Square Enix president comments on MMOs

Final Fantasy XI's developers have been experimenting with gameplay and payment types in the Japanese market, and behind closed doors

January 9, 2008

In a recent interview with Gamesindustry.biz, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada talked a bit about its views on the MMORPG space.

Square Enix entered the MMO space with Final Fantasy XI, which first launched in 2002 to Japanese gamers, and came to North America in 2003. While Final Fantasy XI continues to grow with the launch of the Wings of the Goddess expansion this year, it hasn't caught up to the pace of other companies.

While Final Fantasy XI is the only Square Enix MMO that has made the leap to Western markets, Wada describes how its smaller projects have allowed the company to experiment with alternative styles and payment types. (Concerto Gate, for example, is free to play and is headed to the U.S.)

"When it comes to our MMORPG games for the domestic and Asian markets, as an experiment we have tried different formulas on a quite minor scale with smaller titles, such as a per-item payment system. Following that, we have already prepared a few MMORPGs that have been experimentally played internally."

We've known for a while that Square Enix's Final Fantasy XI team is working on another MMORPG, although this one may not be based on the Final Fantasy series. Don't think that will spell the end for FFXI, though: The developers have also stated that Wings of the Goddess will not be the last expansion for the game, as they have plans to once again expand the map of Vana'diel.