I understand that just about all old games, like FFXI, will not work on the new Surface tablet which is running the ARM Windows 8, but the game should be able to easily be ported over to it because it is still windows and programming should still be very similar from what I've seen in the dev kits.

I'm currently a Microsoft Gold partner and we've been playing around with some of the prototype tablets and Windows 8 RTM and I very much like the OS -now-. It took a long time for me to get used to it but now I'm a fan of it.

I know FFXIV will never be on iOS but it would be nice to see a reworked touchscreen UI for Windows 8 for this reason:

I would love to be on a 4G or better Tablet, pull out my bose headset, and play FFXIV on the go. (On the go for me means I'll be at the local humidor having a cigar in AIR CONDITIONING!!!).

The game already works with touchscreen because its de facto mouse support, so we'd be able to tap the menus and open them just fine - but Walking is still near impossible. We can use the on-screen windows keyboard, but thats not practical.

So what I'm asking for, for 2.0, and obviously not at launch but to have this in mind for future development, especially as people move away from laptops and into tablets, is:
  • On-Screen D-Pads similar to the kind we use in FF3 iOS
  • Swipe camera controls to go with the Dpad for camera
  • Potential on-screen build-in keyboard (same UI as ps3?)
  • Official Windows 8 App so it works on W8 Tablets
  • Windows 8 "Games for Windows" achievements

One or two of those changes could be complicated, namely the achievements, but the others are just a control scheme that could be added directly to the FFXIV Config similar to the Gamepad controls. It shouldn't require a whole new FFXIV version, and should be able to be integrated into the normal 2.0 PC client if performed correctly and would be backwards compatible with all versions of windows.