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!!!!

good to see we agree on this one.

@cactus - I disagree. If this game was announced as multiplatform there would not be half the amount of hate there is here right now.

Well, FFIV is likely only coming to Japan in 2010, I would imagine and 2011 in NA (a safe bet, if not even later). Scratch that... simultaneous release, apparently. So that'd be two numbered titles in two years (plus a spin-off). That's not much of a 'milking' compared to what they did with FFX, FFX-2 and FFXI in the span of three years nor compared to what Bungie are doing with Halo in recent/upcoming years or Nintendo, with Mario. Factor this in with just how long one team has been working on FFXIII, it's not shocking to think that other projects would be catching up.

Furthermore, does it even matter? As long as it's a quality title, who cares if it's milked... and if FFXI is any indication, FFXIV will be a quality title.

OT: I, too, like many others would have preferred an single-player title, but as this was so unexpected anyhow and considering how much I enjoyed FFXI, I'm certainly not complaining.

I should remind all you sony fans that are chanting this announcement like there is no tomorrow that this game will only be a timed exclusive unless SE want to shut down those server after 1 year of release. I doubt they'll make it a 1 year timed exclusive because 1 year head start in a mmo can pretty much tell other console and pc users to stay the hell away from it.

Not too interested with this given the massive entry price of FF XI and the monthly fees.

I cant stop thinking of what jokes will fly around if FF makes it to XXX. But then again thats like 150 years away if they get that far so...

I could care less about exclusitivity. Final Fantasy XIV is what put me into over drive. I am a mega hardcore FF fan.

You're a fairly regular poster here. I would have thought you'd be aware of a large opinion of FF XI which is that it was not very welcome as a title. Many people basically wished it never got numbered at all. That right there is where the hate comes in I believe. Knock that XIV off the title and 75% of the hate goes bye bye and gets replaced with just general "I don't want this".

Here, I'll give you a few examples. VGC's recent Top 100 games voted on by the community:

(I'm not sure about the placement of the top two because the 10-1 article isn't in the system anymore for some reason, but I think that was where they were placed)

#2-Final Fantasy VII
#7-Final Fantasy VI
#11-Final Fantasy X
#32-Final Fantasy IX
#33-Final Fantasy VIII
#66-Final Fantasy IV
#83-Final Fantasy XII

Now you tell me which Final Fantasy didn't make it onto the list out of the entire Playastation era of releases. I'll give you a hint. Only one didn't make it.

Look at it's gamepage for PS2. It only has 35 owners and only 3 wall posts total. Not exactly grabbing that FF attention is it? Go to it's 360 page also. Not much better. Go to it's PC page. Again not much better. Now go to other FF games and look at the amount of comments and attention they have. Totally different animals.

It's obvious that all Final Fantasy numbered titles are not treated equal. FF XI was basically discarded as non existant by a pretty significant portion of the FF fanbase. Or it just sucked. Take your pick. What's obvious and has been for a while is that FF XI was always ignored in Final Fantasy conversations and that stems for far longer than just the last few hours. PS3 hate this is not. This is legitimate hate towards making another numbered Final Fantasy an MMO and most of that hate would have remained even if this was named multiplatform. If we polled the site two days ago and asked them whether they wanted FF XIV to be an MMO, I'm sure the massive majority opinion would have been a "hell fuck no".

The only hurdle I had was getting a HD for my PS2 in the US... dunno about Europe. Online was awesome, and I rarely experienced lag/disconnection.

It's interesting how little people are talking about how the game actually looked... I guess the thread title is pretty divisive. To me, it looked incredible. A fantasy style Final Fantasy, with graphics that finally make MMOs look good again.

Instead, the whole discussion revolves around who gets it, and who wouldn't be caught dead wanting it... super duper.

(I do understand the people wanting a single player FF -- I would prefer it too. However, doesn't mean this isn't an exciting looking game. MMOs are going to hit consoles soon, and unless Blizzard releases something real quick, I really don't see anything outdoing this.)

Wait, so if FF14 is considered an exclusive; does that mean games such as l4d:2, mass effect 2, SC: conviction, etc.. are also considered 360 exclusives?