FFXIV Alpha Going Live End of October; Original FFXIV Preserved

[Andromeda]

In the most recent letter from the producer to the fans of FFXIV, Naoki Yoshida gives new details about the future of FFXIV. The first bit of news is that the Alpha test for A Realm Reborn is going to be starting around the end of the October. A specific date has not been stated yet, but it is coming soon. He has also stated that the test will include more than just a stress test, but the core of the new systems as well. So alpha testers can look forward to a little more than what they might have expected.

The next bit of news is a bit of surprise, apparently he said that if at least 30% of the fans playing FFXIV wanted to keep playing the original game after the launch of the A Realm Reborn, they would keep it around. The votes have been tallied and the worldwide percentage is about 35% in favor.

He explains that when they bring down the current servers in November, the characters will be saved at that point. The character data will be transferred over to the new version, A Realm Reborn when it is brought back up. When it comes back they will also a few days later open up servers that contain the vanilla version of FFXIV. This version will not get any more updates or patches, so players on the server will have to play the game as it is, but they can keep playing as much as they wish. However, any thing they do in those servers will not transfer over to the A Realm Reborn version.

Also, he explains that they will be checking the player population on those servers every month. As long as 30% of the player base in using it they will keep it activate. However, when the number drops below 30% they will shut the servers down and make a final decision on what to do about the older version of FFXIV.

There is no word if the original version will still be paid or free to play and how it will interact with accounts, but it is a surprising solution for people that enjoyed the previous version of the game. It may not be much of a surprise, but the Japan players voted the strongest with 51% of the player base in Japan wanting to keep playing the original. The rest of the worldwide averaged about 30%. So it should be interesting to see what happens in the future.

[Merlin]

I can see keeping the old servers open while they finalize everything. On the other hand, once the game is retail, keeping the old version around is stupid. All it will do is siphon potential players off the revival into a dead-end project. Are 30% of the players going to get their panties in a twist because they can't keep playing a broken game? Why would you WANT to keep playing the old version? >_<

[Andromeda]

It is a surprising move to make, but there seems to be people that want to play the original version, especially the Japanese players it seems. But they did say that when it goes under 30% that they'll cut it and make a decision, which is probably going to have to completely taken offline. Considering it'll never get updates or new content, I would have to wonder how long people will really stay with it. Unless they make it free to play, I doubt people will really stay with the game for too long. The population will be low and people will move over to what is new. So it probably won't survive for more than a few months.