Blizzard’s success in the MMO market makes other games claiming to be “massively multiplayer” look like schoolyard clubs.  Its online game, World of Warcraft, boasts 11.5 million subscribers worldwide.

That’s made some people wonder about Blizzard’s strategy for keeping those subscribers, and about their next MMO which has been secretly in development.  Wired sat down with Paul Sams, Blizzard’s COO for an interview, and to get some information about the game.

What they were able to learn is that the game is significantly different than World of Warcraft. Sams explains, “you’re not going to feel like they’re one and the same resulting in that you have to pick or choose” between WoW and the next game, though he recognizes that they may “lose” some WoW subscribers to their new game.

As for the nature of the MMO, all we know is that it’s not based on Warcraft or Starcraft, Blizzard’s obvious choices for a new game.

“… what I could tell you is that we’re intending to create a game experience that is unlike anything that has ever been done before. Something that I think takes things far beyond what anyone has imagined and certainly anything anyone has executed.”

Of course, World of Warcraft isn’t going anywhere. The next expansion, Cataclysm, is in the works, and Sams assures us that Blizzard is close to delivering on its annual expansion promises.

Some new details have emerged about the upcoming MMORPG, Final Fantasy XIV (FFXIV).

One interesting detail is that surnames, or last names, may appear in FFXIV.  The idea came out of the attempts to allow players to keep their names from Final Fantasy XI.  Final Fantasy XIV producer Hiromichi Tanaka explains:

“… for Final Fantasy XI we had 32 worlds, and each character had to have a unique name in each world, so if they move to XIV there might be a conflict, so what we’re trying to introduce is surnames for the characters so people can keep their original names but add something else to it to make it more unique.”

This reminds me a bit of the now-past Tabula Rasa, in which you could also choose a last name that would apply to all of your characters.

Also, the world of Final Fantasy XIV, Eorzea, will have its own religion.  Now, I’ve already heard some opinions on this matter, but nobody should be surprised.

Religion plays a significant role in Final Fantasy XI, given the fact that much of the storyline has to do with various dieties in the fictional land of Vana’diel. Consider the fact that Wings of the Goddess refers to Altana, the apparently-supreme diety of Vana’diel, and that all Campaign forces are named after her. Similarly, Promathia of the second expansion has a divine status as a devil-like figure.  Final Fantasy games almost always have some kind of mythology, which is essentially religion, whether or not the characters seem to participate in a religious experience.

So, naturally, the world of Eorzea will be no different, although the attention it’s getting may indicate that religion plays a more important role, and that the characters in the game’s story are more dedicated to their faith.  It may also suggest that the gods are less apparent.  Although Altana never appears in FFXI, Promathia and several supposed demi-gods do, making the religions of that world less like the major religions of Earth.

A final detail is that Nobuo Uematsu has confirmed that he will be composing the entire musical score for FFXIV.  The development team was unsure if he’d be able to do that, given his current work with a wide number of other games, but the composer has signed on to complete the whole soundtrack.

Final Fantasy XIV is tagged with a 2010 release date.  Final Fantasy XI still has about a year of planned additions as well, and Square Enix promises that the games will run simultaneously for some time.

With the news of Final Fantasy XIV yesterday, the active player base of Final Fantasy XI has been wondering what’s going to happen with thier game.

Square Enix commented on it briefly today.  The company will continue to put an effort into bringing new content to Final Fantasy XI for at least one more year.  The small add-on A Crystalline Prophecy was recently released, and two more similar add-ons are on the way.  No full-sized expansions have been announced, as Wings of the Goddess still needs to be completed (as not all missions are yet available).

The company says that at least one year of new content is lined up.  It’s unclear how long the company plans to keep developing content or keeping FFXI online after that, though the game will probably shut down when the player base falls below an economically viable population. Square Enix has expressed that it plans to keep Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV online together for some time, and that the new MMO is not a replacement for their previous title.

Some players have already made pacts to make the move from FFXI to FFXIV together, with the possibility of entire linkshells moving at once.  Although FFXIV is not a direct sequel to FFXI, it seems that the game will be similar, and even appears to have the same races available to characters.

More on this as we get it.

Square Enix has stepped up to the plate to challenge Sony’s claim that Final Fantasy XIV will be PS3-exclusive.

Sony announced Final Fantasy XIV: Online during their E3 press conference yesterday, stating that it was a PS3-exclusive game.  As an MMORPG, that made little sense, since PCs are still the preferred platform for most players.  It was confirmed later in the day that a Windows Vista version would also be made available.

But earlier mentions of the game, under its code-name Rapture, had suggested that an Xbox 360 version would also appear, and Microsoft also challenged the claim.  Xbox boss Aaron Greenberg said that, as far as he knew, they were still getting a version.

So today, Square Enix talked about the issue during their press conference.  They clarified that, so far, only PS3 and PC versions are in the works, but that an Xbox 360 port of the game is still under consideration.  So it’s not PS3-exclusive… not really.  Looks like Sony got too excited.

Given that their current MMO, Final Fantasy XI, has been available and apparently successful on the Xbox 360 for quite some time, and is only now expecting a PS3 release, it seems unlikely that Square Enix would ignore the console for this title.  After all, they’ve recently given the console a fair bit of attention with Star Ocean: The Last Hope and the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII.

We’ve got new images of Final Fantasy XIV on the site now, so check them out.  It looks… pretty.

Meanwhile, I’ve been busy posting RPG news to the new Galbadia X Twitter account, so follow @galbadiax to get the latest on all of the E3 happenings.

Square Enix announced their next MMORPG at E3 today.  Final Fantasy XIV: Online will be coming in 2010.

The game is not a sequel to Final Fantasy XI any more than the other Final Fantasy games follow each other.  Instead, it will take place in its own world, called Eorzea.

Final Fantasy XIV, as it stands, is PlayStation 3 exclusive in the console world — but there will be a PC version as well, which is vital to MMO success.  Although it was previously said that Rapture (the code name for FF14) would be released on the Xbox 360, it seems that Sony was able to convince them otherwise.

The game is set for a 2010 release worldwide.

Check out the trailer.  It definitely has an FFXI feel to it:

We’ll bring you more as it comes.

News comes from Japan that Square Enix will bring its long-running MMORPG, Final Fantasy XI, to the Sony PlayStation 3.

Final Fantasy XI began in Japan in 2002, and in North America in 2003.  It’s been released for the PlayStation 2 (PS2), Windows PC and, most recently, the Xbox 360.  FFXI has always been a cross-platform title, with players being able to use any of the three platforms, and even switch between them, within the same persistent world.  The PS3 version is expected to provide the same feature, and bring the high-definition graphics provided in the Xbox 360 version.

No specific date has been set for the release.  More on this as it comes.