A lot of Final Fantasy XIV information has come out of gamescom 2009, but the game is still a long ways away from being released. For all the analysis and information that you may read or see around the internet, remember that a lot of it can still change before the game’s release. We will be doing a summary post of information in the coming days, but here is some of the raw information from other sites:

Famitsu: Interview with Sage Sundi
Famitsu: Interview with Hiromichi Tanaka
Hiromichi Tanaka plays FFXIV: Part 1, Part 2
4Gamer Interview with Tanaka and Sundi (Part 1)
4Gamer Interview with Tanaka and Sundi (Part 2)
A Closer Look At The Alpha User Interface
ZAM Interviews Hiromichi Tanaka

Sage Sundi: Lead Game Master for FFXI
Hiromichi Tanaka: Producer for FFXIV

This is video from a playable demo from gamescom-cologne, posted by 1UP. Expect more info over the coming days as it is translated and released to the web.  Below is a list of info as we get it:

• 6:37am: Added some camera taken pictures after the break. (source)
• 6:45am: Global release next year. 30 day subscription planned, but no word on price. (source)
• 6:58am: Some notes from some that has played the demo: (source)
  • Currently you can’t jump, but a developer told me they are considering to add it
  • I wasn’t able to find water just yet, so not sure if you can swim
  • I will have an interview up tomorrow Thursday
  • The combat system is interesting, reminds you of FFXI, you select a target with TAB, then take up your weapon with F and X locks on it. Then use the numbers from your hotbars to use abilities. The first two abilities I had generated combat points to use the AOE attacks etc, I’ll get back on what class I played later
  • Game is polished, very smooth combat and performance
  • It was played on a PC (I think), with mouse and keyboard
  • I did a kill mob quest, kill 6 peacock-like creatures, they were very easy to kill
• 7:03am: Second gameplay trailer linked after the break.
• 7:27am: Added video of Character Animations after the break.
• 8:17am: Videos: Lalafell gameplay, tour of the booth.
• 8:31am: Added 14 more images after the break.  (booth and slideshow pictures)
• 9:45am: A few more notes from FFXIVCore:
  • Square Enix points out several times that the game is in alpha, so keep this in mind. For being in alpha, the game has come very far and I’m quite impressed. Check back for a write up later.
  • Compass information (screenshot): Tip: use the compass during your quest to find the squirrels. The squirrels appear at point A. When there’s one squirrel left, it’s feeling to point B, so chase the squirrel to point B!
  • Gladiator information (screenshot):
    1st: Swordslash: Powerfull Attack, 2nd: Swordslash: Precise (meaning of Accuracy) Attack, 3rd: Shield Block: damage Minimizing, 4th (red one): Ranged Attack: Great Distance, 5th: Provoking: Distraction, 6th (red): roundabout slash: AOE damage, 7th (red) Red Lotus: huge damage

Sony has announced a new PS3 at their pre-gamescom press conference. The new PS3 will sell for $299, which will be mean a cheaper entry fee for people to start playing Final Fantasy XIV. Sadly this press conference had no new FFXIV news. In 15 hours (4:00am CST) the doors open to gamescom and hopefully we’ll have a flood of new Final Fantasy XIV related information.

The public opening of gamescom is just 2 days away.  Over the next 2 days there will be press conferences from a few companies.  One being from Sony on August 18th (today) at 11am CST.  We’ll post if anything comes out of this press conference about Final Fantasy XIV.

Eorzeapedia has a writeup guessing some of the stats characters may have and how guildleves play into it all.  Hopefully we’ll find out more about Final Fantasy XIV at gamescom (which opens to the public in 2 days 18 hours).

There has been continued debate and speculation within the Final Fantasy XIV community as to when beta testing will begin. While we have no real hints at this point, the current rumors are talking about a September start for the beta. One blogger did a writeup covering this speculation. But in the end, we won’t know the true beta start date until after it has begun. Even if SquareEnix says “We are starting the beta on <date here>” something could go wrong and that date gets pushed out.

There is a good chance of hearing when the beta will begin during next week’s gamescom-cologne. And even if the date isn’t announced, we are very much looking forward to some new information to be released at this event.

A few days back the folks at FFXIVBlog.com did a post covering some possible ideas on color customization of characters. They have great examples of how different parts of the models can be customized. They also have links to two Photoshop PSD files to allow you to do your own mockups, one for Lalafell and one for Miqo’te.

As we briefly mentioned before, gamescom in Cologne, Germany will begin on August 19th, that’s just 7 days away! People from around the internet are anticipating that we’ll see some in-game footage of Final Fantasy XIV at this gaming trade show. Mark you calendars and pray with us that some more information will make its way out of this event. If we see or hear of any information coming out of this event, we’ll be sure to post about it on FF14News.

Recently Kotaku and others posted some high-resolution images from some of the information that’s been going around since last week. While there is nothing new with these screenshots, we wanted to make them easily available for people. You can see the full collection of the screenshots after the break.

Update 2009/08/12 10:15am: updated the white-background images with PNG versions (from JPG) of the same images. They are a higher resolution than the previous versions.

The crew at Eorzeapedia have done an analysis of the recent magazines published in Japan. The three main topics they cover are character/armor customization, hints of how armor is shown on your character, and how cards (guildleves) are tied to a city. They also have a section on other random pieces of information, but nothing all that concrete. They make some guesses on how customizable your character will be when it comes to facial features: things like hair color, face shape and other features. There is talk that necklaces you wear may be visible on your character (maybe it’s a sign of your city affiliation as well). It’s an interesting read and worth checking out if you have a few minutes.