In a post to Final Fantasy XIV‘s official website ‘The Lodestone’ today, Square Enix announced that the open beta test for Xbox Series X|S will kick off at 12:00am Pacific on Wednesday, February 21, 2024. In a surprise reveal at the North American fan festival held in July of last year, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer took the stage alongside the game’s director and producer Naoki Yoshida to reveal the game would be coming to Xbox platforms.
However, if you’ve already been playing Final Fantasy XIV, you’ll be excluded from the open beta test – it’s intended for wholly new players only. The developers ask that you wait until the official launch of the game to participate, which they plan to debut immediately after the conclusion of the open beta test, pending any maintenance to correct any issues revealed during said test.
Square Enix goes on to say that players will need to subscribe to Xbox Game Pass at either the Core or Ultimate tier to play after launch. PlayStation players do not need to subscribe to PlayStation Plus to play Final Fantasy XIV, meaning that Xbox players will need to maintain both subscriptions to be able to play the game.
For those Xbox players who are already subscribed to Xbox Game Pass, the free trial offers unlimited play up through the game’s expansion Stormblood, which in and of itself is hundreds of hours of content, but the prospect of paying an additional subscription beyond that gate may give some players pause. The ‘Entry’ level for Final Fantasy XIV‘s subscription is $12.99/mo. and Xbox’s ‘Core’ subscription is $9.99/mo., so expect to pay $22.98/mo. to maintain the same subscription a PlayStation player has at $12.99/mo.
To participate in the Xbox beta, you must follow Square Enix’s instructions:
- Navigate to the following menu: Settings → Account → Privacy & online safety → Xbox privacy → View details & customize.
- Adjust the following:
- Set ‘Allow’ for “You can join multiplayer games”
- Set ‘Allow’ for “You can join cross-network play”
- Set ‘Everybody’ for “Others can communicate with voice, text, or invites”
- Set ‘Everybody’ for “You can communicate outside of Xbox with voice & text”
- Navigate to the following menu: View details & customize → Game content
- Set to ‘Everybody’ for “You can see and upload community creations”
- Navigate to the Microsoft Store and search “FINAL FANTASY XIV”. Then, visit the product page.
- From the “…” section in the menu, select and download the FINAL FANTASY XIV Free Trial.
- Once the download finishes, launch the game and follow on-screen instructions.
You will also need to link your Microsoft and Square Enix accounts to play Final Fantasy XIV at launch, but Square Enix warns that this process is irreversible when linked so proceed with caution. They ask that you wait until the official release to perform this step.
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