August 2013

Here you can find news items that were posted on Hell and Heaven Net in the past.

Final Fantasy XIV

It seems that Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is so populair and due to long waiting times for people who want to play the game Square Enix has halted the digital sales to fix the server issues.

Important Notice About FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn - Due to the overwhelmingly positive response to FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn, we are currently experiencing extremely long wait times for users to be able to log in and play. As a temporary measure, we will halt sales of FINAL FANTASY XIV: A REALM REBORN’s digital download products so we can accommodate all of those wishing to play. We are working to expand our server capacity in the coming days.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this causes.

Please stay tuned to our official Twitter account for the latest updates.

https://twitter.com/ffxiv_news_en

Final Fantasy XIV

After 3 closed beta's and previous weekend the open beta today is the day that Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is available worldwide for PC and PlayStation 3! Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (previously known as Final Fantasy XIV: Version 2.0) is a rebuild of the original version which was released back in 2010, but was poorly received.

Players who pre-ordered the game and players with legacy status can already play the game for three days, only during these days Square Enix had a lot of technical issues and due to high traffic a login limitation was setup causing a lot of players getting errors or standing in a queue.

To celebrate a launch of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Square Enix has released the launch trailer.

Final Fantasy X

Square Enix has released a new trailer of Final Fantasy X / X-2 HD Remaster with new footage. The video shows a sequence of battles, focusing on Overdrives, in the original release and in the HD version. They've also have arranged the battle music in the HD version. What are your opinions?

Square Enix

Square Enix has announced that Drakengard 3 (in Japan known as Drag-on Dragoon 3), which was set to release in Japan on 31 October 2013, has been delayed to 19 December 2013. According to Square Enix the reason for the delay is to further enhance the game’s quality to meet player expectations.

Drakengard 3 screenshot

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

Gamescom has begon and Square Enix released a new trailer of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII called The Savior’s Choice. This trailer will take you to the The Wildlands; a rough expanse of wilderness that will reunite Lightning with Chocobos, Moogles (Kupo!), and an old friend: Sazh. There's also a glimpse of Lightning's unique battle abilities.

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII will be released in Japan on 21 November 2013. North America will follow on 11 February 2014 and Europe 3 days later on 14 February 2014.

Sony

During the PlayStation gamescom 2013 press conference in Cologne Sony has announced that the PlayStation 4 will be released in North America on 15 November and Europe will get it 2 weeks later on 29 November. Sony expects to launch the PlayStation 4 in 32 countries this holiday season. They also revealed that already 1,000,000 preorders have been made.

During the press conference Sony did also announce a price drop for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita which will be available for €199 / $199 each.

Kingdom Hearts

With little over a month till the release of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD ReMix, Square Enix has released a new trailer showing Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix, which was never released outside Japan.

Square Enix

Square Enix has announced their line-up for gamescom, the largest trade fair for video games that takes place from 21 till 25 August in Cologne.

Playable
- Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
- Final Fantasy X / X-2 HD Remaster (PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita)
- Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4)
- Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMix (PlayStation 3)

Video
- Final Fantasy XV (PlayStation 4, Xbox One)
- Kingdom Hearts III (PlayStation 4, Xbox One)
- Murdered: Soul Suspect (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360)
- Thief (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One)

Gamescom

Final Fantasy XIV

Today part VIII of the Letter of the Producer was streamed live on YouTube. During the stream a Q&A session was held and new details have been announced containing the open beta and early access.

The open beta phase of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn will run from 17 till 19 August. Those who participated in the beta phase 3 can participate on 16 August. During the open beta the level cap will be set to level 20 and game content will also be restricted to that which can be done within level 20.

Early access will start on 24 August while the official service starts 27 August. Next to the current methods of payment, players can now also buy prepaid cards in stores which comes in 30 and 60 day options.

Letter from the Producer Part VII

Another feature that was showed today during the stream was the app called Libra Eorzea where players can login and check their character, check their gear, quests, instances and more. The iOS version will be available a week after the launch for free. Android will follow in a month.

To read the full details, check out the official forums.

Square Enix

Today, Phil Rogers, CEO for Square Enix in America and Europe has posted the following note on the Square Enix Blog.

Hello.

By way of introduction, my name is Phil Rogers and I’m the CEO for Square Enix in the Americas and Europe looking after our studio and publishing businesses. I think it’s clear to everyone that the games industry is rapidly changing – there are now more and more ways to play (and pay for) games. Through these and other advancements, gaming is taking a greater part of people’s time, fitting within a broad entertainment landscape which is offering greater choice, freedom and expression. As this industry evolves and changes, we have to change too. 

There’s been speculation and commentary made this year about Square Enix’s strategy in the Americas and Europe, and I know we’ve not outwardly commented or addressed this, so some folk may be confused about what we’re actually doing – therefore I want to try and explain directly to you here on our Square Enix blog. 

Luminous Studio 

First and foremost, we are a games company and today we devote most of our time and effort into developing new and rich gameplay experiences, worlds and characters. At the same time new business models have risen up, which we periodically will try to explore. I know this can be frustrating for some long-time fans of our games, particularly if it seems that we’re heading in unfamiliar directions without much in the way of explanation. Explaining our approach to these opportunities is something we’re working to improve on. That said, we need to experiment and adapt or it’s likely we won’t always be in a position to keep investing in the ways we need, to build-out our games and offer excellence to you, our gamers. 

I can categorically say that we’re not abandoning core, triple-A console and PC games. We’re working hard at improving how we develop our games and how we release them, and I want to explain that in a little more detail.

We’ve recently re-orientated our studio leadership to focus production expertise at the top, to allow us to ship the best quality games possible, faster and with better cost control. We’ve taken away administrative duties from studio heads, so they get closer to the games, gameplay and gamers with fewer distractions. We’ve made these changes to all of our studios in the Americas and Europe and we believe this will improve not only the quality of our games, but also improve the time between releases.

Final Fantasy XV logo

Square Enix is in production with a number of next generation projects, including Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III, which were announced at this year’s E3, and Thief coming in 2014. I am also excited to reveal that we are well into development on a next-generation Tomb Raider sequel – something you may have heard about recently!

In the future, we’ll offer gamers more choice, support more platforms and try new things – but we will make sure that whatever the platform, we’ll always keep our focus on raising the quality bar. We feel that is what gamers should expect from a Square Enix game.  

I’ve spent the past few months building a senior team in the Americas and Europe to support our new and evolving strategy. We plan to share a fuller title release plan with you soon on games ranging from next-gen blockbusters (the above mentioned Tomb Raider sequel) to new cutting-edge tablet and mobile games (such as the recently released Deus Ex: The Fall), to live and online PC games (our now in beta Heroes & Generals).

You will definitely hear more soon about which games we’re working on, when you should look out for them and more frequent updates on how development is going. Please feel free to mail me your feedback. I can’t promise I’ll respond to every mail but you can be sure your concerns will be heard and taken on board. 

Thanks for reading,

Phil.