Only a month left of playing before servers go down?

[Zell]

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/08/16/final-fantasy-xiv-servers-shutting-down-ahead-of-relaunch-a-re/

Looks like the game will be "down" for 3-4 months before our characters can even progress.....

Far longer than I anticipated...... I thought the servers would be up along with alpha and beta and taken down a month before 2.0 released.

It appears that servers will be taken down During alpha and beta testings....

[Madrox]

There seems to be some conflicting information throughout a couple past interviews. Chinajoy interview said that all the international servers wouldnt be up until January or February, yet they seem to be sticking with us being able to get in at 2012 before retail release. Plus the whole servers down only a month-ish because they dont want us to go too long without...

Im personally just waiting for an official statement on this..

[Zell]

Maybe they consider the fact that we can play alpha and beta with out characters as "playing" the game.

But alpha and beta are usually for very limited times.... I don't care only because I do have other hobbies.. but I didn't anticipate the transition would be as long.

[Rutelor]

Square Enix have been, purposefully or inadvertently, unclear about the schedule for the transition. Conjecturing is not going to bring clarity. What we need is for the community to raise its polite yet assertive voice requesting a clear schedule. Of course, on the other side, it's the company's prerogative to equivocate until they stop deeming it is advantageous to do so.

However, they should be straightforward with its loyal player base and, if necessary, go out of their way to estimate and present us with such a schedule.

R

[Radav]

They really need to clear this up and give us the exact details. Even if they don't give us dates. I would just like to know how this is working. 1.xx is getting taken offline to transfer data. That will take about a month. Then what comes after that? Are current subscribers getting access to the 2.0 beta and is that what we're paying for? Will our character progress get saved during the beta? There's just a lot of fogginess surrounding this. Every time there's a new interview with questions about it the answers are different. So for the love of god please can we get a dev response to clear this up.

[Yves]

They are probably avoiding being specific because:

a) the situation is likely to change numerous times
b) it will cause an uproar no matter what they say
c) they don't want to drive even more players into the "afk 'til 2.0" mode

[Lux_Rayna]

Square Enix have been, purposefully or inadvertently, unclear about the schedule for the transition. Conjecturing is not going to bring clarity. What we need is for the community to raise its polite yet assertive voice requesting a clear schedule. Of course, on the other side, it's the company's prerogative to equivocate until they stop deeming it is advantageous to do so.

Exactly lol.

However, they should be straight forward with its loyal player base and, if necessary, go out of their way to estimate and present us with such a schedule.

R

Now you and I both know that would not go over well lol. This community doesn't understand things like "estimations" lol. They'll be in a flying rage if SE is even 3 days off.

[Hollow]

Guys there's a schedule, you only need to watch the 2.0 section on Lodestone .... It was updated by Yoshida one or two months ago ....
Servers will be down in September (I think near the end of the month), just before 2.0 closed beta. They need to put them down to finish the transfer of characters data ...

[AliceKaye]

Guys there's a schedule, you only need to watch the 2.0 section on Lodestone .... It was updated by Yoshida one or two months ago ....
Servers will be down in September (I think near the end of the month), just before 2.0 closed beta. They need to put them down to finish the transfer of characters data ...

However, believe it or not that schedule only mentions the PS3 Beta and not a PC beta at all. It does however mention the distribution of 2.0 software but the word beta, is not mentioned. Now, clearly, we know a beta is going to happen. It's been stated publicly by them several times but they should update their pdfs and such to reflect that an actual beta period is going to happen and when, roughly, that will be.

Some quotes:
Page 15 of the "New Final Fantasy XIV Outline"

・August 2012 –2.0 marketing campaign begins (including trailer release)
・September to October 2012 –Begin distribution of version 2.0 software for PC
-Begin distribution of PlayStation®3 system beta version
・October to November 2012 –Reinstate limited free trial period for PC version
-Commence PlayStation®3 system closed beta test
・Post-January 2013 –Version 2.0 client (PC and PlayStation®3 system) goes on sale
-Free trial period ends

So, no where does it actually say beta. Hell, it says "Free Trial period" begins in October to November which is when we're all assuming beta is actually taking place. So I'm wondering if our "Free Trial period" is actually their beta test. In which case, we already know via the Massively article that they plan to give current users a chance to get into beta before non-players.

Massively Article, "Gamescom 2012: FFXIV servers shutting down ahead of relaunch, A Realm Reborn beta planned for this fall"

He also notes that the original game's userbase will be prioritized in A Realm Reborn's beta queue and that players will "be able to use their current characters in the beta test as well." Though that may not be at the kickoff of the beta, he says, "We're working in a way to try to get it as close to the beginning of the beta test as possible."

I've also noticed over the last couple of days during the Gamescom interviews that he's been quoted as saying that the game will "launch later this year", though I'm not sure how true that is, considering the MMORPG.com interview, the writer spoke to a representative on their way or who said, “Next year! We're still figuring that out. You know, we want to get it right. I think it'd be earlier rather than later. I don't think we'll go as late as Christmas or anything like that but we want to get it right. Obviously, the first time we put out the game, it wasn't… ready so, this time around, it has to be right.” Also, of course the timeline given in the PDF clearly states that it will go on sale Post-January 2013.

But at this point, we pretty much have no choice but to take everything with a grain of salt because everything that is being written seems to contradict other previously written articles. It's honestly driving me a bit batty.

I tried to write an article for my website but found it very hard to do so because I don't know what is fact or speculation anymore, haha.

[Nuru]

However, believe it or not that schedule only mentions the PS3 Beta and not a PC beta at all. It does however mention the distribution of 2.0 software but the word beta, is not mentioned. Now, clearly, we know a beta is going to happen. It's been stated publicly by them several times but they should update their pdfs and such to reflect that an actual beta period is going to happen and when, roughly, that will be.

Some quotes:
Page 15 of the "New Final Fantasy XIV Outline"

So, no where does it actually say beta. Hell, it says "Free Trial period" begins in October to November which is when we're all assuming beta is actually taking place. So I'm wondering if our "Free Trial period" is actually their beta test. In which case, we already know via the Massively article that they plan to give current users a chance to get into beta before non-players.

Massively Article, "Gamescom 2012: FFXIV servers shutting down ahead of relaunch, A Realm Reborn beta planned for this fall"


I've also noticed over the last couple of days during the Gamescom interviews that he's been quoted as saying that the game will "launch later this year", though I'm not sure how true that is, considering the MMORPG.com interview, the writer spoke to a representative on their way or who said, “Next year! We're still figuring that out. You know, we want to get it right. I think it'd be earlier rather than later. I don't think we'll go as late as Christmas or anything like that but we want to get it right. Obviously, the first time we put out the game, it wasn't… ready so, this time around, it has to be right.” Also, of course the timeline given in the PDF clearly states that it will go on sale Post-January 2013.

But at this point, we pretty much have no choice but to take everything with a grain of salt because everything that is being written seems to contradict other previously written articles. It's honestly driving me a bit batty.

I tried to write an article for my website but found it very hard to do so because I don't know what is fact or speculation anymore, haha.

Pipsy, you have my sincere thanks for delving into the .pdf files to share with the rest of the forums, and not even that, you also provided words from the most recent events and pointed out the quote from the interview that contradicts all previous statements.

I have to agree that at this point, it would be difficult to tell what is fact or what is speculation at this point, and the dev team haven't really been so precise on patch dates so I am sure they wouldn't want to scare us with a certain date and then push it back as that would totally frustrate everyone. lol!

Thanks again for your insightful post