This will be really huge in Japan because
1. It is very very similar to Monster Hunter. It has a medieval and fantasy setting to it. You can see a leviathan-like monster attacking the group and you see a guy riding on a chocobo.
2. You can go online and that is the craze that is sweeping Japan with online co-op and play
3. It is a main Final Fantasy title.
4. The PS3 is set up from the box to go online unlike the PS2.
5. If there is only a fee to buy the game and online play is free, this game can probably explode over the sales of Monster Hunter 2G. If not, it will probably still do very good in Japan.
For the international community, online gaming has changed significantly since the introduction of Xbox Live and PSN. Final Fantasy XI was released at a time when online support was not generally received well both by players and developers and it was not embraced warmly. Turn to today, 2009, you can see that players and developers almost everywhere have embraced online support very generously. Developers are striving to always include some form of online play in their games and since Final Fantasy XIV is meant to be online, there will be a generous form of support from Square Enix and I am sure the support will last for at least the general life span of a MMORPG.
It is purely suggestion since it has not been certified to have a monthly fee, but if there are no monthly fee, I suspect that a lot more people than we can imagine will likely embrace the online game very warmly.
On a personal thought, I cant wait for this!!!!







