Final Fantasy 14 Launches Open Beta On Xbox Series X|S

mmorpg.com:

After years of demand, Final Fantasy 14, the critically-acclaimed MMORPG with an extended free trial that goes up to the second expansion, Stormblood, up to level 70 with no limits on playtime, is now live as an open beta on the Xbox Series X|S. But there are a few catches—and if you’re a current player, you should pull the reins for a bit. 

Firstly, in case it’s a concern, the MMORPG is controller-friendly, and has been for years. It launched with compatibility for PC and Playstation, with controller and keyboard/mouse options available on both platforms. (This author even raids with a PS-first player, so there you go.) 

You may also need to adjust a few safety settings, as outlined on the official FFXIV instruction page for the open beta. Many who have a high level of social protection levels would be blocked, given FFXIV is an MMORPG first and foremost. 

The catches start adding up from here. For now, there’s no subscription requirement for either the game nor Xbox. Unfortunately in the long run, it seems FFXIV was unable to cut the Xbox online subscription requirement, unlike the PS version, where access doesn’t require a sub. Therefore, while the open beta will not require an Xbox Game Pass, the full version upon release will require this subscription. 

There’s also an interesting other requirement for the beta: only new accounts wll be able to join. Your Xbox account will be immediately linked to the FFXIV/Square Enix account used for the beta. Therefore, the developers strongly recommend against current players trying the beta. Yes, this means that if you link a beta FFXIV account to your Xbox Game Pass, you’ll have to buy another account’s Game Pass subscription to re-join with your old character. 

This is your warning. Don’t mess that up. 

As a reminder as well, this is an open beta for an entirely new platform, so registration and compatibility mess-ups are entirely possible. Hopefully they go away by the full launch, which exists currently on an unknown