Did you know that Final Fantasy XI, Square Enix’s highly popular 19 years old MMORPG, was supposed to be getting a mobile port? Well, if you don’t, you do now! And if you are excited about it, well, don’t. As the headline stated, the plan for it has gone into thin air.
According to Gamebiz.jp, Square Enix first announced that it is cooperating with Nexon for the joint project way back in March 2015. They were planning to release the mobile version of the Final Fantasy XI MMORPG for Japan and South Korea in 2016. However, development kept continued on without significant results; with the release windows coming and going. Although it’s still listed in the company’s November 2020 development pipeline, a month later, Nexon silently shut down and moved the development team away to other projects. Nexon CEO Owen Mahony later confirmed that the work has ceased development since it failed to “reach expectations from a creative perspective.”
First debuted in 2002 for PC and PS2 (and later for Xbox 360 in 2006), Final Fantasy XI is still being updated. Its latest content update was an episodic story series titled The Voracious Resurgence, added in September 2020. It also got a Japanese-exclusive free-to-play online multiplayer spin-off Final Fantasy Grandmasters on iOS and Android that run from October 2015 to April 2019.
While it is quite unfortunate that we lost a Final Fantasy game for the mobile platform, Square Enix still has tricks up its sleeve. The company is currently developing Final Fantasy VII The First Soldier, a battle royale title that serves as a prequel to the Final Fantasy VII Remake; and another remake of Cloud’s adventure with an episodic-release, called Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis. Both games are coming to iOS and Android. Other Square Enix-published titles — particularly Just Cause, Tomb Raider, and Hitman — are also getting brand new smartphone treatments sometime this year. Will you be trying them all out? Stay tuned to The Nerd Stash for more news and information about Square Enix or upcoming Final Fantasy games.
