After the disastrous Final Fantasy XIV closed its server doors in September, there was little hope that Square-Enix would produce another MMORPG. The past two online RPG's from their staple series "Final Fantasy" have been all but failures with rapidly declining subscribers, poor game support, and quite honestly the most flawed subscription method I had encountered from any subscription-based game. The UI to pay for this game was just plain awful and it received negative criticism from all angles. It seems XIV won't be their final fantasy as they announce they have closed beta for their rework of their last incarnation.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn will be released for PC and Playstation 3 at some point in 2013 after a beta test of multiple phases is complete. While the first two phases are only for PC players, Playstation 3 owners will get to try it out starting the third phase of four. In addition, the beta is closed to a certain amount of users for the first three phases and will be open to everyone in the fourth phase. The title has been completely overhauled with only the lore and storyline remaining untouched and the new version promises to bring some light to the end of a rather large dark tunnel for the series. You can read the beta test road map detailing the game and what Square-Enix hopes to accomplish here. I'm personally excited to be honest as the development team has completely changed and will hopefully be bringing some fresh ideas to the table. Rest assured that I will get myself a beta key and will let you all know what its like as soon as I can get my hands on it. Fingers crossed it won't be as dissapointing as the last two titles.
