final-fantasy-xi posts

The massive earthquake that hit Japan on Friday has certainly caused untold amounts of destruction and loss of life. While it's a minor inconvenience compared to what the people of Japan are experiencing right now, players of two MMOs with servers based in Japan, Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV, will be shut down due to the effects of the earthquake.

Square Enix's PlayOnline.com web site reports that starting at 6 pm Eastern time today, the servers of both games will be shut down for at least a week due to the Japanese power companies creating rolling blackouts as a result of the quake. Players won't be billed for the person of downtime for both games.

[Via Massively]

Sunday is not a break for Direct2Drive's daily "Summer Ends" sale event. Today the PC game download site has two MMO titles that you can pick up for a song (or actually a very small price; you don't have to sing). One of the games is Final Fantasy XI. Square Enix's long running MMO title, along with all of its expansion packs, can be yours for just $5.95 until 1 pm Eastern time on Monday. Of course Final Fantasy XIV, the second MMO title in the series, will officially launch this coming week.

The other MMO game on sale today is Age of Conan. You can get the original title from Funcom and its recent expansion pack Rise of the Godslayer for just $7.50 for the next day.

How would you like to wear a pair of the above hottest fashion accessories around? Well in this case you can't. Those fine shoes you see above are reserved for Final Fantasy XIV characters. In fact, Hermes' Shoes are only worn by characters in the upcoming MMO that have players who have a subscription to Square Enix's last MMO Final Fantasy XI.

That's just one of three special bonuses that fans of the earlier game in the series can access by subscribing to Final Fantasy XIV. In addition to the exclusive in-game item players can also save $5.95 a month on their Final Fantasy XI subscription. Finally (pun not intended) Final Fantasy XI players can have their character and world name transferred to Final Fantasy XIV to be used for that game's character name. The game itself is due for release in September.

Folks who use Valve's Steam web site today got to check out a number of new games and price cuts for the PC game download service. One of them is for Final Fantasy XI. The Square Enix MMO and all of its expansions are on sale today through Thursday for just $4.99.

Also on sale is Fallen Earth: Blood Sports, the post-apocalypse themed MMO. The game is currently on sale for $17.99 until July 27. You can also get an exclusive weapon, the Steam Cleaner gun, if you purchase the game on Steam by that date.

MOTORM4X: Offroad Extreme is a new off-road driving game making its Steam appearance. It's on sale for just $4.89 until July 27. Finally Steam has added Sim City 4 Deluxe Edition to its library. It's also now available via Impulse.

Square Enix's long running fantasy MMO Final Fantasy XI was thought by some to be dying. Indeed there were a few Internet rumors running around recently that the game would be shut down this year to prepare for the publisher's next MMO Final Fantasy XIV. However this weekend Square Enix announced plans to release three more downloadable mini-expansions for Final Fantasy XI in 2010.

Each mini-expansion (Vision of Abyssea, Scars of Abyssea and Heroes of Abyssea) will cost $9.99 and will add new monsters to fight and new items to collect for high level players of the game. The first of the mini-expansions will be available for download later this summer.

And what about Final Fantasy XIV, which was announced to many surprised gamers at E3 last year? Our sister site Massively reports that Square Enix revealed during their VanaFest 2010 fan event that the beta test will begin on March 11 with a limited number of people being invited to try out the game. It's still scheduled to launch later in 2010.

Square Enix's first entry in the MMO world, Final Fantasy XI, is notable for several things, including one of the few PC games that allows for cross-platform play with its console counterparts. If you have never played the game Square Enix is now making things easy with the announcement of the Final Fantasy XI Ultimate Collection.

The collection is priced at $19.99 and is now available via download and in retail stores. It contains the original game (released for the PC in the US in 2003) all four of the game's expansion packs and the three micro-expansions to the game that were just released this year. Consider this a primer for Square Enix's next MMO project, Final Fantasy XiV that's due for release in 2010.

Moogles are creatures that appear regularly in Square Enix games. This summer, Final Fantasy XI will be seeing new content expansion called "A Moogle Kupo d'Etat - Evil in Small Doses" where the moogles will rise up and rebel, making way for new adentures.

Download HD Final Fantasy XI 'A Moogle Kupo d'Etat' Trailer (19 MB)

One of the longest running MMOs is now the subject of a class action lawsuit. According to Courthouse News Service, Esther Leong of San Francisco has filed the suit against Square Enix claiming they were not being honest about the fees for their fantasy MMO Final Fantasy XI Online.

The suit claims that Square Enix engaged in "unfair business practices, false advertising, and unjust enrichment." The lawsuit claims the company lied or or concealed info about the game's monthly fees along with "penalties for late payments, interest, restrictions" and other items. The suit is seeking $5 million in damages. So far Square Enix has not commented on the lawsuit.

[Via 1Up.com]

Last November, Square Enix announced plans to release three downloadable micro-expansions for their long-running fantasy MMO Final Fantasy XI. This week the publisher announced that the first of those expansions is now available to purchase and download for the game's subscribers.

Priced at $9.99, the release of A Crystalline Prophecy - Ode of Life Bestowing is offered alongside a new and major update for the game which adds new quests and a numbero of other additions, improvements and changes to the MMO. Two more micro-expansions for the game, A Moogle Kupo d'Etat – Evil in Small Doses and A Shantotto Ascension – The Legend Torn (yep, we don't understand them either) will be released sometime later this year.

Square Enix isn's done yet with its fantasy MMO Final Fantasy XI. Launched in 2002 in Japan and in 2003 in the US for the PC and PS2, the long running game will have some new content coming in 2009. According to a new press release there will be no less than three new downloadable expansions for the game, all of whom will have storylines created by Masato Kato, one of the original creators of the game.

The titles for all three expansions have that typical Square Enix feel; they are highly elaborate and make almost no sense. The first expansion, A Crystalline Prophecy – Ode of Life Bestowing, is due for release this spring. The other two titles, A Moogle Kupo d'Etat – Evil in Small Doses and A Shantotto Ascension – The Legend Torn, Her Empire Born, will be released in that order "every few months". Pricing has yet to be revealed.