Members of the development team behind the eagerly anticipated FFXIV answer questions from the PlayStation community at gamescom.
Are you planning additional content downloads for Final Fantasy XIV as in other MMOs? (balpares, France)
First of all, as it is an MMO, we will be providing free updates constantly every few months. In terms of bigger updates, we plan to have additional discs which people will be able to purchase separately as an add-on. We will also look into the possibility of providing this as a download for the full version of the game itself. If players are not used to MMOs, they may think that these downloads only add a little to the game but actually, because it’s an MMO, these updates will make a huge difference to the gameplay.
Could you explain to us the Final Fantasy XIV subscription process on PS3? (Hadrien1991, France)
It will be exactly the same as the PC version. It’s a web based system and you will pay a monthly subscription to play the game.
Is there going to be a Final Fantasy XIV Collector's Edition for PS3? (Darthzone, Italy)
Yes, we are planning this.
Will Final Fantasy XIV be available in Italian or Spanish? (faveroleone, Italy, kron-ragnarok, Spain)
Our current plan is to support the title in English, French, German and Japanese. If there are a lot of requests from other language players then we will look into this
Will there be guest appearances by other FF characters in FFXIV? (kall-heinz, Germany)
You will probably find as you play the game that, coincidentally, some of the characters might have the same name and you might recognize them. We may also add some characters secretly in the future.
Is FFXIV going to have any offline modes? (vaan97, Spain)
There will not be any offline modes.
Apparently, FFXIV is going to share game servers between PS3 and PC users. Are those going to be able to play against each other? If so, how are you going to manage the gap of experience created due to different release dates? (Raine7, Spain)
Because it’s a cross-platform game, you will be able to switch between the PS3 and PC versions as you want, so you can start with the PC version and then switch to the PS3 version: it’s really up to the players. In terms of experience, you will be able to switch your class whenever you want, and so we don’t think the gap between the releases will affect the players.
What are going to be the main differences Final Fantasy XIV players will face in this new online adventure? (Kilno, Spain)
For those who never played Final Fantasy XI before, it will be a new online experience. Especially for Final Fantasy XIV we designed the game so that people who have never played online games before can enjoy it easily. So, from the start we have lots of cutscenes and the story will be easy to pick up so you can get involved even if you’ve never played an online game before. For people who played Final Fantasy XI before, we have learned a lot from that title, both on the positive and negative side. So we are going to improve the game experience and we hope you enjoy it.
How are you guys going to handle the trophies? Will it be as hard as Final Fantasy XI? (ShadowhunterrX, Netherlands)
When we worked on the previous version, it was new to us as well so we got a lot of questions about this and we are aware it was quite difficult. So this time we are going to make sure trophies will be more accessible, while at the same time keeping some difficult ones for more experienced players.
While we were there, eu.playstation.com took the opportunity to ask the team about support for PlayStation Move and stereoscopic 3D and here’s what they had to say.
We don’t have any plans at the moment to support PS Move. If there are lots of requests for this we will look into it. One of the reasons is that people use a keyboard to communicate with other players and it would be quite difficult to switch between this and the motion controller. As for 3D, we are looking at a number of possibilities regarding this technology on the PC version and we still haven’t decided whether we are going to support it or not. For the PS3 version, we would definitely like to try it out.
Thank you to Hiromichi Tanaka, senior vice president software development, Nobuaki Komoto, game director, and Sage Sundi, global online producer, for taking the time out from their busy schedules to answer your questions, and keep an eye on eu.playstation.com for more information on Final Fantasy in the run-up to the game’s release in early 2011.
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