Development and Promotion
Ubisoft announced in March 13, 2002, that it would be working on a game called XIII. Based on the comic book of the same name by Belgian Jean Van Hamme, the game would create "a world so unique and enthralling that gamers will become instantly engaged", according to president of Ubisoft Entertainment, Laurent Detoc. The game debuted at an event in Montreal, and was later submitted at the 2002 Electronic Entertainment Expo in May 2002, with such games as Doom III, Max Payne 2 and Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. On November 22, 2002, Ubisoft announced a delay of the game, although the company did not state a reason. Justin Calvert of Gamespot guessed that the time would be used to thoroughly check the game and implement additional features on other platforms.
On May 7, 2003, Ubisoft announced that singer, actress and model Eve would be the voice for major character Jones. Ubisoft's vice president of marketing, Tony Kee, stated that she was the perfect choice for the role, admitting that she has "a combination of style, sexiness, and attitude—perfect attributes that describe the Jones character." Two months later, two other major voice acts were declared: David Duchovny would play Jason Fly (XIII), while Adam West, General Carrington. The official site was launched on August 19, featuring movies and information about the gameplay. Ubisoft implemented a pre-order in September 4, promising a free demonstration version with multiplayer and the soundtrack. Regarding this idea, Kee stated it "will give gamers just enough XIII to whet their appetite until the game launches in October. This will be a record-breaking preorder campaign for Ubi Soft."
The game was promoted at the Fall College Tour from September to October. Beginning at Cornell University and finishing at the University of Southern California, the tour featured demonstrations of games, playable via the 50-screen GamePort system. Another demo, now multiplayer-only, was issued on October 2, but was soon eliminated because of a bug. A different demo with fixes was released a day later. Xbox players had the opportunity from December 15 on to win one of 50 copies of the game. The campaign was dubbed "13 Days to Xmas": those who spent not less than 13 hours playing until Christmas were qualified for the contest. The winner was randomly selected on January 9.
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