final-fantasy posts

Final Fantasy XIV has suffered though one of the worst launches in MMO history and while the fantasy game from Square Enix isn't in danger of a complete shut down like what happened to APB earlier this year, it's clear that the game wasn't ready for prime time when it launched back in September. Today the game's official web site has announced that the game's development team is getting some new members in order to make changes to the game.

According to the web site, Naoki Yoshida will take over as producer and director of the game. The web site describes him as "a passionate individual for whom customer satisfaction has always taken top priority." Other unnamed members of the company have also been moved over to the Final Fantasy XIV team. The restructred team is apparently still working on their plans for the game and until that plan is in place, the game's free online period will once again be extended.

It's been a rocky first month and a half or so for Final Fantasy XIV. The fantasy MMO developed and published by Square Enix suffered from big technical issues and bugs during its launch last September. The problems were so bad that players were given an extra 30 days of free game time.

According to Andriasang, Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada admitted in an investor conference today that the game has had issues, saying, ""We're quickly working on reforms. W'd like to put our full power into regaining trust." The game itself has shipped over 630,000 units worldwide so far, according to the report, with 230,000 copies going to Europe, 210,000 in North America and 190,000 copies in Japan. Wada seems to be pining a lot of hopes that the developer can fix the issues in the MMO saying, "If we satisfy our users, they will return. On the other hand, once the users say, 'forget this,' there's no turning back. We can only recover our trust so far."

[Via VG247.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]

Final Fantasy XI was not that long ago, relatively, but Square Enix is giving the MMORPG genre a second shot. Final Fantasy XIV is that new attempt, and everything about the game looks fairly interesting. However, this trailer is not. While Final Fantasy at this point is a gaming institution, we can only take so many generic trailers composed of orchestral music, cryptic phrases, and nonsensical CGI before it starts to get a little old. However, we do like the shots of gameplay seen at a few points, as in-action shots are always much cooler than stills.

Developer-publisher Square Enix's second big MMO game, Final Fantasy XIV, is getting ever closer to its planned release in September. This week the game's official Twitter web site announced that the closed beta test for the game will be ending today. However the open beta test should begin sometime in "early September."

There's no word yet on how Square Enix will handle sign ups for the open beta but it's clear that there will be a fairly short window for players to participate. The game is set to officially launch on September 30 for people who purchase the Standard edition of the game. People who buy the more expensive Collector's Edition of the game will be able to play online on September 22.

[Via Massively]

Download Final Fantasy XIV Benchmark (172 MB)

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:

Square Enix's second venture into the MMO world is close to letting some outsiders try out the game for the first time. Today Square Enix's Japanese Twitter page announced that the closed beta test for Final Fantasy XIV will start on Saturday July 10. The test will likely start with a small and select number but more beta testers will likely be added in the weeks to come.

Square Enix recently announced a release date of September 30 for the regular edition of Final Fantasy XIV. In addition a special collector's edition of the game with lots of extras will be released on September 22.

[Via Shacknews]

Square Enix's announcement that Final Fantasy XIV would be a new MMO game shocked attendees back in June 2009 at E3. Today the publisher announced that the PC version of the game now has a release date of September 30 (a PS3 version has also been announced but it's not due out until March 2011. Ahead of the official launch comes word that the beta testing for the game will begin sometime in early July. Monthly pricing will be $12.99 a month with 30 days of free gameplay out of the box.

But that's not all. Square Enix has also announced a Collector's Edition for Final Fantasy XIV ([pictured above) that will be released for the price of $74.99. People who order the collector's edition will be able to sign onto the servers eight days before folks who get the standard $49.99 edition. Extras include an exclusive in game item called the Onion Helm which "accelerates character recovery after falling in battle." It will also come with a concept art book, a behind-the-scenes DVD and more. The standard edition also comes with its own in-game exclusive pre-order item, the Garlond Goggles, "which increases the speed of skill progression."

[Via email press release]

Final Fantasy XI has attracted its fair share of detractors. Decried for being to grind-heavy, not friendly enough to new players, and having ridiculous bosses (such as Absolute Virtue), it has a fairly negative reputation. In spite of this, or because of it, Square Enix is making a new MMO with Final Fantasy XIV. They seem to be trying new things, if this trailer is any indication, so we're looking forward to the upcoming release.

Download HD Final Fantasy XIV E3 2010 Trailer (187MB)
Check out all Final Fantasy XIV downloads

Last year, Sweden-based game developer GRIN closed their doors despite releasing three major games in the space of a few months in 2009. Rumors at the time had GRIN developing some kind of title from Square Enix. Now a person has uploaded a video to YouTube that supposedly shows footage from a tech demo of that title.

The video is supposed to show off "Fortress" which the YouTube posted claims was to be a sequel to Final Fantasy XII. The game, which was developed for the PC and other platform, isn't dead yet, according to the poster. Square Enix is reportedly working on the game at one of their internal studios but it has yet to be officially announced.