final-fantasy-xiv-online posts

Publisher Square Enix issued some revised financial numbers today. The company revealed that the company's net income for the April-September 2010 time period was down 29.2 percent from previous estimated sales predictions.

Square Enix said part of the reason for the shortfall was due to "sales of new game software releases which experienced relatively slower growth." While specific games were not mentioned in the press release it's likely that Square Enix means that new titles released in that time period such as Kane and Lynch 2 and Final Fantasy XIV Online did not sell as many units as the company anticipated.

[Via 1Up.com]

The release of Square Enix's fantasy MMO Final Fantasy XIV Online has been something of a rocky one since it officially launched in September. Early reviews of the game have ranged from mediocre to poor with much of the reviews complaining of the many bugs in the game that have still yet to be fixed.

Today the game's official web site has announced that people who have or will have purchased the game and created a character in it before October 25 will get an extra 30 days of free online play time in Final Fantasy XIV, extending the free out-of-the-box time for those players to 60 days. In addition the development team and the game's director go over their plans for how the team plans to improve Final Fantasy XIV in the coming weeks and months.

[Via Massively]

While today was supposed to be the day that anyone could try out the upcoming MMO Final Fantasy XIV from Square Enix, it looks like plans have changed. The open beta test for the title has been postponed due to, according to the developer, the discovery of "critical bugs" in the beta build. A new date for the open beta test has not been announced but a new schedule for the beta will be revealed "at a later date."

It's currently unknown if the delay of the open beta will translate to a delay in the release of the final game which is currently scheduled for launch on September 22 for owners of the Collector's Edition version.

[Via Massively]

One of the big MMO launches scheduled for the fall of 2010 is Final Fantasy XIV. Developer/publisher Square Enix's second MMO game will enter a market that is far more crowded than when the publisher launched Final Fantasy XI way back in 2002.

This week the game's official web site has revealed the final system requirements for Final Fantasy XIV. The requirements for the game actually go into more detail than most PC games including settings for texture quality, depth of field, buffer size and more. You can check out if your PC can run the game after the jump:

This benchmark uses graphics and characters from Final Fantasy XIV Online to measure how well the game will perform on your system. It supports both high definition video that includes 1920x1080 resolution and 5.1 surround sound. There is also Japanese, English, German and French language support included.

After downloading the benchmark, unzip the contents to a destination folder. Then run FFXIVBenchmark.exe to start the benchmark. The benchmark does not represent an official demo of the game.

Download Final Fantasy XIV Benchmark (172 MB)
Check out all Final Fantasy XIV downloads

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.

It was one of the big surprise game announcements of E3 last June and now developer/publisher Square Enix is getting ready to unleashed its next MMO game Final Fantasy XIV Online to the world. Today the publisher announced that it is taking beta applications for people who want to test the PC version of the MMO.

It's currently unknown when the closed beta will actually begin and there's also no word on how many people will be accepted at first. However the fact that Square Enix is taking beta applications at all would seem to indicated they are happy enough with its development to start the process of showing the game to outsiders. Final Fantasy XiV Online is still slated to launch sometime in 2010.


[Via Joystiq]

Announced in June, Final Fantasy XIV will be the second MMO set in the Final Fantasy universe. Hopefully, this trailer shown at the Tokyo Game Show 2009 represents in-game graphics, and not just CGI. Square Enix trailers are renowned for their eye candy, and this doesn't disappoint. In Final Fantasy XIV, players will have a chance to explore a new and mysterious world called Eorzea, a place that's both gorgeous and dangerous. The game is currently expected to release sometime in 2010.

Download HD Final Fantasy XIV TGS 2009 Trailer (90 MB)

Square Enix shocked fantasy of the Final Fantasy franchise last June at E3 when they announced their plans for Final Fantasy XIV Online, the second game in the long running RPG series that's being designed as an MMO (Final Fantasy XI Online was the first). Now Square Enix has launched the game's official web site with a ton of new images and screenshots from the title along with info on the game's races and images of some of the game's locations.

Square Enix is still sticking to its 2010 release date that it set when the game was first announced two months ago. Final Fantasy XIV is slated to be released for the PC and PS3 but there's no word yet if the two will have cross-platform online play like Final Fantasy XI does.

Square Enix is going to enter the deep MMO waters once again as the Japanese publisher officially announced plans for Final Fantasy XIV (or 14 if you don't like Roman numbers) Online. The game's teaser site has already launched with a teaser trailer (naturally).

The game is due out on the PC and the PS3 in 2010 and aside from the teaser trailer andt the words "Adventure begins anew in the vast realm of Eorzea" no other info on the game has been revealed. Our sister site Massively has some pictures from the Sony press conference where the news was first announced.