Square is suspending Final Fantasy XI and PlayOnline service.
June 12, 2002 - Continuing the growing pains of Square's first online RPG, Final Fantasy XI and the PlayOnline online service will suspend operations from 8:00AM Japan time on Friday, June 14 until noon that same day, Square announced today. The downtime will be used for maintenance of the PlayOnline database servers, bug fixes to the Final Fantasy XI text interface, and further implementation of the new patch for the FFXI game client.
Final Fantasy XI First Patch
An odd sort of milestone, as Square updates its new MMORPG.
June 11, 2002 - Square completed a version upgrade of Final Fantasy XI today, the company announced on its official site. Thus, the company records an unusual milestone in history, releasing what we believe is the first patch ever made for a console game. The modifications to the client software, which players can download from the game's main title interface, fix several bugs, add new features, and tweak existing features. The patch is required to access the game after 9AM today (Japanese time), and registration of new users to the PlayOnline service, as well as cancellation of existing accounts, is suspended for 24 hours after that point in order to prevent difficulties resulting from the additional server load.
Essential Reality, LLC announced today that it has executed a letter of intent with Lionhead Studios, one of the world's leading computer game developers, granting Essential Reality the right to fully integrate it’s new P5™ technology into Lionhead’s popular PC games, “Black & White” and “Black & White: Creature Isle.” In addition to enabling Black & White to work with the P5™ controller, the two companies are planning a number of co-promotion and joint-marketing initiatives to promote the P5 enhanced versions of the games.
"Black & White is the perfect gaming platform to demonstrate the power and technical achievement of our new P5™ technology," said Martin Currie, VP of Business Development. "Players will be able to directly control the characters and action of Black & White with intuitive movements of their hand and fingers. Black and White has sold over 1.8 million units and has a large and active user base. Enhancing the game with our P5™ technology will bring a whole new level of interactivity and enjoyment to the hard core Black and White fan base.”
"In the unique world of Black & White, the cursor is shaped as a life-like hand. Adding real-time hand, finger and wrist movements to the game using the new P5™ controller will undoubtedly further enhance the illusion of reality and popularity of Black and White," said Peter Molyneux, managing director of Lionhead. “The P5™ will add a whole new level of excitement to the “Black and White” gaming experience.
The P5 is particularly well suited for gamers because the majority of today’s games have a 3D user interface. Action games, RPGs, first-person shooters, adventure games and sports games will all be enhanced by the ability to move easily and intuitively in 3D space.
The P5 uses Essential Reality’s proprietary bend sensor and tracking technologies to enable full interaction with a 3D environment. Fully USB compliant, the first generation P5ä is designed for compatibility with the Microsoft Windows 98, Windows ME and MS 2000 operating systems. Additionally, Essential Reality expects that the P5 will be compatible with the Microsoft XP, MAC OSX and OSIX operating systems, as well as the PlayStation2 and Microsoft Xbox game consoles. Color images of the P5ä can be seen at www.essentialreality.com/products.html
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