Troubled MMO FFXIV 'Will Always Be FFXIV And Nothing Else,' Says Producer Exclusive

Last September, Square Enix launched its latest MMO in the Final Fantasy franchise, Final Fantasy XIV, to a disastrous reaction -- so bad that the company has yet to begin charging players fees for the game.

In October, Square Enix announced that the game would begin charging this month or next, and that the game would be upgrading to version 2.0 in 2013.

Gamasutra queried producer Naoki Yoshida, who replaced Square Enix veteran Hiromichi Tanaka at the project's helm late last year, for more details on this unusual transition.

[Kamikaze135]

2.0 distribution begins in October 2012. We'll have to wait till then and see what direction SE takes XIV before giving the game a final judgement. However, there are a couple of big updates before then. One of them coming late November - Early December.

[Reibooi]

Yeah I think they confused the PS3 release date as the 2.0 release date as they have said the PS3 version will come in early 2013 while 2.0 itself will come sometime in the 4th quarter next year.

Personally I have faith in Yoshida and his team. They have already turned the game around so much and all of that was done with what is basically a broken graphics engine and server Tech. Once they get that stuff nailed down in 2.0 the game will really be what it should have been and the new content they have planned for 2.0(those who haven't seen the Roadmap PDF should really check it out) looks awesome.

Also we don't really know what they have planned beyond the next 2 updates. 1.20 is coming in a few weeks and will be doing class re balancing and adding a AH and 1.21 will be adding the job system. But details on what will be coming in 1.22 and 1.23 all of which will be coming before 2.0 so it will be interesting to see what we have coming.

[Kamikaze135]

The only other thing we know for certain is that 1.20-1.23 will be part of a trilogy and include stories leading up to the drastic world changes of 2.0.

[Redempteur]

you can really see the vision that the new team is doing.I really hope they are sucessfull

[Pain]

The wait is just as hard as it was before ; ;

But good things come to those that wait .. in in are case it will be good but bloody hell we going to get a lil bored :P

But hey thats what Skyrim is for!

Edit : But!! Im get a head start soon as i get a copy of Windows and bootcamp all working....

[Ddouble]

"The first thing I did when I became the producer and director of Final Fantasy XIV last December was to ask myself, 'What kind of service system, game content, and community content would be necessary if we were to continue to offer this service 10 years into the future?'" Yoshida says.

I like the way he thinks. I can see why they're going all out with it now.