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....