The British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned a television commercial for the Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XIII due to its inclusion of footage from the Playstation 3 version of the game.
The whole matter was brought to the ASA's attention by an unnamed viewer who felt that the footage shown in the advertisement were sharper than those of the Xbox 360 FF XIII. The ASA tested the two versions of the game side by side, and "noted there was a discernible difference in the picture quality of the two; the PS3 image in video sequences appeared sharper and colors were more vivid than those of the Xbox 360."
Square Enix disputed that the footage in question is not rendered on any of the two consoles, but rather a full motion video cut scene, and that "forensic" differences can be noticed only on high definition screens.
Still, the ASA decided that "the use of PS3 footage in the ad exaggerated the quality of the footage available on the Xbox 360, albeit marginally."
Square Enix has faced criticism a while ago when it released altered screenshots from the Playstation 3 version of the game as screenshots from the Xbox 360 version. The company has since apologized and released proper screenshots.
