http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/06/08/news_6127156.html
Final Fantasy XI team working on new next-gen MMORPG

Hiromichi Tanaka tells Famitsu that he's in the initial stages of developing 
an unnamed next-generation project, talks Xbox 360 FFXI details.
In an interview published in the latest issue of Famitsu magazine, Final 
Fantasy XI producer Hiromichi Tanaka disclosed that his development team is 
currently working on a new massively multiplayer role-playing game for 
next-generation consoles.

Tanaka declined to comment on whether the MMORPG in development will be a 
successor to FFXI or a new product. He did confirm that the technical 
demonstration shown for the Xbox 360 during E3 was one of the experiments 
his development team had created to see what kind of graphics a 
next-generation console could achieve.

Tanaka also disclosed that the Xbox 360 edition of FFXI will sport graphics 
of a quality similar to the currently available PC version of FFXI. However, 
he added that the development team is seeing if the Xbox 360 can display 
graphics for about twice the distance than the Windows version.

The game's beta test is slated to begin simultaneously with the launch of 
the Xbox 360 later this year. Similarly to the Windows beta, the Xbox 360's 
beta test will be conducted on servers separate from the rest of the FFXI 
world. One of the main objectives for the Xbox 360 version's beta testing is 
to see if there are any problems with the game's network environment, since 
this will be the first time Xbox Live will be allowing a connection from an 
external system.

By Staff -- GameSpot
POSTED: 06/08/05 12:28 PM PST





http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/623/623561p1.html

Final Fantasy XI Team Works on New Project
New title to be next generation massively multiplayer Online RPG.
by IGN Staff
June 8, 2005 - In an interview published in the latest issue of Famitsu, 
Final Fantasy XI producer Hiromichi Tanaka makes mention of some of the 
projects on which his staff is currently working, including new Final 
Fantasy XI properties and a brand new next generation massively multiplayer 
Online RPG.


Tanaka does not commit to the identity of the next generation title, stating 
that it may be a successor to FFXI, or it may be a completely separate 
property. He does admit that the mysterious demo clip shown at Microsoft's 
Xbox 360 E3 press conference was an early look at the game, which is 
currently in the "research" stage of development.
As for the title's platform, Tanaka is again a bit too shy to talk. He 
doesn't specifically state that the game is coming to the Xbox 360. He does, 
however, state that the PlayStation 3 will probably need a hard disk in 
order to see Final Fantasy XI-style games, stating he was surprised to hear 
that Sony is considering not including a hard disk with the system.

Regarding the Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XI, Tanaka reveals that the 
title will be close to the Windows version of the game in terms of quality, 
which means it will be far superior to the PS2 version. The team is still 
working on the title, but they're hoping to improve viewing distance many 
times beyond that of PC version. Tanaka feels that once people have played 
the game in high definition wide screen format, they won't be able to go 
back.

As mentioned previously here at IGN Xbox, Square Enix will hold a beta test 
for Final Fantasy XI at the Xbox 360's launch later this year (no word yet 
on if this beta test will be Japan-only or if it will also take place in 
America). The beta test will make use of a special server separate from the 
other versions of the game. The purpose of the beta test, Tanaka reveals, is 
to see how Xbox Live handles connecting to Play Online, which is something 
that's being done for the first time with Microsoft's closed Online system.

There's more in store for Final Fantasy XI following the release of the Xbox 
360 version. In addition to periodic updates for all versions of the game, 
the FFXI team is currently working a full-fledged expansion pack that should 
extend the life of the product.


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