Will Final Fantasy XI ever see the light of day?

Further US details emerge as Europe still faces wall of silence

Posted by Staff
Square Enix recently stated it understood Europe is a valuable market that the company has, until now, under performed in. It promised a better flow of information, faster localisation times and so on.

And yet SE still hasn't acknowledged Final Fantasy XI in Europe, despite being on general release in Japan for almost a year and confirmed in the US, complete with a recent beta-test program, for the same amount of time.

This being the case, new details for the game's US outing have emerged. The Rise of Zilart add-on will be included in the game's original content with no download needed.

A new charging structure will apply to US gamers that may not sit so well with their sensibilities. The standard $12.99 monthly fee will apply, though for any additional characters one may wish to use, an extra dollar per month will be charged. Ouch!

Although the game, for PC and PlayStation 2, is just about ready, it will not ship until the PS2 HDD hard drive has shipped, which is slated for late October.

Another interesting titbit is that through the PlayOnline servers, PlayStation 2 and PC players, in both Japan and the US, will be able to play together universally.

This news has led to intense speculation that the European release date may be further away than even the most pessimistic RPG fan might have speculated. Square Enix Europe will say nothing on the subject, refusing to make any concrete commitment to a release.

Surely such a massive game, either released or just about to be released in the rest of the world, must have a shipping date and a release strategy…

If and when anything breaks, you'll be the first to know.

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