Final Fantasy XIV announces launch date and pricing model

The speculation for Final Fantasy XIV's eager fanbase can finally come to an end. Square-Enix's hotly anticipated MMORPG has an official release date, and contrary to the expectations of many it's not at the absolute end of the year. The game will officially launch on the PC on September 22nd -- and September 30th. In addition to the official release announcement, Square has disclosed the bonuses for the Collector's Edition, and one of those bonuses is a full week's early access.

The Collector's Edition, which retails for $74.99 instead of the standard version's $49.99, will also include an exclusive in-game item, a security token, a travel journal with concept art, and a special cover with art by Yoshitako Amano. Both versions include 30 days of free game time, with subsequent months priced at $12.99. No word on whether the fee will increase for additional characters a la Final Fantasy XI. If you can't wait for another three months, however, you can take heart in the promise that Final Fantasy XIV's beta will start in early July. It's not quite as good as launch, but we're sure it'll ease the scant time remaining.

[Editor's Note: As an additional note, extra character slots in the game will cost $3.00 per month, much like Final Fantasy XI's $1 per month character slots. However, if you wish to have another character for inventory purposes in FFXIV, then the cost is still only $1 dollar. So, to recap, a playable character slot in FFXIV is $3.00 per month, while a non-playing "inventory use only" character is $1 dollar per month. ~Sera]

Reader Comments (73)

Jumping Shantotto on a pogo stick, this news is simply fantastic! I expected to see this game when I was old and grey, but now we see it's only three months away! Any issues with the combat I hope they redressed, or legions of fans will be utterly distressed. $88 with shipping and tax, plus $13 a month for one character max; it's a bit much, I must confess, but this is a game I simply must possess. If but half of my expectations turn out to be true, you will hear me shouting that afternoon, "w00taru!"

lifetime sub price, please. I feel like I'm going to need it when SWTOR comes out

I am willing to guess the push back for the launch date is Sonys doing as their own MMO is coming November (DCU online). I was up in the air about what to commit to, but i guess its DCU for me!

Heh we have a similar quandry. I'm just gonna play both.

It'll be hard for this to be my main MMO if I have to wait for the PS3 launch. I can't afford to build even the $400-$500 smartly built PC it would take to run this (believe me, I'd be happy to if I could!), and my brother would be all to happy for me to jump into WoW with Cataclysm.

Hopefully I'm done mucking around with that game by the time the PS3 FFXIV rolls around!

The September 30th release date frankly worries me. So far we had an alpha that was plagued by server instability and which had a combat system that was apparently so bad that it had to be completely replaced by a new, as-yet-to-be-revealed system. I don't say it's impossible to pull off, but it seems improbable to me that the central part of such a massive game is to be developed, tested and polished in less than three months ...

No, I think it's painfully obvious that the release date is a corporate decision: "stealing the march on the competition" (WoW: Cataclysm, which will likely launch "sometime after Blizzcon", i.e. after the end of October) makes a lot of sense economically ... But a release date based on economic factors is definitely not based on the state of the game, i.e. that's "it is done".

Personally I wouldn't mind a game that has a released quality that is bordering the word "crappy", as long as I have faith in the developer to fix the crappy part in a timely manner while I enjoy the part of the game that's not broken.

Obviously the game has a lot of hype right now and SE is a big brand and I'd imagine them to be responsible.

The beta has lasted for 6 months once the game has gone live. That's pretty much the basic length for Beta testing.

Don't be fooled by the Alpha version that was being tested earlier. SE has been working on the Beta version based on the Alpha version feedback for all these months. It just wasn't ready to be tested in public before July. This is due to how Japanese game companies work- they build every aspect of the game simultaneously. Which is also why the game can go from barely playable to retail version in such a small timeframe, especially during this part of the development.

It's an odd thing to do but if it works for them, that's fine with this customer.

I will buy both provided SE tells me, in no uncertain terms, that when I pick up the PS3 version, all my progress on PC will be rewarded with trophies retroactively. I'm not paying for the game twice only to turn around and pay for a new character to replay the game from the beginning to get the early trophies.

I want to play this game on PS3, sue me.

I think it's safe to assume that that would be possible. In FFXI you didn't actually unlock achievements by doing something heroic, you had to talk to a bard after doing said heroic deeds and then you'd choose which achievement to unlock and you'd get it then. (referring to the 360 version of course). My guess would be that this will work the same way.

Well hopefully the release will be smooth. I mean SE do have experience with MMORPGs so thier not new to the game.

The next debate is do i wait for PS3 release or get it on PC. Then CE or normal....Choices, choices...

I ran the benchmark on both my rig (AthlonIIx4 630 @ 3.5Ghz, 4GB DDR3 1600, 1GB Radeon 5770) and my Wifes rig (Athlon64x2 5200 @ 3Ghz, 4GB DDR2-800, 512MB Geforce 9600GT) and it ran smooth as butter on both, so I can say, at least in my case, that no, you dont need a super computer in order to run the game nicely, at least from the results I got from the benchmark. I cant wait for the game to release. I wasnt able to get far into FFXI due to bad circumstances at the time, but I plan on really diving into FFXIV. Ive been looking foward to it for a long time.

FFXI required mules, which cost money. this time they are adding the mule feature built in which is cool. I don't care about the extra dollar per toon. I work everyday and I can spare a dollar that I would waste on something equally as frivolous as digital people. what eventually made me quit FFXI was the extreme difficulty of accessing expansion content combined with requirement that you must be teamed to accomplish anything. If they can design a game that I can solo but am rewarded for teaming, then I don't think i'll play a different MMO until the servers on 14 shut down. Not even WoW can compare to the combat exhilaration that FFXI offered. I was a regular raider in WoW burning crusade content and even 25man raids didn't compare to the feeling I got during a Kirin battle.
I am very much so looking forward to the endgame deliciousness that SE will deliver.

Final Fantasy XIV announces launch date and pricing model

Reader Comments (73)

Posted: Jun 30th 2010 9:04PM Blancmanche said

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