Final Fantasy XIV’s open beta window for Xbox has been revealed.
The official Final Fantasy XIV Twitter account shared this message:
“Mark your calendars #Xbox fans!
The #FFXIV Xbox Series X|S open beta test is scheduled to begin mid-January to February!”
That’s a few months away, but for the avid Xbox enjoyer, that should give them sufficient time to play through whatever games they had on backlog and clear up enough space to download Final Fantasy XIV.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, once Final Fantasy XIV launches on Summer 2024, Xbox players will get to play through the Extended Free Trial, as is already available for PC and PlayStation players. That means they can play all the way through level 70 for free before having to pay the monthly subscription. Level 70 is more than enough for skilled players to finish the base game, as well as the Heavensward and Stormblood expansions.
The Xbox Series X version will be able to output to 4K. However, unique to both the Xbox Series X and S versions are fast load times, enabled by the Xbox’s unique hardware. Because of the obvious technical limitations of an online multiplayer game, Microsoft was not able to enable Quick Resume, but it’s impressive tech nonetheless. Xbox may turn out to be the easiest platform for Final Fantasy XIV to pick up and play the game.
Microsoft and Square Enix announced that the online game would be coming to Xbox consoles just last July. It was a very strong move on Microsoft’s part, as the platform holder has struggled to make headway in the Japanese market because of a lack of Japanese games.
We know that Microsoft hasn’t quite gotten Square Enix committed to releasing all their Final Fantasy games on Xbox alongside other platforms, but Phil Spencer still seems optimistic. Just last month, he revealed in an interview that Microsoft is actually working with Japanese game companies to make games for Xbox right now.
Those titles have not been announced for Xbox yet, but they very well may include games we already know about. Microsoft has also started receiving support from Sega with their Like A Dragon and Persona games, so we may very well see Xbox’s Japanese game library keep on expanding in the months and years to come. It makes a good complement to their now solid library of Western RPGs from their recently acquired studio, Bethesda.
