Xbox 360 demo disk

[Nickrhodes]

For those that don't know this:

(Official Xbox Magazine press release) Playable Beta Disc for Xbox 360 Console to be included with February 2006 Issue




South San Francisco, CA (December 19, 2005)


In a U.S. exclusive, Official Xbox Magazine will be the only place Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft gamers and FINAL FANTASY® fans can go to get a sneak peek of Square Enix’s highly successful FINAL FANTASY XI, a massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG).


Official Xbox Magazine will include the limited edition, playable FINAL FANTASY XI beta disc in the February 2006 issue, hitting newsstands January 17, 2006. The beta disc provided with this issue will have full versions of the Rise of the Zilart® and Chains of Promathia™ expansion packs and will be available both on newsstands across the country and to Official Xbox Magazine subscribers.



FINAL FANTASY XI is the only cross-platform online title in the series from Japanese game developers Square Enix, and the first available for the Xbox 360 platform. The FINAL FANTASY series is said to be the most widely distributed game series of all time, and is Square Enix’s most successful franchise, having sold more than 63 million units worldwide.



Rob Smith, associate publisher of Official Xbox Magazine said, "A massively multiplayer game as huge and popular as FINAL FANTASY XI coming to Xbox 360 is fantastic news for gamers. We're delighted to deliver the beta version, along with a huge preview in the February issue that unveils everything you would want to know about this ground-breaking game."



In addition, Official Xbox Magazine will include an editorial preview section within the issue to accompany the FINAL FANTASY XI beta disc, complete with exclusive tips on how to play the game.



FINAL FANTASY and Xbox 360 fans can pick up the February 2006 issue of Official Xbox Magazine at any of more than 60,000 retail locations, including Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreens, 7-Eleven and specialty game stores.



About Official Xbox Magazine
Future US is the official licensor of Official Xbox Magazine for Microsoft and is the world's best-selling magazine 100% dedicated to everything Xbox®. As a global publication with an exclusive playable Game Disc, it aims to inspire and sustain the passion its readers feel about the Xbox and become an essential part of their Xbox experience. Launched in November 2001, Official Xbox Magazine is the first source readers turn to for official game demos, independent reviews, and the latest Xbox news. (www.officialxboxmagazine.com)

About Future
Future is the leading US publisher of cutting-edge games, computing, action sports and musician magazines, which sell in excess of 2.2 million copies per month. Future’s publications reach a young, active, affluent male audience and rank
12th among audited newsstand publishers in gross newsstand revenue. Its market-leading titles include Official Xbox Magazine, PSM: 100% Independent PlayStation 2 Magazine, PC Gamer, Maximum PC, MacAddict, Scrapbook Answers, Future Snowboarding Magazine, Snowboard Journal, Snowboarding Trade News, Skateboard Trade News, Guitar World, Guitar One, Future Music, Guitar World Acoustic, Guitar World Bass and Guitar World Legends. Future also publishes Cheat Planet.com, the fourth largest games information destination online, as well Next Generation, the leading US game industry trade news website. Future is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices in New York, Los Angeles and San Diego. (www.futureus-inc.com)

About Final Fantasy XI
FINAL FANTASY XI is a massively multi-player online role-playing game (MMORPG) with over 1.5 million characters to date. Players undertake multiple adventures through Vana'diel®, in a gaming universe that contains the award-winning visual content, innovative gameplay and deep storyline for which the FINAL FANTASY series is known. The Rise of the Zilart and Chains of Promathia expansion packs expand the storyline and open up a variety of higher-level skills and abilities. The upcoming third expansion, Treasures of Aht Urhgan™, will include the exciting introduction of the long-awaited job class, Blue Mage. With the release of the Xbox 360 version, Square Enix will be expanding its cross-platform strategy, making FINAL FANTASY XI available to a much wider audience around the world. The powerful next-generation capabilities of Xbox 360 will provide a much more dynamic and visually impressive gateway to Vana'diel. In addition, players can finally experience FINAL FANTASY XI in hi-def, only on Xbox 360.


About Square Enix Co., Ltd. and Square Enix, Inc.


Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Square Enix Co., Ltd. (Square Enix) develops, publishes and distributes entertainment content including interactive entertainment software and publications in Japan, North America, Europe and Asia. Square Enix brings two of Japan’s best-selling franchises – FINAL FANTASY, which has sold over 63 million units worldwide, and DRAGON QUEST™, which has sold over 40 million units worldwide – under one roof. Square Enix is one of the most influential providers of digital entertainment content in the world and continues to push the boundaries of creativity and innovation.

Square Enix, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Square Enix Co., Ltd. with offices in Los Angeles, CA and Seattle, WA. It handles operations in North America, including development, localization, marketing and publishing of Square Enix titles. More information on Square Enix can be found on the Internet at www.square-enix.com/na.




CHAINS OF PROMATHIA, FINAL FANTASY, RISE OF THE ZILART, SQUARE ENIX, TREASURES OF AHT URHGAN, DRAGON QUEST, and VANA'DIEL are trademarks or registered trademarks of Square Enix Co., Ltd. in Japan and/or other countries.

Xbox and Xbox 360 are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/ or other countries

O yeah u can just bet i will pick up a copy for myself..^^ Grrrrr now i need to buy me a HD TV to take full advantage of the game's graphics lol

[Markus]

Yea I saw this too. I need to get me a copy of that demo disk!

[Nickrhodes]

W00t guess what guys? I got off the phone with my freind at Squaresoft in San Diego and I just found out something for the Xbox 360 that i have been hoping they would do. He told me they are working on using the headset for Xbox 360 users. They are trying to fix the bugs on it. So that means that Xbox 360 users of Ffonline can talk to each other but when you need to talk to someone on the PC or PS2 side you will use the keyboard like always. Yaaa happy happy bout that heheh. He mentioned that you will have to go through some channels i believe to activate the voice portion for xbox 360 users then go online with FFonline..Once again yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa so for those getting the Xbox 360 version of it we can now talk to each other in real time.. Go EO and Square~!!

[tarick]

Cause Nick wasn't distracted enough during sky runs...now he'll be talking to 4 other people at the same time...

[_Code]

If they do the Paltalk or actual Voip for FFXI xbox, that will pretty much guarantee Xbox Only servers.

Not to mention, I certainly hope that doesn't happen, it would be SOoooo complex for /tell-/shout-/say-/linkshell, not to mention inflection in a party setup could get alot of people in trouble. With typing, you have the time to think out that typing "why the fuck would your dumb fucking ass voke a pugil you horrible fucking valkurm tank cock sucking mother...." before you say it... with Voice, that shit would definately get out before I rethought that course of action.

I know i've typed it out several times, then deleted it before i've sent it.

_Code

[Nauren]

/em turns off headset volume.

damn that...I'm annoyed enough by what the idiots type..I don't need to underage 12 yo trying to cuss me out because he is a noob.

That would also mean that there will be no world passes for xbox 360 users either.

So ultimately..that means nick will have to start a new charactor on the xbox 360 platform.

[_Code]

_{and donate his KC to Code......}

Yeah, all I need to hear is one underager call me an "asshat" before i'd go off.

[Nickrhodes]

Guys xbox 360 will not be on xbox live servers they are tying them to the squaresoft servers. Ive played on xbox live servers for over one year and yes u will have peeps cussing and talking shyt but square can't do anything about it cuz they won't be liable for what you say online. just keep in mind that not everyone has a potty mouth. I hated playing with those peeps. I'm looking forward to it. I got spoiled when i played Phantasy Star online for xbox just for the fact i did not have to type. I had friends of all ages teens and adults. I just choosed to have there gamertags on my freinds list. On xbox live you can blist peeps. its easy just turn off your voice on them by clicking on there name. Again this will not be on xbox live servers this wil be on the squaresoft servers just like the PC and PS2 users. I just hope they work the bugs out of it.

[_Code]

nah, we weren't saying xbox servers, as in Microsoft, we meant xbox servers as in Xbox exclusive servers, Possibly open up Atomos as the server for XBox players. Which was in the rumor mill for a while, that Xbox users wouldnt intermingle with PS and PC users

_Code

[Nauren]

Whats odd about this...is SE announced they have no interests in creating an audible option and this was less then a month ago that I read this. None the less......I will not be using this feature....99.9% of the people on FFXI are dumb asses and prove so in their typing skills. It will only lead to flame wars shouting etc. As it is now..most people walk through jeuno blisting people along the way.

[Kǽne]

Gotta love the voice chat for general gaming. I remember back in my MW4 league gaming days. Our group had dedicated group chat for our own chatting/coordination during league matches as well as just general gaming. The group was composed of adults for the most part (18-40) so much of the n00bish talk was limited.

There was one time I joined a general FFA (free for all) that had a voice chat server set up . . . yeah after that I never joined a public voip channel again. Granted our chat channels likely had more obscenities flying about when in the heat of combat, but never that kind of childish bickering.

In real life all of the players we had were awesome people. I doubt any of them had language problems, but when we got into the heat of combat. Well let's just say the couple younger members we had made sure to have headphones readily available.

In FFXI I don't see the type of gaming that warrants the necessity for voice chat. It's just not fast paced enough in my opinion. PC has always had the capability for voice chat running in the background, and to this day I've yet to see much talk about using it in game. In my opinion voice chat will only be a gimmick for xbox users. There'll be little benefit to it in FFXI. Ballista would be a lot more fun with it I bet, but not so much for general play.

[Nickrhodes]

For those of us that have the Xbox 360 FFonline:
The Hydra world is the stage for the Xbox 360 Beta and is currently home to many thousands of players from Japan, North America, and Europe. With the number of simultaneous logins exceeding the public worlds, the strong North American and European presence can be seen in the peak login time that begins in Japan's morning and stretches into the afternoon.

As was previously announced, the sale and official commencement of service for the Xbox 360 version of FINAL FANTASY XI will coincide with the release date of the upcoming expansion disc, Treasures of Aht Urhgan. All three expansion discs-Rise of the Zilart, Chains of Promathia, and Treasures of Aht Urhgan-will be included in the release version of FINAL FANTASY XI for the Xbox 360.

As the date for official service looms nearer, the development team is looking into the possibility of transferring character data to the public servers for all players currently enjoying the Xbox 360 Beta. As the beta testing continues, however, technical issues may arise that could prevent such a transfer. We will be sure to bring you updates on this matter as soon as they are available.

We would like to remind players that it is possible to make an Xbox 360 Beta character using an existing PlayOnline account for Windows or the PlayStation 2. A FINAL FANTASY XI character made with a PlayOnline Beta account for the Xbox 360 cannot be transferred to an existing account on a different platform

[Kaifu1]

I can hear it now...

"Heal me!!!"
"Haha, I pulled hate of the tank. *hate puller dies* *(*#&%#@"
I can see it helping in some places, and hindering in others. The more people you have, the less its going to help, unless leadership is allowed control over who can talk, and who can't. Which, I don't think will be an option.

So, small events, good, big events bad.