Tag: Final Fantasy XI

FFXI Still Expanding, Seekers of Adoulin


Final Fantasy XI is ten years old this year, and remains one of the few MMOs on the market that can maintain a subscription and still sell expansion packs every few years. Announced at Square Enix’s Vanafest, FFXI’s fifth expansion, Seekers of Adoulin, launches in 2013. With it, the expansion brings two new jobs (only one of which has been revealed), as well as new lands to explore.

Oddly enough, the trailer above and the promotional website (linked below) only mention the expansion coming to Xbox360 and PC, with no mention of the Playstation 2. According to a few FFX-related websites, this likely means that Seekers of Adoulin will be download-only on the PS2.

(Source: Seekers of Adoulin)

Final Fantasy XI On PS3: Extra 9 Gigabytes of Space


Bad news, Playstation 3 users: You’re going to have to make more space on that hard drive for Final Fantasy XI. Square Enix has announced that in February, a patch will be added to Final Fantasy XI that will require more hard drive space on the Playstation 3, but only on specific models. The models are the 60gigabyte and 20gigabyte which are backward compatible with Playstation 2 games (otherwise this doesn’t apply to you, because you can’t play it anyway). Unfortunately, for users with 20 gigabyte hard drives, this means you won’t be able to play Final Fantasy anymore until you upgrade.

The new space will be 21 gigabytes, reportedly for the purpose of preventing fragmentation on the hard drive. The actual game itself takes up around 12 gigabytes. Playstation 2 and PC users will not be affected by this at all.

(Source: Gamer Escape)

Square Enix Members Hacked:


[Update] Square Enix has confirmed that no member information was stolen.

 As a result of our continuing investigation, we have now confirmed that the database in which we store personal information was NOT accessed during the recent server intrusion. Therefore, your personal information was NOT compromised by an unknown third party.

Square-Enix is planning to restart the Square Enix Members service by the end of December. Details of the schedule will be announced at a later date.

We deeply regret any inconvenience this may have caused our customers and fans, and appreciate your patience.

Square Enix has taken down its Members service while it investigates a security breach, in order to assess just what may have been taken and what damage has been done. In a message posted on the website, Square confirms that while usernames and passwords may have been taken, “there is no possibility of any credit card leak from this incident, since the server in question stores no credit card information.”

We have reason to believe that unknown parties may have gained unauthorized access to a particular Square Enix server related to the free SQUARE ENIX MEMBERS service offered in North America and Japan. In response, Square Enix, Inc. has temporarily suspended operation of the SQUARE ENIX MEMBERS service starting at 10PM (PST) on December 12, 2011.

There is no information at this time that Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV players have anything to worry about, although I would still recommend changing your passwords on your respective games.

Final Fantasy XI Is Crazy On XI-XI-XI: 14-Day Trial?


Do not adjust your monitors, the title of this article has been transmitted as intended: Final Fantasy XI has released a 14 day trial. Still surprised? So am I, but apparently the folks at Square Enix decided to pull down one barrier for entry into the aging-yet-enormous-to-an-almost-intimidating-degree MMO. If you were holding off on trying Final Fantasy XI due to whispers of Play Online and its less than stellar service, you’ll be happy to know that Square Enix patched out PO some time ago.

All you need to sign up is your first name, last name, captcha code, and an email address. And if you do decide to buy the game at the end of your trial period (or any time before), you can enjoy 50% off of the complete package.

What Happened This Week: Love Your Thread Title Edition


MMO Fallout wouldn’t be what it is today (and that isn’t say much as it is) without the inspiration I receive from reading forum posts, so this week’s Week In Review is dedicated to all of the completely non-biased people out there who registered at MMORPG.com to explain to me why x-company is a scam outfit and why x-MMO will probably stab me and steal my kidney…but you don’t have an agenda. I read these threads, too. Not to gain any insightful information, but purely for the entertainment. From an aesthetic point of view, it’s like seeing a homeless guy in a dirty, patched up trench coat in New York City holding a sign that says “the end is near” screaming as loud as he can for someone to listen to him. So you do, and you even throw five bucks in his hat to contribute to his meth habit device to stop the apocalypse.

I spot the good threads immediately on the thread ticker, because they always sound the same: “Unbiased preview of Star Wars: The Old Republic” devolves into why the game will flop and Bioware will go bankrupt. “Honest thoughts on ____ from a fanboy” is one that gets me. I don’t think anyone is questioning your genuine nature, perhaps the reason your thread is being trashed is because your thoughts, although honest, were neither educated nor enlightened.

So instead of going over some news, I’ll use the top 5 list to talk about some topics of interest.

1. DUST 514 and Final Fantasy XI: Could Signal Playstation Vita Dominance

I love and hate the idea of MMOs on the Playstation Vita, but all signs point toward the system being able to support true MMOs. Square Enix has already signed on to port Final Fantasy XI over, and CCP wants to put DUST 514 on the console, hopefully with more titles in the future. Should the Vita (with its 3G internet) prove capable of bringing the genre to a portable mode, I think we’ll see more companies jumping on. Then we might see a World of Warcraft port to Playstation Vita, and all productivity would be gone.

But in all serious discussion, having MMOs on the Vita would certainly drive the system up. Pulled away from the computer during a raid in World of Warcraft to go to the store? Sign off on the PC, and sign back in on the Vita, and you won’t have to worry about your random dungeon group putting you on ignore or calling you names or something.

Addiction? Thy name is Vita.

2. Now We Play The Waiting Game, Faxion Online

At this point, Faxion Online is in about the same position Chronicles of Spellborn was two years ago, minus the commitment from Acclaim to keep the title going. The game is online, but apparently has no one working on it. The servers are online, but the game has no support. The question that remains is how many people are still investing money into a game that may shut down as soon as later on today, or as long as a year from now, with no measured response from UTV? A look at the forums would tell you nobody, but the big spenders are also generally relatively quiet about their spending.

Otherwise how would Alganon still be running?

3. How Many Last Times Do You Need?

Ubisoft released a game. Normally I need not say more, what with many of your thoughts immediately turning to the topics of shoddy PC ports, brainless DRM, and bugs. The release of From Dust brought with it controversy, not just because the game is being hailed as a buggy port of a console game, but because players feel lied to over the inclusion of Ubisoft’s famed always-on DRM, requiring the user to be connected every time they start up the game, rather than the “one time activation” Ubisoft previous promised.

But Ubisoft doesn’t work MMOs, and From Dust isn’t an MMO, so why the notch here? If I had a nickel for every time I saw the same person posting “I will never buy from ____ again,” I would put those nickels in a sock and beat them with it. The repeat offenders, moreso, because they are often the worst. Here is a thought: When a company is known for lying about its products, perhaps the best idea is not to pre-order them.

For example, I didn’t pre-order Gods & Heroes from Heatwave Interactive because I know fully well how indie developers fare with MMOs. Oh I’ll buy it, but not until the price comes down on the boxed copy.

4. No, You Won’t Get Banned For Your Language Of Choice

Hellgate Global is one of a few games I play that carries international servers, yet officially expects players to speak English. Barring the obvious “not everyone speaks English” bit, I’ve found that none of the GM’s in-game were actually willing to ban a player for breaking this rule. In the closed beta, they popped in every now and then to say “please speak English only,” but that was the extent of the enforcement.

As long as you aren’t spamming, you should be fine. To the players who fill the chat box by whining about the players not speaking English, there is an ignore function and I suggest you use it: I certainly have to block your posts.

5. What Happens If The Old Republic’s Servers Buckle?

I think I’ve brought this up before, but it warrants repeating. Bioware has confirmed that they are artificially limiting the amount of copies of The Old Republic being sold before launch, and at launch, in order to ensure that players are not stuck behind queues, servers crashing, intense lag, and other rounds of downtime that affect virtually every MMO upon release. After launch, Bioware will increase the amount of copies available as they see fit, and as their server structure is capable of supporting those players.

So I don’t think it needs to be said that some of TOR’s success at launch will be directly tied to Bioware being able to keep their servers steady. After all, nothing says alienating potential players by first telling them that they can’t buy the game, but then turning around and having those safety measures be for nothing. On Rift’s side, Trion has avoided adding servers by continually increasing server capacity.

Final Fantasy XI On Playstation Vita? Not on PS3


I believe Sony has talked before about the Playstation Vita being capable of supporting MMO platforms, and it appears that Square Enix is the first company to step up to the plate and give consideration to the concept. Siliconera is reporting that Square Enix has a vested interest in porting Final Fantasy XI over to the Playstation Vita with no timetable on anything. The plans themselves are not complete, and there is no guarantee this will actually work, come to fruition, or be viable over the Vita.

There are no plans for a PS3 port of Final Fantasy XI, however, as the process is a lot more complicated and Square is likely hard at work on keeping what will be the release version of Final Fantasy XIV on the PS3 up to date with the PC development.

Still, this is an interesting concept. If some MMOs appear on the Vita, it might just give me an incentive to buy the thing. You know what I’m thinking…Hello Kitty Online: Vita.