Final Fantasy X was going to have an online add on

be allotting itself extra time to refine the massive project at each stage.

2000

Final Fantasy X is still officially on track for Japanese release by the end of March; however, its PlayOnline functionality will not become operable until fall next year. Final Fantasy XI has been given a new official rescheduling for spring 2002, and will fully incorporate the PlayOnline network; the extra development time will be used for testing PlayOnline. More on each of these highly anticipated RPGs is available in RPGamer's Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XI coverage.



Square Looks Ahead

Final Fantasy X Not Online-Capable

Square has released a good bit of information concerning its plans for its upcoming games. Most notable is the news that Final Fantasy X, the first in the long-running Final Fantasy series to appear on the PlayStation 2, will not feature online capability as previously expected. Instead, Final Fantasy X will be a completely self-contained title as previous chapters in the series have been. This should not, however, affect the development of Final Fantasy XI, which will be an exclusively online game.

However, more closely tied to Final Fantasy XI was the announcement that Square's PlayOnline service, which will provide online access for Final Fantasy XI among other Internet-related services, will be ready later than anticipated. The revised schedule for PlayOnline calls for testing to begin this coming March, with the full roll-out of the PlayOnline service sometime between winter 2001 and spring 2002.