The 25th anniversary celebration for Final Fantasy will kick off in a couple of weeks, a few months short of the series' 24th anniversary, but, hey, no one ever said the numbering of anything Final Fantasy-related was logical.
The series that debuted in Japan in December 1987, will be celebrated in grand style in Tokyo on September 1 of this year and in America on August 31. That just might be the same day, thanks to the International Date Line, though it's not quite clear how synced up Square's big Japanese and American events will be.
We've got a big FF event happening some time on the 1st in Tokyo's Shibuya district. This event will include news on what's next for Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2 heroine Lightning. And now we've got the following happening at the big PAX gaming convention in Seattle on the 31: an eight hour event, from 1pm PT in Seattle to 9pm at the ACT Theater (700 Union Street) that will include Final Fantasy games running on various systems from throughout series history, FF-related contests and, at 7:30 PM PT (that's 11:30 AM in Tokyo on the 1st), a "special video message" from FF producer Yoshinori Kitase, director Motomu Toriyama, and art director Isamu Kamikokuryo.
Square announced the PAX event today and also noted that there will be two FF-related concerts this fall: a 25th Anniversary Distant Worlds: The Celebration concert of Final Fantasy on Friday, December 7 at 8:00pm. at the Akoo Theatre in Chicago, Illinois... and the Final Fantasy XI: 10th Anniversary Concert on Saturday, September 22 at 8:00pm at the Zellerback Auditorium in Berkeley, California.