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Version 2.0 may have a home beyond the PC and PS3.

Final Fantasy XIV has had a rough time of it. The PC version of the game was released over a year ago and didn’t review well at all. It currently has a Metacritic of 49, which is extremely low for a mainline Final Fantasy release. While the game has its fans, supporters, and apologists, the game was considered enough of a failure by Square Enix to have the development team fired, the PS3 version delayed indefinitely, and the monthly fees waived. SE didn’t stop there, however; the game is getting a massive overhaul, with “Final Fantasy XIV 2.0” expected to be released by 2013. Today, some more news has come to light on this drastic course of action.

Naoki Yoshida, the new director and producer of FF XIV (replacing Nobuaki Komoto and Hiromichi Tanaka) recently let some interesting tidbits drop in a recent interview. One of the most surprising bits was that it is possible that the team would bring Final Fantasy XIV to the Xbox 360. “Currently, as stated in the road map, we’re designing a new graphics engine to replace the one that we have,” said Yoshida. “This new engine will allow for play on broader environments. So [we’re] currently on high-spec machines only, but with this new engine, it will allow us to run the game on lower spec ones. Of course, because the game is developed on the PC, moving it to the Xbox 360 platform wouldn’t be that difficult, but as we said before, the thing we have to get done first is getting that PS3 version done. Once that’s done, we can take the next step from there. We are continuing our talks with Microsoft, but then you think, maybe next year Microsoft might be announcing their next hardware, and so our decision is do we wait for that next hardware? So we’re going to wait and see what’s happening after we delivered what we’ve promised.”

While that’s not the most definite answer that Yoshida could have given, when asked about their decision to release FF XIV for the PS3 instead of waiting for Sony’s next console, he had this to say: “By releasing on the PS3, even if a new system is close, you’re going to get that big market of people who already have the PS3. By releasing on the PS4 instead, you’re going to lose those numbers, because only a small amount of people have it. Also, we’ve made people wait so long, so we want to offer this at a low cost. By offering it to the PS3, we’re able to keep those costs down to ensure that the maximum number of players that want to play it can play the game. That’s what’s important.” It should be noted that former Final Fantasy XIV producer Hiromichi Tanaka wanted to release the game on the 360 before, but the closed nature of Xbox Live was proving to be problematic.

When asked about the possibility of a PlayStation Vita release, Yoshida was much more forthcoming and responded with a definite yes, and upped the ante with talk of smart phone support. “…currently this is all post-2.0, but because we’re doing a reconstruction of our server system, in those plans, we’re going to make sure that the servers can be accessed by outside devices such as smart phones. Not just the Vita, but also smart phones, so that kind of access will be allowed. What that will open the door to is things like applications that people can used to check their inventory, or check the market and purchase things from the auctions. Those are the things we are laying for in our server foundation, so we can be ready to implement those after 2.0.”

Final Fantasy XIV has recently received the first of more regular patches, and the game now includes such series mainstays as airships and chocobos. The game will begin charging its monthly fee around November or December, and the beta for the PlayStation 3 version of Final Fantasy XIV 2.0 should occur in about a year, with the full release of the game to be sometime in 2013. We’ll keep you informed of all the developments in this turn of events.