Final Fantasy XIV closed beta goes live March 11

by Ben Gilbert on Feb 28th 2010 3:00PM

If you're anything like us (or our partners over at Massively), you were hurriedly clicking refresh on the official VanaFest 2010 website for news about the now eight-year-old Final Fantasy XI MMO last night. If you were, then you might've caught the momentary mention that the first wave of (closed) beta testing for the next Final Fantasy MMO (that's number 14, for those of you playing along at home) will be going live on March 11.

Square also assuaged fears of missing out on the closed beta by saying that "Those who were not selected in this drawing, fear not, for there will be other opportunities to come," adding that interested parties should "Be sure to stay tuned!" We figure if we're not invited, you know, all the more time to play that other Final Fantasy release, right?

Final Fantasy XIV

[Via Massively]

Source

Tags: beta, final-fantasy, final-fantasy-xiv, march-11, mmo, q1-2010, release-date, vanafest, vanafest-2010

Reader Comments (44)

Aww, I didn't get chosen for the beta. :(

The beta invites aren't going out til tonight, and even then it's for "Dedicated FFXI players" first.

Has SE announced a ps3 beta for FF14?

[spam]

I love how people can call things like halo reach milking, yet game series like this have over 10 iterations and no one says a word.

I personally don't give a shit, just a thought.

@ Dr. Tea Bag (PSN: Ar4chNova89)

Someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?

I don't think either series is milking, but I can see how in some peoples' minds, Final Fantasy is different every time and Halo is in the same universe, same gameplay etc.

so much hate

Well I don't think is quite the same. Sure every Final Fantasy shares the name but every one of them is completely set on a different world, with a different history and characters.

@JamesH
Using reach as an example again, reach is a new planet, there are new characters, and its exploring some new history. But you are right, ff changes it up much more than halo.

I didn't realize my comment was such flame bait, I was just saying how all the milking comment fools are fools, so cool your jets fellas.

repllyy faiill *@Night Elve

I think it's only milking when they charge you for something you feel you've already payed for. Final Fantasy continues to bring you a new experience every time, and for the most part Halo has too. However, I feel each incarnation of Guitar Hero and Rock Band are easily milking the franchise. 5 guitar hero games? After GH3 came out everything since then could have been DLC.

Zappa, I'd hardly consider Rock Band to be milking anything, especially not right after mentioning Guitar Hero.

Well, they have released four games in two years time, arguably with no significant changed. Plus, we have Green Day rockband coming right up.

But sure, Acosta, whatever you say.

Final Fantasy isnt milked, each sequel is the end of a different world with new charecters and what not. Not even the sequels of certain games are milking, they are more like butchering precious memories, see FFX-2 and Dirge of Cerberus for a more indepth look.

No thanks. I'll be spending my time with FFXIII and god of war 3 for the next few months.

Cool? FFXIV won't be out in a few months anyway.

when has joystiq become twitter?

What font does Joystiq use for the bubble captions?

For PS3 or PC users? (both?)

as far as I remember PC only ....

PC beta only for the moment. PS3 will come after they're done getting the data they need from the PC version. PC's are more flexible and all so it makes sense to me.

Yeah PC only right now. I got an invite to sign up a month back but it was PC only for now. I decided i'd wait for the PS3 beta, if it gets sent to me as well.

It would be cool if they let everyone who bought FF13 into the beta. But, I bet they'll save that goodie for Qore subscribers.

Also known as: Suckers.

HEY! Quore's pretty cool... I'm not regretting spending $25 on it...

You know what, if you enjoy it, don't mind my cynicism.

But I can't get past seeing it as paying money to watch advertisements.
And yea, you might get into a beta or two, but that means you're paying money to be a game tester -something that used to be a job, that would pay you. It's ridiculous that a company worth billions and billions of dollars will still charge it's own loyal customers to view their advertisements, and even more ridiculous that they loyal customers eat it up.

Well Qore is more than just advertisements and they also give access to stuff like premium themes, early demos, free games and closed betas. You are getting a service there with developer commentary and insights, concept art ... it's not like all they give you is game trailers. I don't see it as any different than buying an episode of a television show on PSN or iTunes except its gaming centric and you get other benefits for being a subscriber. I don't subscribe to it annually but I've bought a few episodes here and there if they caught my attention. It's not like some huge slap in the face that they charge for it ... to me anyway.

My only point was that it would be a good idea to give beta access to those who buy FF13 on PS3 & 360 (they can get a PC beta), but that they'll probably do something lame like give it away for Qore subscribers or as a Gamestop pre-order bonus. I wasn't trying to have an argument about the merits of Qore and I don't think it's necessary to go there.

premium themes -advertisements
demos -advertisements
closed betas -paying to be a game tester
concept art, dev commentary -really cool, but still advertisements

Free games are nice, though. How often does that happen?

I admit, I pay for live, so that makes me a sucker too, since I'm paying for a service that should be free.

Also, chocolate milk sounds good right now.

IT'S FOR FFXI USERS ONLY TONITE!

This game had better have OHOHOHOHOHO,

You know who I mean.

I don't understand, what demographic are they targeting for this game when they still intend on supporting XI? It seems like anyone who would want to play XIV is still playing XI, and satisfied with it. It just seems rather silly to me.

There will probably be a decent exodus from XI to XIV in not too long of an amount of time, assuming that most of the fun of XI is still there for XIV.

I've had an elvaan since XI came out, but I would still be interested in XIV, depending on how it was handled. I've just gotten burned out on endgame stuff, seeing as how it feels limited after doing the same stuff for such a long time. I do admit I'd be hesitant to delete 7 years of works that went into my character, but it's got to happen sometime, right? If there was a way to transfer some elements of my character into XIV, I think then I'd definitely have to check it out.

I'm one of the people who left FFXI for greener pastures(WAR, WoW...anything that didn't involve grinding for 8 hours at a time). I'm wanting to check out FFXIV if nothing else than to see if they lived up to their plans on removing the annoying parts of FFXI.

im sure a few people will be selling their beta access on ebay for a couple hundred dollars

Its for loyal FFXI fans, people that used their POL accounts most likely. So unless they plan on selling their FFXI characters/account along with it, I don't think so.

No way! That's my frickin' birthday!

Unfortunately, it's a really crappy present, being that it is a closed beta. Just see if I get you anything for YOUR birthday SE!

Graphics looks good

Well, the fact that they are removing leveling altogether is intriguing, and makes me curious about at least trying to the beta and see what polish it has.

FFXI was fun simply because it was Final Fantasy themed. If they can keep that aspect, and remove the HUGE amount of timesinks like in 11, it'll do fine.

Man, oh man am I excited for this!

It would be cool if they made FFXI free after FFXIV goes live, or at least heavily discount it (from $13/mo to $5/mo or less).

What I'd really like to see is a Final Fantasy XI Offline project, before the FFXI servers go dark.

FFXIV
PCGamerUSA - 24 Hours Online Selling FFXIV Gil. < 5 Minutes FFXIV Gil Delivery. Gil Will Send to Your in game Mail Box or trade face to face. All Transactions are easy and safe. Pay Your Cheap FFXIV Gil With Paypal or Credit Card.

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Final Fantasy XIV closed beta goes live March 11

Final Fantasy XIV

Reader Comments (44)

Posted: Feb 28th 2010 3:06PM Raiki said

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