened. I see this problem occurring more and more lately as people play this game and I’m pretty sure it’s the game itself. So a big (sarcastic) thank you to Square-Enix for breaking my X-Box 360 entirely.
Join the RROD, I knew ff13 some how caused it, and not surprised that others are getting it.
Lucky you still have warranty…
I bought a repair kit off ebay, it mostly came with replacement screws for the ‘x-clamp’ and heat sink gel.
Couldnt get it to work, anyone used any repair kits worth reccomending, or have any websites that show you how to fix rrod?
Join me up. Have a ps3 and the first 30 mins of starting the game it froze. Now my ps3 is as useless as a square enix rep. No game/movie will play and its the fat ps3 system. I also know my system was fine do to I had just beat rockband as well as God of War 3 with no problem what so ever and now my ps3 can not play a game or movie? Square better pay to have this crap fixed.
Same problems on disc 2. Can’t get past the part with sasz and vanille in the forest right when you fight those 2 sleeping monsters. Freezes everytime. I have exchanged the game 2 times now. Brand new disc untouched by human hands freezes right when the battle starts. Installing causes the cutscene to never load. And sometimes it freezes on the Square Enix splash screen. This xbox I have has red ringed 2 times. No other games freeze. I play MW2 for at least 2 hrs a day.
hi guys … i had red ring problem earlier on when i was in disc 1,( see my post no 6 ) and i fixed it ( the way u fix this is to apply thermal paste on ur xbox processor , cos ff13 hardware pre-requisite is too high, your console will easily heat up after long hours playing in ff13 ) , but when i was in taejin tower in disc 3 … same problem comes back again ! i guess it is hardware problem …
my friend … not ff13 disc problem … it is the hardware problem … cos ff13 graphic performance requirement is far beyond expectation that xbox360 could handle ( imagine this machine was released few years ago … well you know … technology back then wasn’t that great )
sigh… i guess i have to buy a ps3 then … anyone who using ps3 slim version play ff13 and still hasn’t got any problem so far ?
hi 56, in relation to RROD , I already out of warranty, so i forced to fix the thing myself … it’s a very very tedious and frustrating process … you just need to keep on trying … i had tried this like for uncountable times in one week …… and finally had it done , but it only last for 2-3 weeks ( from disc 1 to disc 3 taejin tower )… I guess the thermal paste has gone during the gameplay … cos the processor heat up and evaporate the paste gradually.
Such a pain in the neck … gotta dismantle the box and re-apply the paste again …totally freak me out !
I’ve had a similar, although more horrific experience with the same game on my Elite from ’07. I just borrowed the game from a friend today, to review it for my high school paper. One hour in, the first freeze. Wait thirty minutes. Try again, freezes within five minutes. Try again immediately, Red Ring of Death. The graphical demand of this game is paralyzing to the GPU of the 360. It’s too graphically demanding for Microsoft’s hardware to stand up to it. This problem will persist on any 360, resulting in permanent console damage. A recall will be sure to follow, once SquareEnix is concerned enough. The collateral damage that will cause not only to Square, but to Microsoft, will be astounding. But, I’ve got to go now. I have to fill out my repair form, so I can get my 360 back into working condition.
I am having the same issues with freezing in FFXIII. Xbox 360 console, played on 720p resolution. I did not have any problems until the third disc, 90 hours of gameplay. It began when I was farming the giant turtles. The music would cut off, and the graphics would act up (the turtles eyes and mouth were rainbow colors).
When I was in Edenhall, and run into the PSICOM enemies, the background colors would glitch and there would just be light blue and other distorted colors. I always play my games installed to the HDD, and FFXIII is the first game I ever had issue with.
Dear Users of FF13,
I have just recieved a new 120gb ps3 slim and it seems that ff13 also freezes up about 40 hours+ (somewhere around the third CGI scene) in chapter 11. I seem to have no more problems afterwards later on im at a stone mission 27 and no signs of freezing. (I cried when I had to skip a CGI scene that I havent even seen yet) but they’ll just sum it all up in your datalog no big deal, but I think square enix or sony needs to take responsibility for this freezing issue.
Same here on my xbox 360 tried everything i could think of but it tends to freeze at fixed points every time and some times at random points in the game… farthest I’ve got is the end of the shiva twins fight.
was haveing constant freezing and glitched battles, like one monster would be unable to be attacked but the rest would work, listened to comment about turning brightness down worked like a charm. on a side note tried copying the game to hard drive and it froze consistently at 42 % dont know if thats uniques or not. a further note my game was brand new when it went into console came out scratched up and with a slight “ripple” effect which was mentioned on another forums. anyone seen that. and yes my console was one of the first so really old good luck guys
I’ve had my Xbox 360 Pro for almost one year, haven’t had any issues with it, until I started watching DVD’s on my system, then the system started acting up, not reading DVD’s that I’d put into the system. Then eventually not reading game discs I put into the drive (disc in, says open tray). So I stopped watching DVD’s on the system, due to rumors of them ruining the unit. After that, I had the open tray error a few times, but I would just need to play a different game for upwards 30 minutes before putting in the game that wasn’t being read and voila. Then a week ago, I purchased FFXIII and Assassin’s Creed 2. I play throughthe first disc on FF without a hint of any trouble besides PSICOM =). Then I swapped over to playing AC2 all the way through the game, had no trouble whatsoever. Keep in mid that I played the first dics on HD settings, and the first quarter of AC2. The rest of Assassin’s Creed 2 was then played on 480p. Next, I started onto the second disc of FF, and later in the game, I began having having freezing issues at cutscenes ONLY. The most notable was when Cid goes Ice Man on you, tried skipping to no avail. Played C2 for a while, and it still woudn’t work. I kept trying praying to God to let it work, and after about 15 restarts, I skipped the cutscene, and the battle loaded fine, I then continued on. I’m still in 480p at this point. Then I would have a few freezes during cutscenes, such as when the trio get the Gran Pulse ship from the Vestige they come across. But I could skip the cutscenes and continue on, though I was incredibly dissappointed by this. Onto disc 3, had the cutscene rendered non-playable when Fang and Vanille argue over the Ragnarok mishap. Though I skipped that disappointed and continued the game. Never had a freeze during exploration at this point. Then I had another cutscene not load, when Bartandulus engaged the group at Oerba, though after a few restarts, I watched the cinematic. Then the following cinematic, when Raines is giving his spiel, I believe, the cutscene won’t load, I skip that (after I great many restarts), move onto a battle with a machine I know nothing about because of the skipped cutscene. I then move onto the next cinematic, which freezes, and cannot be skipped, this is where I am today, though I’ve only restarted about ten times maybe, often takes more than that to get past the bad egg. I played FF for about 60-80 hours at this point. Another thing that’s noticable, is when the cutscenes don’t load, my 360 goes quiet, then when something loads, it grows load again, but no sounds except when I don’t insert a disc into the tray (to annoy the unit for not reading discs). I’ve had the open tray error a few times, but nothing too dramatic. Now today, when I decided to replay AC2, I can’t even pass the cinematic after Desmond witnesses the birth of Ezio, the game skips some audio, and a few frames, then boom, “The disc is unreadable”. I’m in the U.S., have never even connected to Live, and keep the console in a very wide air space for great airflow at 65 degrees F. I searched around today, and found this post, and Kudos for it btw, because if I call support, I’ll start off with these exact words, “Hi, I have an issue, but before I tell you what it is, I’m well aware that my problem is not the first you’ve had, nor wil it be the last, in fact, there’s a very large part of the 360 AND PS3 community that are experiencing this problem, and that problem, is playability issues with a Brand New version of Final Fantasy XIII.”
I’m not in the position to get repairs, let alone a new console, all I can do, is restart the console over and over again, and pray that is works.
*Another note*
During my cutscene crashes today, I installed the first two discs on my HDD,a nd try to install the third, but it’s rendered Unreadable, even though it doesn’t even have a hint of a dust particle on the dics, and refuses to install past 44%
Additionally, I lied, when I first started playing the game, it wouldn’t go past to memory storage device selection screen, took about four restarts, then I played without a hitch until the latter part of disc 2.
Yeah I’ve experienced this problem numerous times for the past 2 weeks now. At first it played beautifully, no problems for a couple of hours. Then it froze on me on disc 2, currently I’m on the Palamecia airship to rescue Sazh and Vanille. I thought it froze due to overheating but then it just kept freezing at the title screen. I tried working around it by playing for only 30 minutes and saving constantly so that I could at least finish it. Now I can’t even get past the load screen…I gave up on the game for a while and started playing Modern Warfare 2 again, it froze on me ONLINE!!! Then I turned it off cleaned it, took out hard drive and started playing MW2 on split-screen with my friend, it froze there too. So far every game that I put in has frozen after just a couple minutes of playing. Now I can’t even play any game without it freezing after a couple of minutes. I think that FFXIII is 100% at fault right now, I’ve NEVER experienced this kind of problem, I’ve experienced the Red Rings but I bought a new Xbox and have moved on from that problem.
Just got the game, tried it on my xbox elite and after getting to the 2nd set of characters on disk 1 the xbox froze. Tried again from the save and froze again. So tried a different game, that froze. Tried two more games, ones I know to be reliable and they all freeze. I’m getting graphical corruption and the xbox dies. Now also had it on the dashboard. Since I know the other games worked fine yesterday, and I know they haven’t all suddenly become dusty, FF XIII has caused problems to my xbox. I haven’t managed to find any fix, and so right now I have a useless console as it freezes either on loading the dashboard or before I can get far enough into a game to actually play it. Always the same type of freeze – graphical corruption appears on screen. I’ve tried changing the screen resolution (1080i to 720p), no joy.
I have a launch Xbox 360 which has never red rings or performed poorly.
Right off the bat I got a freeze, a checkerboard pattern of glitch over the attract video.
Restarted, got it again except quicker.
Took the disc out, went to the dashboard and it happened there, quicker and quicker.
Waited an hour and it seemed to work again…for 10 minutes anyways and I turned it off. Will try a few other games tomorrow
If this truly is a case of a game frying old hardware its bullshit. I can handle that hardware gets old, but if the problem is this widespread its clearly the game pushing the limits of the GPU.
And the fact they won’t just be straight up is pathetic. That is the part that pisses me off more than anything.
Hi, I’m from Australia. I’ve had my xbox 360 for 3 years, never had a problem until FFXIII. At one point it started freezing upon resuming a saved game, then today – rrod. This is a serious issue for Square Enix and Microsoft, there’s a clear correlation between FFXIII and dead consoles, I hope these companies step up to compensate their customers and fix this issue.
I have had my 360 for about 2 years and have had minimal problems with it untill I got FF13. The game freezes during game play, ingame clips and loading screens. I have experienced this problem before with another game, Fallout 3. But the interesting part is that, since iv’e gotten the game of the year edition of Fallout 3, the game of the year edition has not once froze on my system. So the orginal release of Fallout 3 froze on my 360, but the game of the year edition has not froze once. I’m thinking the same problem may be occuring now with FF13.
Ive got the same problem as SilverEvoX above post 43, so im at the end of disk number 2 have had no problems with the game litterally at all. However once i beat the Boss and put disk 3 into the tray it reads wrong disk, so tried installing all the disks for the hardrive 1 and 2 went on fine but number 3 comes up error that it is scratched or has dirt on it to wipe it with a cloth. However this was done when it first read wrong disk. I didn’t get a warrenty on my disks but i have should still have one on my 360. Also i have looked very thoroughly and there is no scratches on disk 3 at all. If anyone knows how to fix this please post i would really like to beat the game.
One last thing i can put the 3rd disk in the 360 and it can read the disk, it loads the title screen and everything fine but once i load my game it tells me to put disk 2 in so i do, beat the boss then disk 3 says wrong disk again 😐
Same issue with this game. Im on disc 3, chapter 11 leveling up in the Mah’habara area and it freezes. First time is was about an hour after gamplay and it froze so I just turned it off. The very next day froze after 20 minutes! It just freezes on the last frame of where it was.
hey i live in australia and i have ff 13 i have gotten up to disk 2 chapter 9 and it freezes out but the thing is i dno if i can return it i bought it off ebay. im screwed
There is now a class action lawsuit against Sony and SQUARE ENIX alledging that Final Fantasy XIII may make Playstation 3 inoperable and that each company blames the other for any problems that may occur. If this is happening to you on the Playstation 3 (NOT X-BOX 360!), throw your name into that lawsuit for your cut of 5 million dollars (assuming this dude wins the suit). Google it, I shit you not.
My ff13 worked fine until i reached disk 3 and was fighting hopes summon. The first three seconds of the fight went fine but then it froze. It has frozen everytime on that specific part.
I have the same problem as you do. I can play any other game I own just fine, yet between 2 to 10 minutes of FFXIII the game will freeze. As you stated, the disc is in pristine condition and I also have tried all the above solutions.
My 360 froze twice. I then got online to see if FF XIII was going to make a habit out of freezing. I stumbled upon this page and was horrified. I continued playing and got the dark green screen with vertical lines, and several other freezes; some with a frozen image and others with a black screen.
I just thought I’d throw my hat in.
#79 here again. I followed the Microsoft screen freeze trouble shooting guide to no avail. I removed my HDD, started a new game, got 5 minutes in and it froze
# 79 here. Just tried to turn on my 360, RROD. ‘Nuff said.
This can’t be true! This is a f***ing joke! How the f*** can square-enix put out a game that destroys consoles???!!!
My XBox 360 ran perfectly until i played ff 13. It caused a RRoD and the game kept freezing all the time… Fortunately my xbox somehow survived, and i hope that it will continue to work…
update: it didnt survive Final Fantasy afterall… It now freezes in the sme way as it did playing FF all the time. Even without playing any game!
add me to the list guys i brought a new 360 (250g) not even a week old just for this fooking crap i get to disk 3 the battle with the grand pulse fel’cie and it freezes
For me the game has been fine up to the 3rd disc, once I got to the 3rd disc every battle I get in the game immediately freezes and I have to turn off my 360, I have called xbox support and there is nothing wrong with my xbox also seeing that its fairly new, I tried downloading the game to my hard drive but that didn’t work either, and I tried playing my 3r disc on multiple xbox’s but it also didn’t work. I’m guessing there is something wrong with the disc because I have not touched the 3rd disc until today when I tried to play it. I also contacted Square Enix support and i’m waiting for a reply.
This sucks mine is starting to freeze too after like 2 months of having it. I hope 14 is not gonna be so unreliable
i tried playing ff13 today…it froze just after you beat the shiva sisters…i dont know whats going on in the story because i had to skip all the cut scenes…only final fantasy game that i ever had a problem with…
OMG SAME PROBLEM AS NUMBER 77, it freezes at the hope summon. first few seconds fine and all of a sudden it freezes. thats the only time too.
Well, after putting a good 12+ hours on FF 13 today, I decided that I was going to go ahead and beat the game. I still had about 1/3 of the side missions left and I figured that since most of them were “A” rank, I’d wait till I could get to them in the second playthrough. Everything goes swimmingly until I get to the final boss. *SPOILER ALERT* I beat Barthandelus and just finished with Orphan’s first part and then I notice one of the cutscenes slowing down. The framerate just went to zero, but the music was still playing and it managed to get through part of the cutscene before it transitions to a white screen and part 2 of the Orphan battle. And it just stayed at the white screen. The music stopped, I could still pause and unpause the game, bring up the xbox menu and everything, but the cutscene just wouldn’t advance. I waited about 15 minutes or so at the white screen before I decided to restart the console to make sure my saves / the console itself were alright. No red ring of death, and my save file is just fine. I’m thinking it just overheated from being used for so long. I’ll know more tomorrow.
When I installed disc 3 to my hard drive on the xbox 360, I would always seem to walk into a glitched up area, where there’s no floor or ceiling. When I uninstalled it it fixed that problem, but my game would freeze when I’m doing Crystarium or teleporting or loading games. Hope there’s an update for this. Oh and the music stops in combat sometimes too. Then I decided to play music off my hard drive to see if that would prevent the freezing. It worked for a while, but failed in the end.
So, yesterday I got a new FF13 special edition xbox console, and I stick FF13 in, it doesn’t even work, telling me to clean disc and all that. MY disc was spotless.
I tried multiple times, and when it did work, it went into the “xbox 360” screen for dvds, and gave me the dvd menu. wtf?
So, did getting a new disc work for anyone?
I have a new one it worked and when i got to chapter 13 it didnt work
Guys clean the disc alchoal it WORKS TO FIX IT
Same problem as Cheyenne. Got the ff13 bundle. other games work fine, but the (spotless) ff13 says its unreadable. after several tries it appeared to work, but only went to the dvd menu.
I had already returned the bundle once, thinking i just had bad luck in the one i picked up from the store, but for it to happen a 2nd time, and to see that others have same/similar problems, tells me that someone really screwed up in okay’ing the release of this game.
I just had mine freeze for the first time last night. It’s where Snow is on the airship and has the flashbacks about loosing Sarah and crashing the air-bike on the beach. From there, it goes to the loading screen and freezes up on me. Going to try to turn down the system graphics and see it it’ll help.
This lock up is not affecting any other of my X-box games.
Hey guys! Add my name to the Xbox 360 S list……mine freezes up on when lightning first summoned Odin (eidolon summon tutorial) then their fighting 2 soldiers and 2 UHLANS..sh*T!!!! Shouldn’t have wasted my money on this piece of crap!!!! Square-Enix sucks big time!!! This is the last time i buy anything from that sh*tty company!!!
ya this is really pathetic. bought mine when it was first released and now freezes on the 3rd disk. nothing has been done still to this point.
Lenny Pogi, I have the same exact issue. I am also on the 360 console. Quite pissed that this game is not working.
just bought FFXIII tonight. froze in Chapter 2 and the start of Chapter 3. anyone have any idea on how to fix it? maybe keep a bucket of ice water handy for overheating? who knows…. help with this would be awesome.
My 4gb 360 might be shot because of this shit, trying to play the game just freezes it up on the Square Enix logo, and when I try any other game they all freeze on their own load up screens.
LOL this is so funny, so they are going to bring out a second one Xiii-2. before fixing this error. they should have just started a new story cause im sure as hell am not buying the second part if i cant finish the first.
I’m having the same problem too. I have the game for both the xbox and ps3. It froze Once on the PS3, and the only reason I bought the xbox version is because my kids broke my ps3 controllers halfway through the game. SO I just got it for the xbox, because I don’t wanna pay $60.00 for the freaking controllers. Either way! I’ve made it to the bulkhead fal’cie and the whole kill the critters to get through the fences bit. Game freezes every time I go into a battle. I’ve tried every other method out there, and so far – Nothing. At this point for all the damned trouble I’m having I just Might break down and go buy new ps3 controllers. I’ve changed the HDMI settings on my xbox, I’ve even changed the settings on my tv. I’ve lowered it down all the way to the most minimal standards there are and it’s still freezing. I’ve gone back in the game in hopes that maybe the stupid thing will Forget that it’s freezing up on me. I haven’t replaced the game discs yet, as they are in perfect working condition from what I can see. There’s no dust, scratches, or otherwise. It worked just fine with Rage, which I just got finished playing, and it’s working just fine without any problems on all of my other games.
My only worry is that when FF13-2 comes out that I won’t be able to get through it either because of the crappy xbox … which I’ve already bought and paid for on that platform. So is there any kind of actual working resolution to this other than just saying “Screw it” and hanging it up?
I don’t know if mine is a freezing issue or not. I have an xbox 360 and played ff 13 just fine. 74hrs worth. Then I decided to do all the stone missions. On my way to the 3rd mission marker I zone and it’s stuck on the ” now loading” screen with the jazzy little music, but it never loads. Anyone else having this issue?
mine just has one scatch on the disc. with is BS if its the reason while i can get pass chapter 7. it loads up and then it just goes to a blank black screen after the video and with the music in the background.. i try to let it load for like half an hour and noting…
Hi there, i kinda have the same problem. It started at disk 3, but after rebooting it dident happend until a few hours later. So i kept true. But today it freezed again, probebly for the 10th time now. And i only play this game. I have a few other games, but since ive only used them for about 30hours all togethere and final fantasy xIII has kept me for 60hours now. Bought my xbox 360 arcade 2 years back, and i wouldent say that my xbox was well used at all. But this is the first game that freezes. It dossent happen anywhere but in that game. I checked my disk and some how disk 3 has 2 scratch rings on it. While non of the other 2 disks have. So im returning the game to see if that sorts it.
Sorry for my bad english im from Norway afterall.
Well after reading all the complaints here, I can say I just got FF 13 for the 360, and make it to where you have to put in disc 3, and it says please insert the correct disc. I tried borrowing friends discs, and getting a new copy off Gamestop. Nothing works, All the BS Micro$oft tech support would make me go through would be useless to, I guess still to this day no answer can be given why this happens or a solution.
I bought Final Fantasy 13 for the Xbox 360 S I think it was second hand off of Facebook didn’t know any of this haven’t owned an Xbox in years so never really had the problem of Final Fantasy XIII seeing this I’m kind of pissed off I really wanted to play this game I don’t get past the very first battle with lightning and saszh I have tried multiple times no red ring of death yet but I’m about to pull it and leave it alone