Not as of yet, but the general idea is around June or so I would imagine. They start beta roughly the end of Jan/early Feb.

Yeah for being in alpha stage still, it does look nice.

Wow... those screenshots look really nice. The fact that these are screenshots of the game at only its alpha stage is stunning. Now, if the rest of the game's features (e.g. gameplay, no bugs, etc.) are as good as these screenshots.

Want to see something even more ridiculous? Check these babies out:

sweet find!

When I saw squid face, that is just yelling out to me, Blue Mage. lol

Soulflayers SUCKED in XI. I hate them.

@ Wagram

Thanks for the additional screenshots. Holy crap, these screenshots look amazing and the gameplays looks promising, as well.

Looks awesome. Time to get some info on release dates!

Unfortunately for you and non-current Final Fantasy XIV players (we current players get priority), next week is the start of open/global Alpha gameplay, so we are expecting confirmation emails allowing us to play the game. HOWEVER, we are NOT able to take screenshots and upload them online due to confidentiality and non-disclosure acts. We can't even tell you people if we are playing the game

Read a translated interview that had some interesting information in it. Apparently the animation blending hasn't been placed in the alpha, and neither have higher levels of physics. That may be one of the reasons that so far we see that crap running animation.