Xbox players are about to get the best version of Final Fantasy 14
The hugely popular MMO unveiled its brand new expansion at the Final Fantasy 14 Fan Festival in Las Vegas, with the announcement being joined by one of the most requested features to the game – Xbox support.
Final Fantasy 14 is a behemoth (pun not intended) in the MMORPG space, arguably being the only game in the genre to come close to knocking Blizzard's World of Warcraft off the top of the mountain. Final Fantasy conquering Warcraft could come sooner than later as the game is now opening up to a further 21 million players with Square Enix's announcement that the critically acclaimed MMO is finally coming to Xbox Series X|S.
Final Fantasy 14 first launched back on PC in 2010, before being rebooted in 2013 as Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn following negative reception. Unlike the original version, A Realm Reborn launched on PS3 and PC to universal acclaim, and since then the title has remained a PlayStation console exclusive, with PS4 and PS5 versions of the game arriving soon after those consoles launched.
PlayStation players started their Final Fantasy 14 experience with the rebooted A Realm Reborn experience, which is far from a bad place to start – unlike PC players who started out with the awful original version. Meanwhile, Final Fantasy 14 hits Xbox with the rebooted base game, but all four expansions to date including Heavensward, Stormblood, Shadowbringers, and Endwalker. This undoubtedly makes the Final Fantasy 14 Xbox version the best one that's been available at launch.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer has been dedicated to getting the game onto his platform, going as far back to the company's one-off X019 showcase event. In a pre-show press panel, Spencer said, (via Eurogamer) "I've been dedicated to, working with [director] Yoshida-san to find a solution to bring that game to Xbox."
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He reiterated this sentiment last year in an interview with Japanese publication Game Watch, saying (via Google Translate) "we haven’t given up yet. This is a commitment from both Microsoft and Square Enix to gamers and we will continue to coordinate our efforts".
Almost ten years after the launch of Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn, Spencer has kept his word, joining Takashi Kiryu and Naoki Yoshida in Las Vegas to confirm a Final Fantasy 14 Xbox release in Spring 2024 with an open beta kicking off alongside patch 6.5 – called Growing Light – which is set to release in October 2023. Xbox One players won't be included, unfortunately.
A Realm Reborn again
Not only was a Final Fantasy 14 Xbox version announced, but Square Enix also revealed a brand new expansion called Dawntrail. The new content will take the story to the western continent of Tural (or the New World as it's also known), and introduces two new jobs – a melee, and ranged DPS. Given the summery feel of the expansion and the sailing featured in the trailer, players are speculating that one of these new jobs will be the Corsair which was a pirate-themed class first introduced in the series' other MMO Final Fantasy 11.
Not only is a Final Fantasy 14 Xbox version coming, and a Dawntrail new expansion, but Square Enix has also announced that the game will be getting a graphical overhaul as welll. Character hair and gear alongside shaders and high-res textures for environments and dungeons will launch with the 7.0 update in Summer 2024.
Best of all, the latest batch of news also revealed that the generous free trial will be extended to include Stormblood as well as Heavensward.
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