There has not been a whole lot of activity from Square-Enix over the last month since their last website update. We have a little news with a Q&A that came out of a Japanese magazine. Along with that, one of our moderators has started putting together forum posts covering the information we currently know.

News:

• Jan 23: Question & Answer in Dengeki magazine.
• Jan 30: Amazon now accepting pre-orders for FFXIV.

Forums:

• Jan 25: Disciples of War.
• Jan 26: Disciples of Magic.
• Jan 26: Disciples of the Land.
• Jan 27: Disciples of the Hand.

War

In volume 39 of Connect!On magazine from Japan, there is some speculation about the 6th major city of Eorzea. There isn’t anything really new or ground-breaking in the article. Check it out over at FFXIVCore.com.

Amazon, pre-empting every other online retailer, has added Final Fantasy XIV to their catalog. They have the price listed at $59.99 for the PS3 edition and $49.99 for the PC edition. The listing also states “Official pricing and release date have not been announced by the publisher. These are estimates only and subject to change.” No other details are listed at this point.

If you pre-order now, you will be set with Amazon’s pre-order price guarantee. This means if the game’s price drops at all between now and when the game ships, you will get the lowest price the game was listed at between now and then (they will refund you the difference).

Over the last month we have been busy trying to get these changes ready to roll out. After many hours of work we are happy to announce the addition of Forums to FF14news.com. These forums will be used for the discussion of all news posts made on the front page of this website (as can be seen by the Discuss button in the bottom-right of each news post).

Along with the forums the layout for the website has been changed slightly (some coloring and layout changes). We look forward to hearing from everyone on the forums!

The folks at ZAM were able to translate the latest Dengeki Games Interview with Square-Enix. There is some interesting information in the Question and Answer session, but nothing groundbreaking. We’ve highlighted some of the more interesting questions below in red.  Below is that full interview.

Update Jan 28: FFXIVCore has released their translation of this magazine. Be aware that they scattered this post with a lot of speculation along with the translation.

Q: How much of the game will players be able to experience in the beta?
A: We started at about 10% of the final product with the playable Alpha version and are ultimately trying to perfect the underlying game system. The bulk of the game won’t be made public until the retail version is out.

Q: Will the servers be named after summons like in FFXI?
A: There’s no doubt we’ll use names familiar to any FF fan, but the scheme will be a little different than FFXI.

Q: What can you tell us about the transition from the Beta to the final version or about world transfers in general?
A: Once service starts, we want to make it so you can move along with the friends you make during the Beta to the same world. As for world transfers, that may be a possibility in the future, with some limitations probably.

For those of you that enjoy podcasts, there are currently 2 active podcasts being produced by the English Final Fantasy XIV community. If you are looking for a way to catch up on the latest FFXIV news, listening to one (or both) of these podcasts could be useful for you.

First up we have Atheryte Radio which is being sponsored by Eorzeapedia.com. The podcasters behind this have some previous work you might be familiar with called “Limit Break Radio” and “Pet Food Alpha”. You can download their podcasts from their website or from iTunes.

Next up we have the CrystalCore podcast being sponsored by FFXIVCore.com. This podcast is being produced by the folks behind ComicEarth. You can download these podcasts from their forum, CrystalCore’s website, or from iTunes.

Over at PlayOnline, Square-Enix has announced VanaFest 2010, celebrating 8 years of Final Fantasy XI.  The wording in the announcement hints at Final Fantasy XIV news, so be sure to mark your calendars for February 28th.  We will keep an eye out for any new Final Fantasy XIV information that comes from the event.

Update Jan 18: The folks at ZAM are speculating that the special announcement is a new FFXI expansion, rather than FFXIV news. Seeing that we are part of the FFXIV fan community, we are hoping it has to do with FFXIV. But in reality, there is a good chance it will just be a new FFXI expansion.

Text from PlayOnline:

It is our pleasure to announce that the next edition of VanaFest, Japan’s premier Final Fantasy XI fan event, will be held on Sunday, February 28th 2010 in Tokyo!

Attendees can expect this year’s event to be a veritable goldmine of mind-blowing news. Development and operation team members will engage in a talk session and divulge juicy pieces of information such as new content scheduled for upcoming version updates, planned job improvements, and other exciting milestones for the year 2010. The evolution of Final Fantasy XI is far from over, folks!

But save your awestruck faces for the special announcement…and be sure to hang on to your seats when it comes!

Even those unable to attend need not be disheartened! All the latest news and developments announced at the festival will be delivered to you hot off the press, so stay tuned!

The translators over at FFXIVCore have published a translation of a Connect!On article talking about Final Fantasy XIV. The main focus of this article is speculation and reader responses/feedback. We did not see any new information in this article, mainly just speculation. If you are looking for new FFXIV information, this isn’t the article for you. If you love speculation, give it a read.

Around the web a number of gaming sites have been posting their “most anticipated games” type of lists for 2010. Final Fantasy XIV has been on a number of these. Below are links to a few gaming sites/blogs that list Final Fantasy XIV in their watch lists.

mmorpg.com: FFXIV is their #1 anticipated game.
Famitsu magazine (via 1UP): readers chose FFXIV as their #2 anticipated game.
MMOCrunch: Included FFXIV in their top 7 anticipated MMOs for the year.
PS3Attitude.com: FFXIV didn’t even make their top 20, but it was mentioned.
ColonyOfGamers.com: Lists FFXIV as one of their “to watch” games.
ZDNet’s TechRepublic: Has FFXIV on its “to watch” list, but has some harsh words about the series and the information released so far.

Square-Enix has sent out their latest newsletter for Final Fantasy XIV. While this newsletters covers the information that came out last month, it’s always nice to see these updates. The full newsletter is available here. We’ve also taken one giant screenshot of the newsletter and posted it here.