Final Fantasy XIV Release Date Announced

We have great news for you Final Fantasy XIV fans! Square-Enix has finally announced that after years in development and many months in testing, Final Fantasy XIV is set to go live across the world on September 30th. Also announced were plans for the Final Fantasy XIV Collector's Edition. Players will be able to join the game 8 days before anyone else, with a release date of September 22nd.

The standard edition will go for $49.99 USD. This edition will include a reward code to receive an exclusive in-game item, the Garlond Goggles (which increases the speed of skill progression), and a free 30-day subscription. After the first month is over, the monthly fee will be $12.99 every 30 days.

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For the Collector's Edition, which will run for $74.99 at retail, gamers will get a reward code to receive an exclusive in-game item the Onion Helm (which accelerates character recovery after falling in battle); the aforementioned early access to the game; a Behind-The-Scenes DVD with video content, interviews, and more; a Security token that will add an extra layer of security to your game password; a "beautifully-bound" Travel Journal for players to record their adventures with pages that include never-before-seen concept art; a voucher for a personalized Right of Passage certificate stamped with a unique serial number; a special game cover with an illustration by renowned artist Yoshitaka Amano; along with the free 30-day game subscription.

An interesting note is that, with every standard $12.99 subscription, players will get their normal character and 30 days along with one non-playable retainer character -- a non-playable character that provides free item storage and in-game merchant services. Each additional character will cost players $3.00, with a maximum of 8 playable characters per account, and another $1.00 for each additional retainer character.

Here are the minimum system requirements in order to play the game. Players can download the Official Final Fantasy XIV Benchmark software to see if their computer will be able to play the game (mine can't, apparently).

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Operating System
Windows XP SP3 **
Windows Vista 32bit / 64bit SP2 ***
Windows 7 32bit / 64bit ***

CPU
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo (2.0GHz)

AMD Athlon™ X2 (2.0GHz)
 
Memory
Windows XP: 1.5GB or higher
Windows Vista / Windows® 7: 2GB or higher

HDD/SSD Space
Install: 15GB or more
Download: Space on hard drive where My Documents is located should be 6GB or more ****

Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600 series or higher with VRAM 512MB or more
ATI Radeon™ HD 2900 series or higher with VRAM 512MB or more

Sound Card
DirectSound® compatible sound card (DirectX® 9.0c or higher)
 

Internet Connections
Broadband internet connection or higher

Resolution
1280 x 720 or higher; 32bit or higher

DirectX®
DirectX® 9.0c

Others
Mouse, Keyboard, Gamepad *****

 

 

** If using Windows XP, the executable files, installation and version updates should be set to Administrator settings.
*** 64bit OS will run in WOW64 (Windows on Windows 64) mode.
**** The file system in the drive containing the My Documents folder will need to be set to NTFS formatting.
***** A gamepad is not required.

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On another note, the Open Beta for the Windows PC will begin early July. The PlayStation 3 version will be released in March 2011, but if you already registered your unique beta code for your PS3 and have a computer that can run FFXIV, you will be able to apply that code to the PC version instead. To register for the beta, head on over to http://entry.ffxiv.com/ .