Saturday marked the 18-year anniversary of Final Fantasy XI from its original release in Japan, and that’s a pretty big milestone. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite have the celebration in terms of events that was wanted, as producer Akihiko Matsui mentions in a letter to the community. At the start of the work-from-home process due to the global pandemic the FFXI team had minimal access to development hardware, but he feels confident that the team is almost back up to full operations, and he believes that the game will be hosting the planned anniversary content about one month later than initially planned.
Of course, the event itself isn’t the only thing on deck, as Matsui hopes to release new story content in this year of the game’s operation as well. He also thanks the fan community that has followed the game for so long, making Vana’diel a lively place to adventure even now. It’s been 18 years of adventuring in the game world; this one might have had a slower anniversary celebration than usual, but it promises to be memorable just the same.
