Tag: Square Enix

Final Fantasy XIV Subscription Ending…Again.


Final Fantasy XIV is a poster boy in just how badly an MMO can launch. It is also a shining example of a developer doing everything in their power to return a game to its intended light, as Square Enix has worked tirelessly these past two years in what will finally come together as FFXIV 2.0: A Realm Reborn. Boy, it sure has been a long two years. As already announced, Final Fantasy XIV will shut down its servers on November 11th in preparation for the launch of 2.0. Afterward, early testing will begin on the release of the MMO’s rebirth.

After September 29th, however, subscription billing will end. Players currently subscribed as of that date will be able to play until November 11th for free, while inactive accounts will not be reactivated.

(More info: FFXIV Website)

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 Shutting Down In Preparation For Realm Reborn


Consider this your first heads up, FFXIV players: At some point in the future Final Fantasy XIV will shut down, but only temporarily. At Gamescom, Square Enix announced that instead of simply updating FFXIV when the game’s 2.0 relaunch goes live, the servers will need to be shut down for an indeterminate amount of time. Naoki Yoshida, director/producer, stated that the shut down will occur at some day in the near future, and is required in order to transition all of the character files over to the new game.

“Basically what’s going to happen is that the current story is still continuing now, but some day in the near future — and we’ll make sure we tell the players what day that is — something is going to happen in the story, and at that time, the servers are going to shut down,”

Players will have plenty of notice ahead of time as to when the servers will shut down. A Realm Reborn is set for launch on PC and PS3.

(Source: Massively.com)

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)

Last Day To Qualify For Final Fantasy XIV Legacy


Would I? Absolutely I would. Square Enix has announced that, upon the launch of version 2.0, players who qualify for the “legacy” system will receive special perks: A discounted subscription ($9.99) and 8 max playable characters per world, as well as an exclusive Chocobo pet and your name in the credits if you wish.

Users with 90 cumulative days of subscription between January 6th and the launch of 2.0 beta testing are eligible. Over at FFXIV Core, an administrator has posted that the last day to register your copy of FFXIV and still be able to qualify is the coming May 31st, meaning 2.0 will probably start beta testing in October (one free month plus three paid).

If you were interested in getting back on board with Square to get your hands on the legacy rewards, you only have a couple of days left to do so. I left a previous article on this matter rather ambiguous, as there was no cutoff date announced at the time.

More on FFXIV as it appears.

Gameglobe Trailer: Create Your Own Worlds


Gameglobe is an upcoming free to play MMO by Square Enix. Published by Bigpoint Entertainment, Gameglobe will be a free to play MMO that tasks players with creating fun and interactive levels for others to play through, or simply playing through the levels that others have created. The game is currently in closed beta, and the short teaser trailer below gives a few small glimpses of action.

More information to come.

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 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)