Looking forward to Final Fantasy XIV? You’ll have to pay for it, as producer Hiromichi Tanaka confirms that the title will use the standard MMOG subscription model.
Despite the growing popularity of the Free-to-Play model for Massive Multiplayer Online games, it still hasn’t quite conquered the market yet. So, saying that your AAA-class MMOG will run on the subscription model, where players pay monthly in order to access the servers, is about as surprising as saying that your upcoming FPS will use the trigger buttons to shoot things.
Still, for all twelve of you out there hoping that Square-Enix might let you play its upcoming MMOJRPG Final Fantasy XIV without forking over money past the initial purchase, sorry to dash your hopes – the game’s producer Hiromichi Tanaka confirmed to VG247 at Gamescom that the game would run on a subscription model: “It’s going to be 30 days-based subscription,” he said.
Of course, given how much time you get out of your average MMOG per month, the standard 15 bucks/month is actually pretty good deal as far as hour-per-dollar ratio goes, especially when you’re getting a game that’s constantly updated. So it’s hard to imagine this as a deal-breaker for much of the populace who’d have been interested in the first place.
FF14 is expected to be released for PS3, PC, and presumably the Xbox 360 as well – assuming the talks with Microsoft go well – so most core gamers will have a shot at venturing around Square’s oddly-named fantasy world once it hits in late 2010. As long as you don’t mind ponying up a subscription fee, that is.
