Topic summary
Final Fantasy XI
Final Fantasy XI, also known as Final Fantasy XI Online, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), originally developed and published by Square and then published by Square Enix as the eleventh main installment of the Final Fantasy series. Designed and produced by Hiromichi Tanaka, it was released in Japan on May 16, 2002, for PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Windows-based personal computers in November of that year. The game was the first MMORPG to offer cross-platform play between PlayStation 2 and Windows. It was later released for the Xbox 360 in April 2006. All versions of the game require a monthly subscription to play.
The story is set in the fantasy world of Vana'diel, where player-created avatars can both compete and cooperate in a variety of objectives to develop an assortment of job & skills, and earn in-game item rewards. Players can undertake an array of quests and progress through the in-game hierarchy and through the major plot of the game. Since its debut in 2002, five expansion packs have been released along with eight add-on scenarios. Each expansion pack and add-on brings a new major storyline to the Final Fantasy XI world, along with numerous areas, quests, events and item rewards.
In 2015, Square Enix released the final main scenario for Final Fantasy XI, titled Rhapsodies of Vana'diel. Final Fantasy XI became the final active server on the PlayStation 2 online service. Support for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 versions ended on March 31, 2016, leaving only the PC platform playable. A mobile client for the game was under development by Square Enix in collaboration with Korean developer Nexon, using Unreal Engine 4, but was cancelled in late 2020. A spin-off mobile game, Final Fantasy Grandmasters was released on September 30, 2015. A new, episodic story series titled The Voracious Resurgence was added to the game in 2020. In May 2022 rumors circulated that FFXI might soon shut down, but Yoji Fujito released a statement noting that this was not the case and users should not worry about the services being shut down any time soon.
In 2025, a surge in new players, roughly coinciding with the release of the Echoes of Vana'diel raids within Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, has resulted in overpopulation in several game servers ("worlds"). As a result, the server Asura was closed off for new characters on July 29, 2025, followed by Bahamut on October 9, 2025, Odin on March 10, 2026, and Phoenix on June 10, 2026. As of June 2026, those servers remain closed off. New characters cannot be created on these servers, except for secondary characters on accounts that already have a character on the same server, and existing characters cannot be transferred to those servers using the world transfer service.