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A rather large feature about Final Fantasy XI, the MMORPG for PS2, has been posted at Xengamers. Here's something about the launch of the service in Japan, which didn't work out as intended:
The FFXI launch must have been a worst-case scenario for Square's PR department. The PlayOnline registration server, responsible for assigning all would-be FFXI denizens usernames and passwords, began showing signs of trouble the morning of launch. Reports flooded in of numerous time-out and page-not-found errors from all over Japan. As of Friday May 17th, 2 a.m. Japan time, the server was taken offline, leaving anyone who hadn't managed to register stranded with no way to enjoy the game they'd just bought! The game finally went online Saturday, 6 p.m., but the server was shut down again at 9:30 p.m. for a two hour maintenance session. So it turned out that even having a BB unit was no guarantee of being able to play FFXI on launch day.
Adding insult to injury, there were even problems with some of the people who had managed to sign up successfully. In certain cases where users had used the Web Money system to pay for content, they were charged for things they didn't request. Square was of course quick to post notice of the problem with instructions on how to cancel the unneeded charges. Even so, the large number of launch problems seems to indicate a lack of the care and craftsmanship usually present in Square titles. |
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Final Fantasy XI Preview at Xengamers
