New FFXI expansion announced

By Simon Parkin Published 15 May, 2007

Wings of the Goddess.

Final Fantasy XI is to get another expansion pack later this year, Square-Enix has announced.

Called Wings of the Goddess, the expansion is slated for release this coming Winter and will be released simultaneously for PC, PS2 and Xbox 360 in all territories.

So far, details on the expansion are scant, but the creators have released a video displaying lots of clues of what to expect.

PlayStation 3 owners hoping for a port of the game will be disappointed, though, as series director Koichi Ogawa told Eurogamer this week that the game won't be coming to the new Sony console, estimating that to port it over appropriately would take between four and five years.

Spanish and Italian players will also be feeling left out, Ogawa confirmed, despite Square-Enix's recent localisation push which saw the game translated for German and French audiences.

"It took us around a year and a half to add German and French translations to the game as it was only ever designed to display Japanese and English. Sadly we don't have the time to do the same localisation job for Spanish and Italian users as there simply aren't enough subscribers from those regions."

Ogawa added: "As we do all of the localisation here in Japan it's also often a struggle to find translators in these languages who are able to work with us for such a long period of time." So now you know which GCSEs to do.

Meanwhile Ogawa dismissed suggestions that demand for the game was on the wane, with subscriber levels still around the half a million mark. "Currently only around ten or twenty people each month leave the game worldwide, and this is usually offset by newcomers."

"There's always an explosion of use over the holidays in each territory and players usually drop of around the end of the month before their credit card bill gets paid off," he added.

Picture of Simon.

About Simon Parkin

Simon Parkin is an author and journalist on video games. A regular contributor to Eurogamer since 2005, his work has also appeared in Edge, The Telegraph, Gamasutra and Boing Boing.

Read more articles from Simon by visiting the Simon Parkin archive page.

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Comments (6) Latest comment 5 years ago

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

  • Salvia #1 5 years ago

    Oh, FFXI how I miss you...I ran off with that tart WoW leaving your sophisticated charms for the shallowness of looks alone.
    Can you ever forgive me?

  • locus2k1 #2 5 years ago

    I found there wasn't enough Europeans on Fenrir server to start up End-game events... I value my sleep now, cant go to Sky/Sea till 5am 3 nights a week with the Americans anymore. Quit last year.

    Only Playing Casually now on Valfore Server when not on WoW.

    Also, from what I've seen of the trailer, looks like its "Old Areas, but different Timelines" ... Sounds Familiar...

    Oh well, back to work.

  • Hypercube #3 5 years ago

    I do miss my FFXI Paladin sometimes... With a decent group it was very good fun. I don't miss the XP penalties, hours waiting for PUGs and mobs that followed you to the zone boundary before giving up.

    It did some things very well, and other very frustratingly. I'll be interested in seeing how it is these days, I hope they do a free trial thing.

  • locus2k1 #4 5 years ago

    Well some mobs now do give up after a certain distance, xp penalties aren't as bad as they use to be. They have improved a bit, but Gil Selling and the monopolisation of certain items is still pretty bad.

    Fortunately a lot of the real bad ones are now Rare/EX (peacock charm, leaping boots, and emperor hairpin for example, the NMs now drop R/E alternatives while BCNMs drop the normaly), but its forced RMT to now go and monopolise Sky... It was about then i quit. Once all Sky NMs are force pop i might think of attempting to re-create an European End-game Linkshell again.

    EDIT: also signet gives eva + acc bonus against EM and below mobs, and allows you to rest without losing TP.... oh and PLDs now have auto-refresh at 35 i think
    Edited by 1 at 15/05/07 @ 11:24

  • Keso #5 5 years ago

    "Oh, FFXI how I miss you...I ran off with that tart WoW leaving your sophisticated charms for the shallowness of looks alone.
    Can you ever forgive me?"

    This is what I did, I played this for years. I loved my Dark Knight and could damage deal with the best of them, but it was the hours of 'LFG' that killed it for me in the end.

    If they do another 'return to...' jobbie, I may get it for the 360 (my HD is just full of crap demos anywho).

  • The12thMonkey #6 5 years ago

    Ulli went forced pop in the last version update, along with a load of other land NMs (not the kings), Signet got altered to aid leveling in groups of less than 6, prices are coming down for Limbus and Outpost Warps in the next version update, it's all go in Vana'diel at the moment.