Final Fantasy XI‘s dedicated fans helped prevent the game from being shut down in 2024, and that’s led to significant updates being planned for the MMORPG in its 23rd year online.
According to an interview with Final Fantasy XI producer and director Yoji Fujito on Dengeki Online (with thanks to Automaton), higher ups at Square Enix were considering the end of the game’s life ahead of its 20th anniversary in 2022. At the very least, Fujito felt that “There was a real possibility that 2024 would be the year updates would come to an end”, but it was even likely the game’s servers would have been closed and the game completely shut down.
Final Fantasy XI Player Power Keeps Game Alive and Thriving
Yet the power of the player base ensured that wasn’t the case. As that 20th anniversary approached, players of Final Fantasy XI made themselves known, offering support to the developers and encouraging Square Enix to keep going in the long term. After the Voracious Resurgence storyline had concluded, the fear was that the slim playerbase would shrink further, but not so, it seems.
“We thought, if The Voracious Resurgence wrapped up and FFXI clearly started losing its momentum, then maybe we really should prepare to end it,” said Fujito, ”But that didn’t happen. I took this as a sign that we should keep running the game.”
The end result was updated infrastructure and continued support for the game. New updates, including tweaks to solo play that make it more comfortable, are also planned.
Final Fantasy XI was first released on PS2 and PC in 2002, but only in Japan. It would later arrive on Western shores and even receive an Xbox 360 port. It’s been nine years since the servers for console versions shut down, but the PC version has been going strong ever since, despite the competition from Final Fantasy XIV.
Now, we live in a world where both XI and XIV co-exist, and Final Fantasy XIV even traveled over to Final Fantasy XI’s world last year in an Alliance Raid.
