Although Final Fantasy 11 turns 24 this year, the MMORPG enjoyed a big boost in concurrent player count thanks to the successful Final Fantasy 14 crossover event. In light of this unexpected rise in popularity, FF11’s current director Yoji Fujito talked about what’s next for the online game, suggesting that a brand new area and story could be in the pipeline.
In a recent Famitsu interview, Fujito hinted that the team might be able to add new areas and storylines to FF11. However, he explained that technical issues and a shortage of staff means that they can’t just simply add a new area onto the 24 year old online game ASAP.
Although FF11 has been moving its aging physical servers to virtual servers, this initiative is to ensure the game remains playable in its current state, and no changes were made with a view to supporting a large-scale expansion. “Even if we decide to add a new area, we cannot do this using conventional methods at present because we have run out of IDs for management. However, we know that we can free up a few ID slots, so we are currently investigating how we can make use of this,” Fujito explained, adding that these efforts may make it possible to add a new area to the game. “Depending on the results, I feel that some sort of project might get underway.”
Fujito emphasized that the team is currently laying the groundwork for potential new FF11 story content. FF11 hasn’t had a new episodic story since The Voracious Resurgence, and part of the reason for this is that storywriting staff are currently tied up with other projects at Square Enix. But, once they have finished, “we are planning to have them return to the FF11 team to see if they can produce something new,” Fujito said. At the same time, engineers are working on graphics resource management middleware. “Once we resolve this, it will be possible to make new cutscenes again,” Fujito added.
Last year, Final Fantasy 14 kicked off the Echoes of Vana’diel crossover event with FF11, which brought renewed attention to the FF series’ first MMORPG outing. Old adventurers and new players alike were drawn to FF11 thanks to EoV, a welcome back initiative, the revamped Limbus and the Mog Bonanza weapons giveaway, pushing up the player count. Much to the developers’ surprise, rather than taking a temporary vacation to Vana’diel, players seem to be sticking with veteran MMO.
