Final Fantasy IX Goes on Sale Early

Today at the world's only PlayStation store at the Metreon in San Francisco, California, Square EA held a launch event for Final Fantasy IX that carried on from 2:00 PM through 5:00 PM. The event celebrated the first time that English version of Square's highly anticipated RPG was available for purchase here in the States.

Omar "Squall" Neely and Daniel Richter both claimed to be in line since 2 AM were among the first three people in line to get Final Fantasy IX. Neely ended up being the very first person in the States to buy the US version of FFIX.

Not pictured: Tyler Avery was also among the first three in line and had been waiting around all morning defending his position. He almost got kicked out of the store by a lame security guard who thought he should be in school and one of his day's highlights include the chance to speak with the president of Square in America.

In addition to getting the chance to buy the game a full day before anyone else in the country, the first 100 customers to purchase the game were given a limited edition Vivi plush doll, as well as an amazing Final Fantasy IX 2001 wall calendar.

These two were just after the first batch of people and showed off their love for Final Fantasy by coming to the Metreon decked out in their cool red FFIX t-shirts. The lovely lady on the left is Elizabeth Lucas and the strapping young lad on the right is Chris Feist.

Plus, fans not able to purchase the game were able to get their grubby little hands on a Vivi plus doll by entering the onsite contest at the ultra-cool Vivi-mobile (a red VW Bug that was loaded with dolls), which required them to guess the number of dolls inside the vehicle.

Here's the amazing Vivi-mobile -- a glossy red VW Bug that was filled up with plush Vivi dolls. The onsite contest required entrants to guess the number of dolls that were inside the vehicle. How many dolls do you think are in there?

The grand prize was awarded to 38 year old Mike Green, who received a PlayStation 2 and a cool bag of Squaresoft goodies that included things like jackets, CDs, games and other goods not being sold anymore. Runner-up prizes that included similar bags of Squaresoft collectibles were rewarded to Akiko Nishino (20 years old), Ray Blatter (48 years old), Adam Blatter (17 years old), Graham McFadyen (24 years old) and Philippe Gardelle (40 years old). And for those wondering, there were a total of 1228 Vivi dolls stuffed in the VW Bug (Dave Z's guess was 1350).

Even though he's one of the game's main protagonists, Vivi had to wait in line and actually pay for his copy of Final Fantasy IX. We thought that he would be able to get Square to give him one for free, but that must not have been in his contract. Rumor has it that Vivi tripped and broke his jewel case while leaving the store, but we haven't been able to confirm this.

The guy dressed up as Vivi is actually Adam Blatter, one of the contestants awarded with a runner-up prize. His dad, Ray Blatter, was also a winner.

For those of you that are unable to make it to San Francisco for the launch event, Square intends on offering the limited edition Vivi plush doll through other Squaresoft promotions, which will be announced at a later date.