New Making Of a Realm video
Square Enix published a new video on their youtube channel that is an interview with their music composer, “Nobuo Uematsu”.

New Patch to FFXIV Client
For those that already have the Final Fantasy XIV beta client installed, a 9MB patch has been deployed. Make sure to startup your client to get it installed.

Open Beta Postponed

FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test, which is scheduled to begin at 7:00pm (PDT) on Aug. 31, 2010, will be postponed due to a confirmation of critical bugs. New schedule will be released at a later date.

Along with the postponement of FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test, the issuing of registration code for FINAL FANTASY XIV Open Beta Test will be postponed as well. With the download of client software’s installer, it will be suspended at 19:00 (PDT) on Aug. 31, 2010.

No time has been given for when the beta will start or when keys will be handed out. We just have to wait.

Account Management System Update
SE has updated the account management page where you can now enter your region and country.

Along with this, SE has added Crysta support to accounts outside of Japan. This feature can be enabled from the Account Management page for your Square Enix account. Crysta is a Square Enix form of currency that you may be able to buy with a credit card or other ways. This should open up payment of FFXIV game accounts to things like game cards. More details to come later.

Gaining Access to the Open Beta
SE has sent out an email that seems to indicate that anyone will be able to participate in the FFXIV open beta. Along with this note, they have posted the FFXIV beta client installer for anyone to download (download it here download was removed from SE servers).

1. Access the following URL.
http://entry.ffxiv.com/
* The page will become accessible starting at 19:00 on Aug. 31, 2010. (NOTE: this date has been postponed)

2. Log in with your Square Enix account and have a registration code issued.
* Depending on the access status, we may temporarily suspend the issuance of registration code. If you cannot have registration code issued, we ask that you please wait a little while before trying again.

3. Register the registration code you received by e-mail on the Square Enix Account Management System.
Click “Select Service” from “Services and Options” on the left menu. Select “FINAL FANTASY XIV” from the services available and then “Add a service account.” Enter the registration code you’ve been issued and proceed to the end of registration.

It isn’t clear if those that were in alpha / beta will have to go through the same process to get a key. For those that weren’t in previous beta tests, it seems like they have given everyone a way to take part in the beta.

Maps from Open Beta
A Russian FFXIV blog has ripped the maps from the new open beta client and posted them for your viewing pleasure.

Square Enix has published a press release (reported by Famitsu) stating that Final Fantasy XIV will have 18 classes at release. Along with this, they have updated the armoury section of the FFXIV website. With only 7 combat classes and 11 gathering/crafting classes, Square Enix leaves themselves a lot of room to add more combat related classes. Lets hope we get more combat oriented classes soon after release. The 18 classes we’ll have at release are:

Disciples Of War (melee/physical classes)

Disciples of Magic (caster classes)

Disciples of the Land (gathering classes)

Disciples of the Hand (crafting classes)

We’ve also published a gallery of high resolution images to our gallery of all 18 classes.

Update 1: FFXIVCore has done a good job gathering all the information from this.

Update 1: We’ve update our gallery with 88 more images from the Japanese beta. Images courtesy of BlueGartr.

As of 5am CST, the Final Fantasy XIV beta has begun. As this test was the Japanese test, no information has been translated yet. Luckily screenshots do not need translation, so check out the screenshots leaked by Japanese testers in our gallery. The EU testing begins at 1:00pm CST, and the North American testing will follow at 8:00pm CST. We can expect some English images to make their way out of those 2 testing phases.

Outside of Japan, 2 pieces of information have leaked their way from the official FFXIV forums. First we have a list of the changes from the alpha to the beta client that testers can expect.

• Retainers have been added to carry items for you and operate a bazaar. It sounds like you will have to pay in-game currency to use them (it is free in beta).
• A new system called “Behest” has been added. NPCs will request your assistance for hunting down monsters that are terrorizing that zone. (Sounds like how you’ll hunt NMs?)
• Classes added: Botanist, Carpenter, Weaver, and Leatherworker.
• Attribute points can now be reallocated.
• You have a separate set of points to assign to elemental resistances.
• Switching gear in combat results in the stats that item provides being halved for 30 seconds. (This means you’ll be able to switch classes in combat)
• Weapons, armor, and tools have a durability now and deteriorate over time. NPCs can repair items up to 50% of their max durability. Blacksmiths are required to fully repair an item.
• An in-game configuration menu has been added for various UI and limited graphics control.
• The map for Limsa Lominsa has been improved to show the different tiers (decks).
• There are other changes and improvements. Read the full post for more details.

Beyond the change notes, the director of FFXIV posted a note to testers talking about some of the larger changes in the beta test as well as items not yet available in beta.

• Levequests for Disciples of the Hand are currently disabled, these will be opened once the issues are resolved.
• There are still delays in navigation of menus, this will improve later in the beta.
• Party Search functionality has been introduced to allow seeking new members into an existing party or to advertise yourself looking for a party. Various conditions can be set for party searching (there will be more criteria available in later stages of testing).
• Features currently unavailable (to be added later): auto-translation of text and player macros.

We’ll be on the lookout for new information and post it as it becomes available.

Square Enix has announced (confirmed here) that Final Fantasy XIV will release on September 30, 2010 for the PC only. Those who purchase the collectors edition of the game will be granted early-access to begin playing on September 22, 2010. The PS3 version will not be available until March 2011.

Update 1: NA FFXIV Website has been updated to match the JP one. Check it out.
Update 2: Updated images from the North American website update. All images should be in English now. Also, the Standard and Collector editions of the game have different bonus items for pre-ordering.
Update 3: Square Enix has published the full press release covering this.
Update 4: Added a new concept art image relieved on the new website.
Update 5: To match Square Enix’s announcement, Blizzard has removed the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) on their WoW expansion (Cataclysm) that is currently in beta testing.
Update 6: Square Enix has posted some new FAQ entries on their JP site. The most interesting addition confirms that a base account will only have 1 character slot.
Update 7: Eorzeapedia has confirmed that the collectors edition only comes with the Onion Helm, while the standard edition only comes with the Garlond Goggles. This means the collectors editions does not have the goggles.
Update 8: The European FFXIV website has been updated to match the new NA and JP designs.

Standard Edition Details:

• Pre-order Standard Edition through Amazon.
• Will be able to start playing on September 30.
• Price: $50
• If you pre-order the Standard edition, you get a pair of Garlond Goggles that increases the speed of skill progression.
• PC only. (PS3 version will not be available until next year, estimated March 2011).

Collectors Edition Details:

• Pre-order Collectors Edition through Amazon.
• Will be able to start playing 8 days early (September 22).
• Price: $75 ($25 more than standard).
• If you pre-order the Collectors edition, you get an Onion Helm that quickens recovery from KO.
• There are a variety of other bonus items in the collectors edition.
  • A behind the scenes DVD with the obligatory documentary on the making of the game.
  • A travel journal with concept art pages in which players can document their in-game wanderings.
  • An in-game item called the “Onion Helm.”
  • A fully personalized “Right of Passage” certificate.
  • Special cover illustrated by artist Yoshitaka Amano.
  • A FFXIV-branded security token for use with regular password.
• PC only. (PS3 version will not be available until next year, estimated March 2011).

Monthly Pricing Details:

• Base Monthly Fee: $12.99 / £8.99 / €12.99 (includes 1 character slot and 1 retainer)
• Additional Character Slots: $3.00 / £2.10 / €3.00 per month. (8 slots max).
• Additional Retainers: $1.00 / £0.70 / €1.00 per month.

Final Fantasy XIII (13) Extra:
Those who pre-ordered FFXIII for their PS3 were given some promo-codes, which granted access to a special in-game item for FFXIV. The item is a pair of gloves, call Asuran Armguards, that can be equipped to “Enhances the effectiveness of your equipped arm or tool.” (source)

PS3 Delayed Until 2011:
Square Enix dropped a bomb on us today saying that the PS3 version of Final Fantasy XIV will be delayed until 2011. Looks like they have contradicted a statement they made last year during E3 2009 (source):

Q: Will there be a simultaneous worldwide release?
A: Yes, at the launch it will be worldwide for PS3 and PC. Four languages – Japanese, English, German and French.

Other Information:

• Beta test will start in July. So we expect around two months of closed beta and one month of open beta.
• Retainers can be used to sell items or as storage (like a bank). You are granted 1 retainer by default, and additional ones can be purchased as part of your monthly game fee.
• PC Recommended Requirements: Windows XP/Vista/7, Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz or AMD Athlon X2 2GHz, 2GB of RAM, 15GB HDD space, NVIDIA GeForce 9600 512MB or ATI Radeon HD 2900 512MB and DirectX 9.

Third-Party Coverage

• The Japanese FFXIV website has received a complete overhaul to its layout. Check it out. Release details (Japanese) can be found here.
• Official Press Release about FFXIV Release Date.
• Gamespot has posted an article covering the details of the release.
• Monthly pricing for Europe covered here.
• IGN coverage

Gallery of images collected about the release:

Last week was an exciting week for Final Fantasy XIV fans as the team at Square Enix released some great new information for us. You can read the news we collected over the 3 days of E3 here: Day 1, Day2, and Day 3. Here’s a rundown of the news released at E3 from Square Enix:

• A new trailer was released.
• An official FFXIV Benchmark Utility was released.
• Alpha testing came to an end this week, and the beta phase of testing is expected to begin in less than a month.

To go along with the move into beta, Square Enix was demoing the beta version of the client at E3. A few news sites posted video from the event, here’s a list of a few of them:

Character Creation:

• Guided walk-through of the character creation process (Gametrailers)
• Lalafell character creation
• Hyur and Miquo’te character creation
• Character creation video released before E3 (Square Enix)

Gameplay / Combat:

• Guided walk-through of combat and basic game-play as a Gladiator (Gametrailers)
• Introduction to beta combat changes (Square Enix)
• Lancer combat video

Beyond the videos, ZAM has put together excellent summary of the more fine-grained details that were discussed this past week.

Today begins day 3, the last day of E3. Be sure to check out the information from day 1 and day 2 if you haven’t already.

Videos from GameTrailers (8:20am):
GameTrailers has posted 2 videos. The first is a walk-through of the character creation process that we saw announced a week ago. The second is a video showing how the battle system work.

Massively interview (11:00am):
Massively has posted an interview with Hiromichi Tanaka. There isn’t anything really new in this interview, but it does ask some more basic questions that many of the fan sites have not asked. It’s a nice read to get an overall feeling for Final Fantasy XIV.

Eorzeapedia interview (1:20pm):
Eorzeapedia has posted an interview they had yesterday with Square Enix. Here’s some high-level points from the interview:

• The game will only be 32-bit (no 64-bit specific build or support, but it will run on 64-bit Windows)
• The in-game text translator will return.
• More talk about “Companies” for large guilds. There is mention of out-of-game company content: “You will be able to enjoy the game even if you are offline.”
• Surnames are mandatory and will have to be unique (does this mean we can’t grant surname access to others?). Once you “friend” someone, you can send a tell to them using their first name.
• No male Miqo’te at launch. They may add it later.
• No gear management system at launch to assist in equipping gear on class switch.
• MP is designed to not recover without a user action. You have to plan how you use your mana.

Stepura Creation/Gameplay Videos (4:30pm):
Stepura has posted three videos showing character creation and some gameplay from E3. Check them out: Lalafell Creation, Hyur and Miqo’te Character Creation, and Lancer Gameplay.

1Up interview (6:15pm):
1Up has posted an interview with Square Enix. They were given a few more details about “Companies”:

… players [will] be able to create and join groups called “Companies.” Similar to player guilds in other games, Companies can themselves “level up,” presumably offering additional benefits to the members therein. When asked if Companies would have shared housing or other group-owned assets, they smiled and said that players would have real-estate to call their own, but “weren’t ready to announce anything more at this time” – sounds like a “yes” to me!

FFXIV Live Report 3 from SE (8:30pm):
Square Enix has published another video from E3 to their Youtube Channel. The video shows off their booth at E3. The only information in the video was that FFXIV Alpha test will end this week and they will be begin preparing the test servers for the beta version after that.

E3 has ended (11:20pm):
The hall doors of E3 closed a few hours ago, and we have come to the end of the media blitz known as E3. We’re still hoping that Square Enix will post some Final Fantasy XIV related answer to their Fan Power Q&A. If anything is posted there, we’ll be sure to let you know.

Thanks everyone for taking part and reading our site for the last 4 days.

Dengeki interview with SE (6/18 9:45am):
(original) FFXIVCore has translated an article by Dengeki. There are some rather interesting pieces of information in this article. Check out the full interview after the break.

Day two of E3 has begun. We’re uncertain what information Square Enix may still release, but we’ll update this post as new information is released. Be sure to check out the information from day 1 of E3 if you haven’t already.

Triple Monitor and 3D (8:00am CST)
Square Enix has published a short video showing off Final Fantasy XIV being played across 3 monitors in 3D. This is most likely using 3D Vision from Nvidia.

FFXIVCore interview with SE (10:00am)
FFXIVCore has posted a short Q&A session they had with Square Enix. Square Enix wasn’t forthcoming with a lot of their answers, but they did reveal some new information.

• There is more robust Linkshell system called a “Company”. You may be able to have something like a community website with these.
• Linkshells will also be in FFXIV, along side the Company system.
• There may be something like player-owned land or shops, no details at this time.
• End-game content will focus around the story, but it is uncertain if it will be open world or in dungeons.
• No new classes announced yet, but more will be added after release. It’s unclear if more will be added before release.
• There will be an achievement type system to show off your accomplishments.
• Retainer: a new system that sounds like it will leave their character online after you exit the game (to show off your bazaar?).

11:00am: We’ve added 24 new images taken by GameWatch to our E3 gallery. Check it out. The screenshots are from the beta client, with a focus on character creation.

11:10am: Looking at the 24 new images, SE has redesigned the pop-up menu along with the stat/equipment pop-up. Check out the new one, compared to the one from alpha.

1:25pm: Added another 27 images to the E3 gallery. (source)

2:10pm: One of the larger changes in the beta client is the updated Action Menu (see the alpha action menu here). There are some new and interesting features to this dialog:

• There are 3 rows the actions that can be assigned now. Was 2 in alpha.
• The Action Points available for active abilities increases as you level. (52 in the screenshot above)
• Actions cost variable number of action points to equip. This probably means higher-level or more powerful abilities will cost more.
• Actions/Skills list their affinity now. The screenshot shows the ability Rousing Provoke has an affinity to Earth. This probably means that if your earth skill is high, you will be better at using this ability.
• A “Trait” section was added. This looks like it will let you choose what passive abilities to equip on your character.
• A “Synthesis Action” section added. It is unclear what this will be used for yet.

10:15pm: ZAM has posted a video interview with Square Enix. The questions didn’t seem to be translated all that well, but here’s what we got:

• Mid to end game content will be the story and guildleve system (at least at launch).
• They didn’t think jump was an important part of the game, so they decided not to include it. “Even if you jump around, nothing is going to happen.”
• The only UI customization at launch will be the ability the move around most/all parts of the UI. Square Enix is investigating the ability for users to create custom addons, but they are uncertain if it will be implemented.
• They didn’t add more races, as each race is another character that they have to model armor/weapons for, and it was too time consuming.

10:40pm: Famitsu has published (translated here) an interview as well. Though it’s in Japanese, we can make out a few pieces of information.

• The beta version of FFXIV is almost ready. Because of all the changes, they are working on balancing. Once that is complete they beta will launch.
• The beta should begin in the next month or so.
• Voice chat will not be included in FFXIV.
• This may be the last week of the alpha test.

The new Final Fantasy XIV trailer that we found out about a few days ago was published today for everyone’s viewing pleasure. You can watch the trailer above on Youtube, or you can view screenshots from the trailer in our gallery. Here are some of the highlights from the new trailer:

• The opening seems to show what will be Gridania.
• Goobbues are back and are attacking a city.
• The beast tribes look like they will play a major role in the story.
• The elements from conjurer’s seem to be creatures that will help you in some fashion.
• Treants are back to play.
• Moogles have been spotted!
• (UPDATE) There is a boy with horns in the new trailer that we saw a long time ago.
• Chocobo’s look to be rideable, and you may be able to summon them while out in the world.
• Miqo’te in silk underwear…
• And the closing slide: “Beta Test coming soon!”

We’re guessing there are other little hints we haven’t pointed out or found in the trailer. Have you found anything else of interest in this new trailer?

Alongside the start of E3, Square Enix partnered with Nvidia to launch the Final Fantasy XIV Official Benchmark utility. This is a 172MB utility you can download from Nvidia. The utility plays through the opening cinematic that is currently in the alpha client of FFXIV. It depicts the story of the hero riding a boat destined for the city of Limsa Lominsa. During the boat ride you have a vision of sorts, then find that the boat is under attack by creatures of the sea.

We have taken screenshots from the benchmark and posted them to a gallery.

This utility is useful to understand how well your computer will be able to handle Final Fantasy XIV once it is released. This utility uses the graphical rendering engine from Final Fantasy XIV, so it uses the same game files and everything that are currently found in the alpha client of FFXIV (but is a much smaller version than the full alpha client). You should have a score of around 1500 or higher to be able to run FFXIV smoothly on your PC. Here are a breakdown of what the different scores mean:

• [8000 and over] Extremely High Performance
  Easily capable of running the game on the highest settings.
• [5500–7999] Very High Performance
  Easily capable of running the game. Should perform exceptionally well, even at higher resolutions.
• [4500-5499] High Performance
  Easily capable of running the game. Should perform well, even at higher resolutions.
• [3000-4499] Fairly High Performance
  Capable of running the game on default settings. Consider switching to a higher resolution depending on performance.
• [2500-2999] Standard Performance
  Capable of running the game on default settings.
• [2000-2499] Slightly Low Performance
  Capable of running the game, but may experience some slowdown. Adjust settings to improve performance.
• [1500-1999] Low Performance
  Capable of running the game, but will experience considerable slowdown. Adjusting settings is unlikely to improve performance.
• [Under 1500] Insufficient Performance
  Does not meet specifications for running the game.

Note #1: if you are having problems running the benchmark (such as “d3dx9_41.dll” is missing), make sure you are running the latest version of DirectX. You can use this utility from Microsoft to update your DirectX.

Note #2: There is no full-screen mode for this benchmark. Full-screen mode will be there for the release of the game.

E3 2010 is here. We will be updating this post with all Final Fantasy XIV related news as it is released.

FFXIV Benchmark (1:30pm CST)
Nvidia has released a benchmark application for Final Fantasy XIV. Download it and give it a try yourself. The benchmark application runs through the opening sequence from the FFXIV Alpha. This is a great way to see how well your computer can handle Final Fantasy XIV.

Sony E3 Presentation (3:05pm CST)
We are over an hour into the Sony E3 presentation and Final Fantasy hasn’t been mentioned yet. We’re still watching and waiting for any news about Final Fantasy XIV. We’ll keep you updated.

3:30pm: The new Final Fantasy XIV trailer was shown, nothing else was mentioned outside of this trailer. Once the trailer is posted, we’ll get links up along with screenshots.

• A Moogle was shown (we’ll get the screenshot up ASAP).
• The Ifrit type monster was shown in motion.

4:08pm: MOOGLE!

4:15pm: New Final Fantasy XIV trailer is online. Find it here. (NOTE: This is longer than the one shown at the Sony press conference)

4:45pm: Official FFXIV Benchmark page has launched. Check it out.

4:53pm: Here is a video from Square Enix showing the new battle system.

5:15pm: The official FFXIV website has had the new trailer added to it. You can find it under “Media -> Trailers”.

6:03pm: The new trailer has been uploaded to Square Enix’s Youtube Channel.

6:05pm: We’ve updated our gallery with screenshots from the new trailer. Check it out!

6:45pm: We’ve redone the screenshots in the gallery to be higher-quality images.