FFXIV open beta in early September

By Oli Welsh Published 24 August, 2010

Closed beta ends tomorrow.

Square Enix has announced that its next MMO, Final Fantasy XIV, will go into open beta in early September.

This will follow the closure of the current closed beta test tomorrow, 25th August.

The news was made public on the game's official Twitter.

The game will then be released at the end of September, with a special edition offering early access on 22nd September, and general release on the 30th. That's the PC version - it's been delayed until March next year on PS3 for technical reasons.

We've been spending a fair bit of time in the closed beta recently, and we'll have a preview for you soon.

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About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (28) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • rodpad #1 1 year ago

    Open as in completely open, ala a free trial?

  • ZuluHero #2 1 year ago

    "Open" as in a stress test, but still a beta. Places might still be limited.

  • rodpad #3 1 year ago

    Hopefully they'll be generous with keys in this open beta as they were with Warhammer - albeit without the broken sign up page.

  • Vanmunt #4 1 year ago

    Ordered the CE Edition... what sad life I had is now over.

  • berelain #5 1 year ago

    Does that mean we can actually talk about the closed beta and the NDA is lifted tomorrow?

  • ZuluHero #6 1 year ago

    Me too! Hoping the community is as great as XI though...

    Edit: @Vanmunt obviously! :p
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 09:38

  • rodpad #7 1 year ago

    Have Square Enix announced how many servers there will be in each region?

  • SClaw #8 1 year ago

    NDA for everything but video has been lifted for two weeks. You can talk about it and post all the images you like. Just no moving pictures!

    rodpad: There are no regions. It's global servers. And I think there are twelve at present I think... maybe more at launch I guess.
    Edited by 1 at 24/08/10 @ 09:54

  • ZuluHero #9 1 year ago

    I'm glad they've opted for that and followed what they did with XI - its really nice to get communities from all over the world, rather than a from a single region/area.

    Plus you end up with a more even spread of population throughout the day, rather than just at "peak times".

  • rodpad #10 1 year ago

    SClaw - Fantastic. We'll have to get an EG guild going at some point.

  • Hypercube #11 1 year ago

    Pre-ordered the CE, and I've applied for the closed beta a bunch of times with no success :(

    I wouldn't mind giving the open beta a crack, but then again it might be interesting to start playing it on launch day with the game being completely new!

    I for one am also interested in an EG guild should one arise! I've been waiting for this to come out for ages, and other MMOs have not sufficiently filled the gap.

  • SClaw #12 1 year ago

    Count me in for an EG linkshell!

  • Vanmunt #13 1 year ago

    @HYPER

    Gave the beta a complete miss, beta's are not all that great in my opinion.. count me in for the EG linkshell as well, make sure something is up and running before game is out so we can join the same servers!!

  • Hypercube #14 1 year ago

    @Vanmunt - I know exactly what you mean, with Aion I'd already played the newbie area so many times in beta by the time I managed to log in at release.

    But it might be interesting to give a few different classes a go before jumping in at retail. Having said that, the hybridisation available in XIV means that I won't be having that "I chose the wrong class!" feeling I've had in other MMOs ;)

  • AidyD #15 1 year ago

    What do you guys reckon are the chances that your allowed to keep your character from open beta through to official release? With f2p games its not a big deal... But as this will be going P2P I expect everything will be completely wiped.

  • Spekingur #16 1 year ago

    Can anyone tell me if the game controls like XI or like other MMOs?

  • SClaw #17 1 year ago

    Characters will be wiped.

    Controls are sort of like XI... but with some mouse support. It's not very good mouse support at the moment but I don't have any problems with it given that it's a beta. Xbox controller works very well... which is amusing considering it'll never see the inside of an xbox. Either way there is a learning curve - this ain't no western MMO.

  • SleepyMagpie #18 1 year ago

    Please be good.

  • crazyhorse174 #19 1 year ago

    Got picked for the closed beta - downloaded the client and played it once. Couldnt get into at all - very clunky. It'll change before its released, but its not for me.

  • Kafeen #20 1 year ago

    Characters are getting wiped, but you're supposed be to able to save your data from (appearance and name) from the open beta.

  • ZuluHero #21 1 year ago

    OOI, Is it like 11, but with a better questing and mission system?

    If so /heaven

  • Kafeen #22 1 year ago

    Completely different combat, job system and crafting system.

  • ZuluHero #23 1 year ago

    ...that didn't answer my question about proper quests ;)

  • allen #24 1 year ago

    Not sure how they managed to make using a mouse so bad. Felt horrible trying to control the camera. Guess it will do well on the PS3

  • login_name #25 1 year ago

    A lot of content was missing from beta so it's kinda hard to say if questing will be better. The story mission they had in there was pretty good but i'm not a massive fan of the leve quests. They're ok as filler quests or for something to quickly knock out if you're short of time but not as a primary form of questing or levelling. I'm looking forward to open beta to see what gets added.

    It's an odd game for me. I've never been so frustrated playing a game but i've also never been so compelled to return and try again. It plays ok with mouse and keyboard, but it's obvious it was designed with the controller in mind. It's actually a nice change of pace using the controller.

  • Nephirion #26 1 year ago

    I can't imagine raiding on a controller ...

  • Pellinore99 #27 1 year ago

    I'm in the closed beta, and I like it a lot - I think its going to be quite different from XI that I'm used to as well. There are things that needs to be fixed, most that have already been mentioned. How they can fix all before going Gold is anyone's guess.

    But I'm being optimistic, and I'd like an EG shell as well, that would be fun!

  • bemaniac #28 1 year ago

    the beta ran like crap on a 4870x2 and it was less fun than conan.