The current version of the game will also be kept online after the launch of the new one

Oct 8, 2012 21:21 GMT  ·  By

Square Enix has confirmed that it will begin organizing stress and alpha tests for its upcoming Final Fantay XIV: A Realm Reborn MMORPG later this month and that, following feedback from fans, it's going to keep the current version of the game online after the new one is rolled out.

Final Fantasy XIV was released back in 2010 and was supposed to be the next big MMO in the long-running RPG series from Square Enix. Sadly, it seemed that the game wasn't that impressive, as the Japanese company was overwhelmed by the criticism from those who tried it out during its free beta stage.

As a result, the company kept the game free-to-play and pledged to overhaul it in order to address all the criticism from fans.

This overhaul is nearly complete, as the company is getting ready to roll out Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, which was detailed earlier this year.

Now, the director and producer of the game, Naoki Yoshida, has posted a new message on its forums, confirming that both stress and alpha tests will be organized later this month for Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn.

"The development team is currently in the final stages of preparing the alpha test version of A Realm Reborn," he said. "There will not only be stress tests for the new servers’ coding and hardware configurations, but also tests for what will be the backbone of the game’s new system, which is why we’re being very cautious with development. Bear with us for just a while longer."

What's more Yoshida also revealed that servers for the current version of the game will be kept online after A Realm Reborn is rolled out, even if no character data will be carried over.

This is due to the reaction of fans to a poll posted on the game's website, as around 35% of them voted to keep the servers online.

"While these numbers make for a tough decision, I was planning to keep the servers open so long as 30% of the players voted for it. And so, a few days after the servers go down on November 11th (00:00 PST), we’re planning to bring them back up," Yoshida explained.

"However, we’re going to take a look at the login numbers at the end of each month. In the event that numbers drop below 30%, we’ll take the servers down again, and decide where to go from there. Expect more details on when the servers will be back online after everything’s been shut down."

Expect to hear an actual release date for the Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn stress test soon.