Letter from the Producer, XLVII (07/02/2013)

Hello again to all of you eagerly awaiting FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn. Yoshi-P here, bringing you the forty-seventh Letter from the Producer!

I hope everyone who's been accepted into the beta has been enjoying themselves so far. The team is carefully reading over all your feedback, verifying and squashing urgent bugs. We've received many critical reports for the PlayStation 3 version, in particular, and they've all been resolved without incident.

Now that we're halfway through phase 3, all that's left is to stress test the duty finder, and to monitor server stability over a long period. It won't be long until phase 4, early access, and the big day arrive, so the team is really giving it their all.

It's been hectic preparing for release, but I've managed to sneak in a little anonymous game time during phase 3 as well. This past weekend I was playing as a conjurer, partying with random players to collect gear from the dungeons. No matter how many runs I did though, not a single robe dropped. But then, on my last run, the robe I'd been waiting for finally appeared in the loot list! Needless to say, I lotted on it right away—but then the thaumaturge lotted and won by two points. It was all I could do to type "Congrats!" while biting back my tears.

Anyway, let's put those unfortunate events behind us. Now that the latest testing period has ended, I'll be heading to Paris for this year's Japan Expo. Not only will I be giving a presentation on FFXIV: ARR, but I'll also be doing interviews with a number of media outlets. My schedule's looking more hectic by the minute.

As producer and director, things will only get tougher from here on out. As much as I hate riding those metallic nightmares they call airplanes, I think I can muster up the courage if it means meeting all of our fans in Europe.
(That's not to say our North American and Japanese fans aren't important too. :p)

And with that, I'm off to Europe. See you soon! :)