So it was, that I had been greeted by this today, during my early wanderings:

Quote Originally Posted by SQUARE ENIX
Dear valued FINAL FANTASY XI player,

We have an announcement regarding an important change for FINAL FANTASY XI in-game text support. At present, players are able to choose between Japanese, English, French, and German language options, but due to the decreasing numbers of French and German language players, we have had to make a difficult but necessary decision on the support for these two languages. As such, we will be removing the French and German language options from FINAL FANTASY XI after the July 2014 version update, but will continue to support Japanese and English. Of course, French and German-speaking players will be able to continue playing using their current characters and settings in an English language environment. (Note that some macros may need to be modified.)

We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to our francohpone and germanophone players for their fantastic long-time dedication to FINAL FANTASY Xl, and will continue to provide French and German speaking customer support services.

Although it greatly saddens us that we will no longer be able to offer in-game text for these two languages, English localisation support will continue, and we hope that you will continue to experience exciting adventures in the world of Vana’diel.

Akihiko Matsui, FFXI producer
I'm sure the amount of players who rely to these language options is not extremely high, hence their cease of implementing it, but I personally know more than one. If they are unable to get past the barrier to use the game-client set in the English language, it will probably mean they will stop playing.

That will also mean that there's a high chance of me doing the same, for they have been the main reason for me to continue paying.

Unfortunate tidings indeed... It's not long from since I was wondering about when this game goes Japanese-only, but I wager there must be a journey or few yet to that. Time is swift in its movements, however, so it may just as well be here sooner than later.


Are you affected?