{"id":48107,"date":"2025-05-19T16:30:50","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T07:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=48107"},"modified":"2025-05-19T16:30:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T07:30:53","slug":"square-enix-considered-ending-final-fantasy-11-in-2024-but-player-interest-was-high-enough-to-keep-it-alive-even-after-20-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/square-enix-considered-ending-final-fantasy-11-in-2024-but-player-interest-was-high-enough-to-keep-it-alive-even-after-20-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Square Enix considered ending Final Fantasy 11 in 2024, but player interest was high enough to keep it alive even after 20+ years\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Square Enix recently celebrated <strong>Final Fantasy XI<\/strong>\u2019s 23rd anniversary by announcing big updates planned for 2025 and beyond. Among other tweaks and additions, the MMORPG will be getting a much-requested character race change feature, as well as adjustments meant to make solo-play more comfortable. Although these announcements paint an optimistic picture of the game\u2019s future, FFXI producer and director Yoji Fujito says that in another timeline, the game could have ended in 2024.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"FINAL FANTASY XI   2025 UPDATE TOPICS   SPRING \u2013 SUMMER\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ENQMmY3jmkk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/dengekionline.com\/article\/202505\/42194\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Dengeki Online<\/a>, Fujito reveals that at one point prior to Final Fantasy XI\u2019s 20th anniversary (2022),&nbsp;Square Enix considered ending support for it as a living game. \u201cThere was a real possibility that 2024 would be the year updates would come to an end, with the game shifting into a so-called maintenance mode, where only system upkeep would be performed.\u201d The original idea was for things to wrap up after The Voracious Resurgence storyline was completed. Furthermore, as FFXI\u2019s was reaching its server lifetime at the time, Fujito says that they even considered completely shutting down the game.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1343\" height=\"758\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1343px) 100vw, 1343px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250519-48107-001JPG.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-48111\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250519-48107-001JPG.jpg 1343w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250519-48107-001JPG-380x214.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250519-48107-001JPG-768x433.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>However, as the title\u2019s 20th anniversary approached, the dev team received \u201ca lot of support\u201d from players requesting for FFXI to be&nbsp;continued in the long term. Above all, Fujito emphasizes, players were still logging in and playing the MMORPG. \u201cWe thought, if&nbsp;The Voracious Resurgence&nbsp;wrapped up and&nbsp;FFXI&nbsp;clearly started losing its momentum, then maybe we really should prepare to end it. But that didn\u2019t happen. I took this as a sign that we should keep running the game.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1346\" height=\"754\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1346px) 100vw, 1346px\" src=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250519-48107-003.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-48112\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250519-48107-003.jpg 1346w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250519-48107-003-380x213.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250519-48107-003-768x430.jpg 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Thanks to player interest still being high enough after 20 years, the team decided to update FFXI\u2019s infrastructure and keep supporting it as a living game. Fujito took over Akihiko Matsui&#8217;s role as producer, and the (currently rather small) dev team was reorganized to work on new content and updates on a priority basis.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to Final Fantasy 11 producer and director Yoji Fujito, the MMORPG could have ended support or even shut down completely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":48110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[36,17],"class_list":["post-48107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-final-fantasy","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Square Enix considered ending Final Fantasy 11 in 2024, but player interest was high enough to keep it alive even after 20+ years\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According to Final Fantasy 11 producer and director Yoji Fujito, the MMORPG could have ended support or even shut down completely.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/square-enix-considered-ending-final-fantasy-11-in-2024-but-player-interest-was-high-enough-to-keep-it-alive-even-after-20-years\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Square Enix considered ending Final Fantasy 11 in 2024, but player interest was high enough to keep it alive even after 20+ years\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to Final Fantasy 11 producer and director Yoji Fujito, the MMORPG could have ended support or even shut down completely.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/square-enix-considered-ending-final-fantasy-11-in-2024-but-player-interest-was-high-enough-to-keep-it-alive-even-after-20-years\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-05-19T07:30:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-19T07:30:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/20250519-48107-002.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1528\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"857\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amber V\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Square Enix considered ending Final Fantasy 11 in 2024, but player interest was high enough to keep it alive even after 20+ years\u00a0 - 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