Xbox fans will be able to enter the world of Eorzea soon, as Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV is set to be brought to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription service sometime early next year. The popular massively-multiplayer online role-playing game will be included alongside other classic installments in the long-running Final Fantasy franchise, including the famous Final Fantasy VII.
News of Final Fantasy games coming to Game Pass broke yesterday at Microsoft’s Inside Xbox X019 event in London, with the company announcing a whopping 40 games being added to Game Pass throughout this holiday season. These consist of big name franchise titles such as Darksiders 3, Tekken 7 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, not to mention Microsoft’s own hit Gears of War 5. But the news fans might take notice of the most is the reveal of Final Fantasy games on the service, an announcement which took the London crowd by surprise.
According to The Verge, Final Fantasy XIV will be released alongside several other well-regarded installments of the series, as every numbered installment from VII to XV is set to appear on Game Pass sometime during the coming holiday season. These will all be in their most recently remastered forms, and will also include a few spin-offs from the main FF series such as X-2 and the two FFXIII sequels.
At first, it was unclear whether or not the series’ two MMORPGs, Final Fantasy XI and the aforementioned XIV, would be brought over as well, but this announcement seems to have confirmed at the very least Final Fantasy XIV will. Microsoft’s Xbox Head, Phil Spencer, assured fans XIV at the very least will be included. Speaking to the press at the Inside Xbox show, he said, “We have a great relationship with [Final Fantasy XIV director Naoki] Yoshida-san and we’re working through what it means to bring [to Xbox] a cross-platform MMO that they’ve run for years.”
This news is surely welcome for Xbox-owning fans of the series, as before now the game had only been available for PC and PlayStation consoles. Final Fantasy XIV may not have started as a fan-favorite, but after numerous patches and fixes it is now seen as one of the best MMO games in the genre. Offering the chance to experience this well-regarded title, as well as other timeless installments in the long-running and influential Final Fantasy series, will be a definite plus for Microsoft’s fledgling game service as its catalog grows in the coming year. Additionally, players and Final Fantasy XIV fans can sign up for three months of Game Pass for $1 for a limited time right now.
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Source: The Verge
