Square Enix Ltd, the recently reorganised European division of the giant Japanese publisher, has announced that massively multiplayer title Final Fantasy XI will be available across Europe in September.
The title, which already has over half a million subscribers in Japan and the USA, will arrive for the PC platform along with the Chains of Promarthia expansion pack - which will cost extra for Japanese and US players, but will be bundled free with the European version of the game, as will the first expansion, Rise of the Zilart.
This will be the first title to be self-published by Square Enix in Europe; the company recently began a major expansion program in the area, and last week formally announced that formr Atlus USA president and CEO John Yamamoto is set to take over the reins of the European division.
No news has yet been forthcoming concerning the PS2 version of Final Fantasy XI in Europe; it was launched in the USA earlier this year, along with the PS2 hard drive, but with no sign of the hard drive ever being officially launched in Europe, the future of the PS2 title seems uncertain in this territory.
Like their Japanese and American counterparts, FFXI players in Europe will share a set of global servers - allowing them to play alongside players from other countries and continents. It's not yet known whether the European version of the game will extend the automatic translation system, which currently only translates between English and Japanese, to cover other major languages.
News source: Gamesindustry.biz
