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What simply occurred? Ultimate Fantasy XI was the primary massively multiplayer on-line entry within the iconic JRPG collection. Remarkably, it is nonetheless being actively performed in the present day – a lot in order that the builders not too long ago needed to quickly droop new account registrations resulting from a surge in participant visitors.
Ultimate Fantasy XI was additionally the primary on-line RPG to supply cross-platform play between PlayStation 2 consoles and Home windows PCs. Regardless of requiring a month-to-month subscription, FFXI stays remarkably in style. A surge in participant exercise, from each returning veterans and newcomers, has put a pressure on the servers, prompting Sq. Enix to take non permanent however drastic measures to deal with the problem.
Yoji Fujito, who has served as FFXI’s director since 2016, not too long ago shared a written replace on the sport’s official web site. Sq. Enix is taking action to ease extreme visitors congestion on Asura, the sport’s most populated server.
Some servers at the moment are internet hosting extra gamers than supposed, resulting in “surprising” efficiency points and a degraded gameplay expertise. Asura, particularly, has been closely impacted. Consequently, Sq. Enix has quickly suspended new character creation on the server. Moreover, gamers can not switch present characters to Asura or use the Vana’diel Adventurer Recruitment Program to hitch mates there.
The Japanese developer will proceed monitoring the scenario and the variety of concurrent customers, with the objective of restoring full performance to the Asura server quickly. Fujito confirmed that the studio continues to be creating new content material and revising legacy belongings, all whereas striving to maintain the sport’s on-line surroundings accessible to gamers around the globe.
However how precisely does a PS2-era MMORPG proceed to draw and retain a big participant base greater than 20 years later?
A part of FFXI’s enduring popularity stems from periodic discount campaigns aimed toward attracting new gamers. The regular addition of recent content material – and the cautious transforming of older techniques – has additionally performed a key function. On prime of that, the Ultimate Fantasy XIV raid collection impressed by FFXI seemingly inspired some followers to revisit or uncover the unique 2002 MMO for the primary time.
In the end, the continued success of this traditional MMO displays a markedly totally different philosophy from that of many Western AAA publishers. Ubisoft’s CEO, for example, recently said that no sport expertise is everlasting, suggesting that on-line providers will inevitably be shut down.
Again in 2022, responding to rumors of an impending shutdown, Fujito took a unique stance, stating clearly that Ultimate Fantasy XI will not be going anyplace anytime quickly.
