Rumor: FFXIV beta may begin by September

by Kyle Horner Jun 22nd 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: New titles, News items, Rumors, Final Fantasy XIV

Ah, rumors. We know the game was just announced, but there are three major reasons this rumor carries some weight. For one, Final Fantasy XIV has a 2010 release date, which makes sense considering the development team claims to have been working on the game for nearly five years now. Also, the dev team has expressed that they'd like to have a longer beta than the one Final Fantasy XI had -- one which was only around four months long.

The biggest piece of information regarding this rumor is its source -- discovered by newly built fansite Eorzeapedia -- of several Square Enix Europe job listings for new game testers and game masters. The listing is very clear that any applicants are required to have "good knowledge" of Final Fantsy XI, which ostensibly already has these jobs filled. If new people are being hired, it means the more seasoned team are being shifted to the developer's other MMO, namely Final Fantasy XIV. According to those listings, the new game masters begin work in early September.

Loose reasoning? Maybe just a little, but when considering the release date, development time and this new information it all seems to make sense. We'd love to get our hands on some FFXIV beta action any time this year, especially as early as September, so here's hoping it's true!

Tags: beta, eorzea, eorzeapedia, ffxi, ffxiv, final-fantasy, final-fantasy-xi, final-fantasy-xiv, rumor, rumors, september, square-enix

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Tom said on 9:59AM 6-22-2009

Isn't this an image from Aion?

doubletake said on 10:13AM 6-22-2009

no it's from the ffXIV trailer

Arkanaloth said on 10:24AM 6-22-2009

while I'd love to be able to dive into the FFXIV beta, I'll not hold my breath.

just hoping it releases spring 2010 instead of fall or winter 2010.

Hypester said on 10:41AM 6-22-2009

If their main QA team are officially off FFXI in September, doesn't mean that's the beginning of Alpha testing?

Green Armadillo said on 3:14PM 6-22-2009

That was my take on this as well - sounds more like a ramp up for internal alpha testing than a start of external beta testing.

Kai said on 8:02PM 8-28-2009

The game was described by a number of Japanese fan sites as in alpha during Gamescom. If that were the case, then Square Enix will be mostly looking for player input during the beta process (supposedly in the following months). This also supports the theory of the longer beta testing period. Here are all of the FFXIV Gamescom videos arranged by uploader. http://www.ffxivcitadel.com/first-playable-preview-t10.html

CindyL said on 11:13AM 6-22-2009

Well I don't think I'll be watching out for this, but it sure does point to a release sometime next year and that's nothing but good news. :)

Heavytoka said on 12:47PM 6-22-2009

I would love to get into this beta

UltimateQ said on 1:18PM 6-22-2009

Cool stuff if this is accurate.

fa11en1992 said on 9:47AM 7-04-2009

hey does anyone know how or where i could get in on this beta testing thing?

please excuse my lack of knowledge on this subject i dont know as much about gaming and electronics as i want to but any advise/aid or information i could get about this would be really appriciated

p.s. anyone know if FFXIV will be playable on pc?