Final Fantasy XI Nears EverQuest In Subscriber Numbers

Thanks to 1UP for the news that Square Enix has announced a total of 430,000 subscribers have signed up worldwide with PlayOnline, as the online subscription service "...which powers Square's MMORPG Final Fantasy XI, broke through the 400,000 user mark approximately 18 months after its Japanese debut in May 2002." According to the reports, the recent PC release of FFXI in the U.S. has "...provided a significant boost to the service's user base. Square Enix said it has shipped around 200,000 copies of the PC version to the US market already, and picked up around 100,000 new subscribers so far." More subscriptions are likely when the Final Fantasy XI-bundled PlayStation 2 hard drive launches in the U.S. next March, possibly taking FFXI over EverQuest's total of nearly 500,000 subscribers. The company's mid-term results also provided information on sales of their games, with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance a particular sales highlight in the U.S.

Comments

Re:Solid game.

[Matrix272]

I also played a few MMOG's over the past few years... I started with Asheron's Call (I won a copy and a 2-month subscription), and played it for about 3-4 weeks before I decided that it sucked. Then I went for a few years before trying another one... the one I tried was Earth & Beyond (beta). That was pretty good, but it was VERY limited, and since it was beta, it was always down. Not that I expected perfect reliability, but in the end, it wasn't a good enough game to warrant a subscription. Then I tried The Sims Online. That took about 3 days before I quit. Then, I moved on to SWG. I played that for a couple months... mainly because I wasn't aware of how good MMORPG's could be. I've always been a fan of RPG's, but I didn't think an online game could keep me entertained for that long. However, they managed to COMPLETELY fuck up the economy of the game (after saying it was a player-controlled economy, no less), so I quit. Now I'm trying to get reviews and such on FFXI to find out if it's worth paying money for. So far, I've spent $100 or so on The Sims Online (for 2 copies), and somewhere around $190 for SWG (2 copies for $50 each, and 3 months of service at $15 per copy per month). I'd rather not spend another $50 on an MMORPG that's going to suck after 2 weeks. From everything I've heard, FFXI sounds like a good game, but I have a few questions, if anyone would like to answer them.

First, can you craft (i.e, SWG) in FFXI? Can you create many new and exciting weapons to use to defeat the evil hordes?

Second, are the enemies a challenge? Are there easy ones that I can kill if I feel like it, and are there very difficult ones that require grouping (again, i.e., SWG)?

In terms of actual gameplay, is it FUN? Am I going to love playing it?

Finally, since it's been out for awhile, if I join now, am I still going to enjoy it enough to build my character up to the higher levels?