Welp, the Xbox version is dead in the water. What were they thinking?

[Nebelheim]

The reason it took so long to get FFXI on 360 was because Microsoft didn't agree to the patching policy the POL was using. Sony had complete control over POL as a service and it's patching QA policies. Believe it or not, but every patch must be inspected for viruses and code that can potentially brick a console. It would be very bad business decision to allow a bad patch file to be downloaded on 20+ Million machines...and then Sony or Microsoft is left fixing the issue.

So Microsoft had I believe at the time a MORE stringent QA policy then Sony did during the PS2 days which led to the game never coming to OG XBOX until around 2006 after the 360 launched. By then POL was a dead program as Sony phased it out as PS3 was pretty much out by then. It was just a sign of the times and the biter rivalry between to large companies.

FFXIV was also not immune to this issue as it has also been stated that Microsoft wanted more control over patch QA process, and I believe it was SE this time that didn't agree for a long time about how they should implement there patches and updates. Not to mention cross platform play being another contributor. Honestly, I couldn't care at all if I played with a PC, XBOX or PS5 player on the other end. I wish these companies would just combine there networks so we can all just play together no matter what machine we play on.

I don't think anyone thought it could never work on XBOX because it wasn't powerful enough...but it was just bureaucracy behind the scenes that really was the main issue and microsoft being microsoft.

FF11 didn't come out on the original xbox was because it didn't have a big enough hard drive to support ff11 which is why it didn't come to xbox until the 360 was released it wasn't because of Microsoft's policies or Sony having control of playonline.

[Sqwall]

FF11 didn't come out on the original xbox was because it didn't have a big enough hard drive to support ff11 which is why it didn't come to xbox until the 360 was released it wasn't because of Microsoft's policies or Sony having control of playonline.

I think that could have been easily fixed on the OG XBOX, and microsoft would have sold bigger hard drives no problem if it meant more games on the system. Consumers would have bought them easily. Another missed opportunity, and back when a bigger HDD was a VERY big deal and bragging rights. I remember buying HDD's nearly every year in the late 90's and early 2000's because 20g was cheap, then 40g was cheap, then 120g was cheap. For like $75-$100 you could get a decent upgrade and add a ton of storage. PS2 launched with NO internet adapter or HDD....yet that didn't stop Sony from delivering

I don't believe that was the hurdle the OG XBOX was facing. The problem was FFXI was primarily a JAP game with a slightly smaller NA playerbase. SE and Sony at the time had a pretty tight relationship late 90's early 2000's, which was IMO one of the reasons you saw POL developed for PS2. Some of those old Square managers were probably still there and might have been difficult to get over those long term relationships SE had with Sony. SE didn't really go multiplat til maybe 2004? 2008? Hard to say.

Wiki Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayOnline

Service
PlayOnline was seen as part of Sony's strategy to turn the PlayStation 2 into an Internet set-top box. Accordingly, Sony brought broadband equipment and a hard drive to the PlayStation 2.[10] The quality of the browser was noted in its "clean" graphics, excellent page layouts, and "high quality sound".[10] The browser was not a general purpose Internet tool, but only accessed Square content, such as news about Square products and a comic-strip walkthrough of Final Fantasy XI.[10]

Porting Final Fantasy XI to the Xbox proved difficult due to compatibility issues greater than was hoped for between Xbox Live and PlayOnline, likely because the latter was designed first.[11] After negotiation, Xbox 360 players were able to play the game through PlayOnline's servers exclusively, despite Microsoft's initial wish that Square Enix would use its own platform.[11] Downloadable content was also not available on the platform since the game played through PlayOnline.[11] It was hoped that content would eventually be offered through the Xbox Live Marketplace.[11] Final Fantasy XII started out as a game designed for the PlayOnline game platform.[12]

Again...microsoft just being microsoft....want to control everything with no skin in the game. They eventually gave into Playonline and we are seeing the same situation today with FFXIV. When your trying to sell consoles/hardware which could be MORE software and consoles/hardware....don't dismiss games being offered...make a deal.

When you sell a table to a family....it's gonna need chairs. A chair by itself is just a chair.