Speaking in Japan, publishing boss Hamamura Hirokazu (of Enterbrain fame) has said the December release of XIII in on the could drive of Sony's console.

Hirokazu-san believes that the new role-player could be worth as many as 500,000 console sales to Sony, making this arguably the PS3's most important release to date.

According to reports, the gaming executive also believes the recent price cut and the emergence of the PS3 Slim will help drive business to the format.

If the PS3 does manage 500,000 Japanese sales over December, this would apparently represent an increase of some 250 percent over 2008's December performance.

Final Fantasy XIII hits Japan on December 17th - with a Western launch on the PS3 and set to follow.

By Luke Guttridge