Final Fantasy XI is by no means the highest profile online role-playing game on the market, but despite its arduous difficulty when compared to newer games in the genre, as well is its near eight full years of operation, it still boasts a considerable (and profitable) subscriber base just shy of 500,000. It’s knowing those numbers that made the recent rumors that the game would be shut down upon the release of Final Fantasy XIV — XI’s multiplayer successor — just a little startling, but it seems that Square Enix President Yoichi Wada has taken it upon himself to put a stop to the spread of this particular fabrication.
“There seems to be some rumor that FFXI is ending,” Wada broadcasted over his personal Twitter feed. “But, if that was done, we’d be in trouble.” The actual quote in Japanese can be found at the bottom of this post.
This obviously stands as welcome news for the hundreds of thousands of players dedicated to Square’s debut MMORPG title. As showcased in earlier examples such as EverQuest and its 2004 sequel, it’s likely that quite a large number of these subscribers will opt out of making the jump from one game to the next, or that many of them will be willing to continue paying for their Final Fantasy XI account even while playing XIV as a method of avoiding the loss of so much work.
Final Fantasy XIV Online is scheduled to release this year for the PlayStation 3 and PC.