Tag: Final Fantasy XIV

FFXIV Shuts Down November 11th For 2.0


I think Final Fantasy XIV is the first time I’ve ever said “this game is shutting down” with a positive outlook. Earlier this month, Naoki Yoshida explained to us that Final Fantasy XIV will shut down at some point in the future in order in order to make way for the MMO’s relaunch, A Realm Reborn. In a producer’s letter released today, Yoshi revealed that the shut down date has been determined: November 11th, at midnight PST (8:00am GMT). The servers will remain down until A Realm Reborn launches.

A Realm Reborn will initially roll out in a four phase alpha test. The first test will only be available to Japan, however Yoshi has asked the players to answer a poll if they would prefer to keep the current version servers online (albeit with no progress saved to Realm Reborn after the initial shut down) so they can at least play while they wait.

(Source: FFXIV)

Final Fantasy XIV Mergers: March 27th.


On February 9th, Square Enix announced that the Final Fantasy XIV server mergers would take place on March 27th, reducing eighteen servers down to ten. Later on, the company redacted their announcement on the promise that the system needed to be reevaluated before anything could go ahead. Yesterday, the Final Fantasy Lodestone was updated with the new plan.

The merger, to take place on March 27th, is not much different than the previous plan. Eighteen servers, as before, will merge to ten. Starting March 1st and concluding March 19th, players will be able to enter an application period where they can choose their destination server.

As before, name/retainer rules follow a guideline of active account followed by first created. Linkshells will be carried over with the merge, and in case of duplicates the name will be handed over to the linkshell with more active members. Any players, including the master, who transfer to different worlds will be automatically removed from the linkshell roster. Friends/ignore lists will also be kept.

(Source: Lodestone)

Square Enix Redacts Server Merger Announcement


Remember last week when Square Enix announced the details of their server merger? Well who says that Square doesn’t listen to their community? After an enormous amount of discussion on the forums, Square is taking the server merger back to the drawing board.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for the wealth of feedback you have provided us with following the announcement made on February 9, 2012 (Thursday), regarding the World merge and character transfers. In order to ensure that the most desirable and effective outcome is achieved, we will be reassessing the method of the merger process.

Initially, the server merger was set to take the game’s eighteen servers and merge them down to ten. Square has promised to release more information as the company decides upon what to do next.

(Source: Lodestone)

Final Fantasy XIV Server Mergers Coming


We’ve known about Final Fantasy XIV’s upcoming server mergers for a long time, since December when Square initially announced them. At the time, Naoki Yoshida commented that Square would be taking a look at the server populations after billing began and judge how many servers to merge afterward. He also stated at the time that the mergers were expected to be temporary, until FFXIV 2.0 launches in late 2012 and an anticipated surge in returning players necessitates for more servers.

On the Lodestone today, Square Enix is finally ready to discuss brass tacks. The original eighteen servers will be merged down to ten, on March 27th. Players will have much of the month in order to designate a destination server to move to, and worlds will be locked as they fill up in order to prevent overpopulation.

Name duplicate rules on characters and retainers are based on whoever has an active subscription as of March 26th, and then on which character is older. Linkshells will be deleted, as will friends/block lists.

(Source: Lodestone)

Final Fantasy XIV Finally Available Via Digital Download


Obtaining Final Fantasy XIV has been a test of finding a store still stocking it, and nowadays those numbers are a bit slimmer than launch (none at all, if you live by me). Strangely, up until now Square Enix has opted out of utilizing any digital distribution systems for reasons that could be chalked up to releasing 2.0 before utilizing Steam or Direct2Drive.

For now, those looking to get Final Fantasy on the cheap can pick up FFXIV on the Square Enix website, as a digital download. The cost is $20 USD, or $13.39 if you purchase in the next few days. Check it out at Square Enix’s website.

Final Fantasy XIV Server Mergers Coming After Billing Begins


Now that I can shut up about services being hacked…I think it goes without saying that Final Fantasy XIV is long due for a server merge, and that the sparse population on many servers is only going to get worse when the billing starts and only those willing to remain monthly remain. FFXIV 2.0 is a long way away, and for now Square needs to focus on their current customers. Naoki Yoshida has posted that the server merger will be discussed in more detail once Square has a better idea of how many are sticking around once billing begins.

We will first analyze the number of players in the game after the billing service begins.
Based on that analysis, we will be running a simulation where the maximum concurrent access during the peak hours will become somewhere around 1500 to 2000 per World.
* The above number is provisional and not a finalized number.

More information is expected around mid to late January.

Most Aggressive Developer of 2011: Square Enix


When Final Fantasy XIV launched in September 2010, it drew a backlash from its userbase the likes of which haven’t been seen since Sony Online Entertainment implemented the Combat Upgrade and New Game Enhancements in Star Wars Galaxies back in 2005. For an MMO, it was one of the most disappointing releases of 2010. The development team was “reshuffled” and a fair amount of people were fired. Naoki Yoshida was put in charge and Square Enix would later come out to state that Final Fantasy XIV had done a fair amount of damage to the brand name.

But despite this, Square Enix refused to give up. Rather than shut the game down, Square threw years of precedent into the garbage and did what none of us could have seen coming: They opened up and started listening to their players. Instead of laying off staff, Square expanded the Final Fantasy XIV team to accommodate the larger work load. Instead of expecting players to pay each month for a broken game, they suspended subscriptions for over a year, and even delayed the Playstation 3 release until (estimated) a 2012 release. Since September 2010, Final Fantasy XIV has gone under update after update to implement what players were asking for, and remove what they had never wanted.

Final Fantasy XIV 2.0 is set to release at some point in late 2012/early 2013, and until then players will be asked to start paying a reduced subscription rate in January 2012. 2.0 is said to be a major overhaul of the game, so much so that Square feels confident in basing the release of the Playstation 3 version around it. If Square can find success in the years and millions of dollars they spent reviving this game from the ground up, well it puts them above certain other developers who simply hit the kill switch when accounting didn’t report the numbers they were hoping for.

Runner Up: Trion, Rift

If anyone needs to be commended for the most aggressive marketing campaign of the year, it is Trion with Rift. I hate to use the phrase “shoving it down our throats,” but since Rift got past the initial “our servers are crippled because we didn’t expect this much success,” the company has gone on to throw everything but the kitchen sink at potential customers, only prior to throwing the actual kitchen sink. For the fact that Rift has been with us less than a year, the game has gone on sale more often than most multi-year MMOs. Rift ads can be seen anywhere an MMO website can be found, and for a while potential and past players were invited on a regular basis to come back for a few days and play for free.

In the end, however, I had to give the award to Square Enix. An aggressive marketing plan is great, but even if you hate Square Enix, Final Fantasy, MMOs, or any combination of the three, you can’t ignore the sheer dedication it takes to spend the time and money that Square is to fix what they wholly admit was a result of their arrogance. You can argue that the game should have never shipped as it did in the first place, but it did. It happened, and this is how Square is fixing it.

Stay tuned for a new award every day throughout the end of December.

Final Fantasy XIV Billing Starts January 6th


We all knew this time would come eventually, when Square Enix would shake off the training wheels and Final Fantasy XIV would transition back to its intended subscription system. Last month, Square announced that billing would start around the time the much anticipated 2.0 update released, around November or December of this year. Today, in an article on Gamasutra, Square is ready to announce a final date: January 6th. According to Gamasutra, the 2.0 update, billed as a remade version of the game, is set to launch sometime in late 2012.

Until version 2.0 is released, players who opt to continue playing will enjoy reduced subscription rates, starting at $6.99 per month with the cost decreasing for 90 and 180 day subscriptions. The Playstation 3 version is expected in early 2013.

Important: Final Fantasy XIV Subscriptions Start Soon


It’s been ten long months since someone at Square Enix restructured the Final Fantasy XIV team with the human resources equivalent of a carpet bomb, and since then the game has arguably come a long way, both in the huge number of updates bringing in new content, much needed content, fixing the old, purging the bad (physical levels?) and a new way of thinking for the FFXIV team. Unfortunately for us, the time we all knew was coming has shown is ugly head: The free period of Final Fantasy XIV will be coming to a close.

In a new lodestone, President Yoichi Wada announced that the transition will come in late November or early December of this year 2012. But hey, anyone who has been with FFXIV since the beginning has had a full year to play for free. Unless you are me, who adopted early and thanks to my already slow leveling process managed to get three skills above level ten. More importantly, as any person who bought the game should question, what about the subscriptions we still had to sign up to when the game started?

Anyone who has played FINAL FANTASY XIV at any time since its release is already in possession of a FINAL FANTASY XIV service account. These accounts are set to renew their subscriptions automatically, barring deactivation by the account holder. Therefore, if we were to begin regular subscription billings for all existing contracts, players who will not see this announcement or who may not currently wish to pay subscription fees would automatically begin to be charged for their accounts. To avoid this, we have decided to first suspend all automated renewals for service accounts. Only account holders who have agreed to reactivate the automated renewal system will be billed.

That’s generous of them. Final Fantasy has had a year of player dropoff, making for a lot of people who stopped playing and probably don’t follow the game anymore. You can read the entire announcement, as well as download a few documents outlining the team’s plans for the future.

Final Fantasy XIV Patch Notes Are A Novel


Final Fantasy’s slightly delayed 1.19 (not to be confused with Minecraft 1.9) patch doesn’t come for another few days, but you can read the patch notes and list of planned changes right now, and a long read it is. The update is enormous and covers so many things that I couldn’t possibly go into each and every aspect in this blog post (but I’ll try anyway). Square Enix is implementing a wide variety of updates, from abolishing physical levels, attribute points, and elemental points. The update also introduces a massive change to the crafting system, with some new recipes, a lot of altered recipes, and a couple abolished recipes. Players will also be able to rent/buy chocobo, travel in air ships, and take part in new guild leves, grand company quests, and more.

Again there is far too much for me to fully explain here. It’s good to see the Final Fantasy XIV team is still trucking along, even hiring new people to expand the team, especially after Square Enix boss Yaochi Wada stated a few days ago at a press conference that “the Final Fantasy brand has been greatly damaged,” placing much of the blame on Square’s most recent MMO.

More on Final Fantasy XIV as it appears.