Tag: Square Enix

Final Fantasy XIV Available On Steam and 50% Off


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Final Fantasy is now available on Steam, and deal seekers can log in now to nab the title for 50% off for the time being. Until February 25th, you can nab the standard edition for $14.99 and the Collector’s edition for $24.99, with the latter including several exclusive digital items. Each purchase comes with 30 days of free game time, providing the Square Enix account you register it to does not already have a copy of FFXIV registered to it. If you already own the standard edition, it is still cheaper to upgrade to the digital collector’s edition through the Square Enix website ($19.99) rather than by buying the edition on Steam even with the 50% off.

Offer ends February 25th.

(Source: Steam)

Final Fantasy XIV Now Selling Physical Time Cards


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I’m not horsing around. Those of you who prefer to keep your precious credit card data out of the hands of those prone-to-theft businesses are likely the same group as those who refuse to buy a subscription MMO without the option to buy time cards. After all, why not? Turbine has had multiple billing issues, as has Mortal Online and Warhammer, among others. Sony was hacked, stores have had their databases compromised, it seems like cash is the only safe method of payment for anything these days.

The good news is that players will be able to buy 60 day access cards for Final Fantasy XIV. They cost $30 and are available in stores in North America as well as on Square Enix’s website, the latter of which makes the whole “don’t have to use your credit card” part moot. Check out Final Fantasy XIV at a store near you.

(Source: Square Enix press release)

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MMOrning Shots: The Importance Of Free Time


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Today’s MMOrning Shot comes from Final Fantasy XIV, in particular the game’s rather odd New Year’s event where players take on the role of donning horse masks of varying colors to run around and convince the citizens of Eorzea to embrace the import of horses as an alternative mount to Chocobo. Could horses be added at some point? Possibly, if the conclusion to this quest is anything to go by. Now if you don’t mind, I have to spend some time avoiding that one guy who said he’d rather ride me than either of the two creatures. He says that, play the quest line.

MMOrning Shots: To Battle!


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For today’s MMOrning Shots, we continue our trek down nostalgia road with some very old screenshots of Final Fantasy XI. These shots are from 2002, I believe the Playstaton 2 version but don’t quote me on that.

Square Enix Invites Former FFXIV Subscribers Back


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Final Fantasy XIV has been out for quite a while now and, most assuredly, there are bound to be many of you among the crowd who have unsubscribed for one reason or another. With the launch of 2.1: A Realm Awoken, Square Enix would like to reintroduce you to the wonders of Eorzea, or more specifically the new content. Starting January 11th and going into the 13th, players with inactive accounts will be welcomed back for a free login weekend. After that, you’re on your own.

Check out the details at the lodestone link below.

(Source: Lodestone)

Final Fantasy XIV Pulling Square Enix's Bootstraps


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Here at MMO Fallout, we have something of a love-hate relationship with Square Enix. Final Fantasy: A Realm Reborn is one of the best MMOs we have played here in a good while, but the travesty that was FFXIV 1.0 has still not faded from our minds. The good news is that the success of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn has resulted in Square Enix adjusting their earnings forecast. The publisher expected a loss of $20 million USD, however a combined success from FFXIV and arcade sales has boosted those figures up to a $48 million operating profit.

Square Enix is gearing up for update 2.1 which will introduce a new pvp arena, free company housing, and dungeons.

(Source: Siliconera)

MMOrning Shots: Trick Or Treat


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No, I’m not here for candy, and if you rustle my head one more time I will stab you.

Square Enix Convenes Board To Stop Bad Final Fantasy Games


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Siliconera is reporting that Square Enix has convened a special board of advisors to ensure that future Final Fantasy games meet the standard of quality that customers expect from the series. Where was this crew when Square Enix greenlit Final Fantasy: All The Bravest? No en la casa, apparently. The four man group is made up of Naoki Yoshida, whom many of you will recognize as the director whose leadership revived Final Fantasy XIV into what it is today, Final Fantasy XV co-director Hajime Tabata, Final Fantasy XIII director Motomu Toriyama, and Final Fantasy VI director Yoshinori Kitase.

Many of Square Enix’s other bigwigs are reportedly too busy working on their own projects to spare any time, but the inclusion of Toriyama and Tabata have already raised criticism from the community over their involvement in the games that spurred this board to be put together in the first place. Hopefully they are able to put the series back on the right path.

(Source: Siliconera)

PSA: FFXIV, Account Theft, And Ban Investigations


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Today’s PSA is brought to you by the letter B and the number 7.

Here at MMO Fallout, I regularly receive emails from people asking me to unban their accounts, in complete ignorance to the fact that I am neither officially associated with nor work for any of the games that I report on. But that’s beside the point. The other email that I get rather often is in response to my articles about keeping your account safe, particularly from people who have the attitude of “who cares if my account is stolen? I just email support and they restore it within a day or so.” Hopefully none of these people are playing Final Fantasy XIV, because they are in for a surprise.

With the success of Square Enix’s latest title, the natural progression of events has lead to accounts being stolen in large quantities and used for botting materials or spamming chat. As I’ve said in previous articles, why would you waste your own money when there are so many unprotected accounts ripe for the picking? It’s like robbing a bank and leaving your neighbor’s wallet at the scene of the crime, and then testifying against him in court about how you never really trusted his attitude. Sure, a simple alibi will get him a not guilty verdict, but that is the end of a long and stressful path and may eventually fail.

In the case of Final Fantasy XIV, reversing a ban because your account was stolen and used to bot/spam isn’t as simple as calling up customer support and asking them to flip a switch. No, according to players who have been victims of account theft, Square Enix is performing full investigations on the affected accounts to make sure that the claims are legitimate, and boy is there quite a long line just to get in the door. What does this mean for you, the player? Imagine that everyone in your neighborhood’s driver’s license expired on the exact same day, and everyone had to go down to the DMV to get their paperwork in. The DMV opens at 9am and you get there a little past four when everyone is out of work and meeting the group who has been there all morning. Imagine that line, and double it, and you have a good idea as to how long you’ll be waiting for your account to be restored. One player in particular was apparently told that the line and subsequent investigation could take at least three weeks as the matter had to be dealt with by Square Enix’s Japan offices.

If that isn’t enough motivation to keep your account as secure as possible from your end, I’m not sure what is.

FFXIV Players To Receive TGS 2013 Earrings


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Square Enix’s booth at Tokyo Game Show has an interesting challenge: Defeat a special version of the Titan Battle Challenge from FFXIV and win yourself a free “I Beat The Titan” t-shirt. The good news is that the rewards don’t stop there. For every player who beats the challenge, Square has been selecting one random server to receive Cactaur earrings. The attributes are nothing special, but they are a nice cosmetic item to have. Just about a day and a half into TGS, enough titans had been defeated to unlock the Cactaur across all servers.

Next, Square Enix has offered bomb earrings to players on a random server every time a Titan falls. As with the Cactaur earrings, attendees took little time to fall well over sixty Titans and unlock the earrings for all servers. The details on how the earrings will be delivered to players (presumably in-game mail, as with most of the other rewards) will be revealed in the next week or so.

(Source: Square Enix)