Final Fantasy XI released in Japan

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By Fennec Fox

(IDG) -- Final Fantasy XI (FFXI) has launched in Japan, an event the Japanese game industry had been looking forward to with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation for the last several months. FFXI's first day on the shelf went by without a hitch, but very little actual gameplay took place thanks to busy servers and long waits to log in to the online game.

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Game magazine Famitsu covered the scene last Thursday at the Yodobashi Camera game store in Shinjuku, the downtown area of Tokyo. Nearly 100 gamers were lined up at the door when the store finally opened, and Yodobashi ended up completely selling out their shipment of FFXI packages within a half hour. The game store also had a corner set up for the Japanese PlayStation broadband unit, which includes a built-in hard driver and is required to play FFXI in Japan.

Square celebrated FFXI's release by printing a full-page "Citizens Wanted" advertisement in the national Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. "Today," said the ad, "we are launching a new world. As part of this operation, we are searching for new citizens to live in this world. Interested persons are invited to join us, following the guidelines below." Requirements listed include a PS2 and "an inquisitive mind."

However, gamers trying to visit the online world of Vanad'iel on the launch date spent most of the day watching PlayOnline's ubiquitous progress meter flash on their TV screens. Square's FFXI servers buckled under the weight of thousands of users trying to create accounts at the same time. The game ended up going down completely in the wee hours of the morning, doubtlessly annoying Final Fantasy fans who stayed up all night trying to get online. Square apologized for the problems and promised the game will be back up and available as soon as possible, proving that not even the king of console RPGs is immune to online game server problems.

Final Fantasy XI is tentatively scheduled for American release in 2003. Square has publicly announced that the game won't be shown at all during this week's Electronic Entertainment Expo. Here's hoping they'll have something to show non-Japanese FF fanatics before the end of the year.