News

In a recent news conference to discuss their projected earnings, Square Enix revealed that it will not ship the Japanese release of Final Fantasy XII in March 2004 as first announced.

Because of this news, Squenix has lowered its predicted earnings from ten billion Yen to eight billion Yen for this fiscal year (which ends in March). However, the company hopes to make up some of this through its recently announced Dragon Quest V remake. The company plans to have this title out the door by the end of the fiscal year.

Source: Games_Are_Fun

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I'm almost glad this game is being delayed. Square Enix has been pumping out Final Fantasy titles much too quickly as of late. I actually have high expectations for this title because of the team that is putting this one together.

As Neal mentioned yesterday, these forums have now hit 20,000 posts. I promised the possibility of more fun stats today, and I just thought I would oblige.

The stats program for our website categorizes traffic to the site on several categories. Briefly, here's a rundown of how that works:



Why is this important, you ask? Well, it will help you understand the following numbers:



Now, you might be wondering why that info is important. More likely, you've already figured it out. But for the sake of argument, I'll spell it out here: each one of those numbers is the highest the site has ever recorded. Ever. The basic upshot is that October of 2003 has been, yet again, the biggest month for traffic that the site has ever had. Several months this year have had high numbers in one category or another, but October is the first month that we have ever set records in every category across the board.

In other news, while October was a relatively quiet month in chat, chatstats will show you one fun little fact; since we first started tracking chat stats in January of 2002, we have logged over one million lines in channel #narshe.

Thanks to all the loyal visitors, yet again, who have made this possible!

CoN forums have reached 20,000 posts, an excellent landmark. The way the posts are stacking up, it's anyone's guess as to when we reach 30,000. If I were to make a guess, I'd say around April or May of 2004, unless the number of posts continues to increase. The 20,000th post was made by the site webmaster, Rangers51, in the Dragon Quest 5 Remake thread.

For those of you that aren't reading this through the forums and aren't members yet, consider joining up.

Square Enix has announced through V-Jump magazine that a Dragon Quest V remake is in progress.

The remake of the 1992 Super Famicom title will be for the Playstation 2. The original was one of the Dragon Quest titles that did not see North American shores as a Dragon Warrior title. It is unclear whether the remake will either. The graphics will be upgraded, but it is not believe they will be even up to par with the PS1 Dragon Quest/Dragon Warrior VII.

Games_Are_Fun has a magazine scan that shows a few scenes from the game.

Source: Games_Are_Fun

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I have only played Dragon Warrior 1. It was probably seven or eight years ago now, but I think I recall enjoying it. So I'll definitely be interested in this if it is reasonably priced. I don't mind some of these remakes as long as they are reasonably priced and the companies are still trying to make other new, innovative titles at the same time that they are working on these.

Service for Square's newest addition to the FF series, Final Fantasy XI, began yesterday in North America.

For those not familiar with the title, Final Fantasy XI is Square's first Massively Multiplayer Online RPG (MMORPG) release. The game offers players a myriad of gameplay experiences, from customizable characters to multiple platform support.
Character customization includes race, gender, and job class. Available races include Hume, Elvaan, Tarutaru, Galka, and Mithra. Fifteen job classes have been released on the Official FFXI website (including Final Fantasy classics like White Mage, Black Mage, and Thief), along with allusions that other jobs may exist as well.
FFXI has currently been released on both Windows and PS2. Players on both platforms can play and interact on the same realms; additionally, realms are international, allowing players from different nations to team up to complete quests. Also, Square has included an automatic in-game translation system for common phrases to help facilitate international gameplay.

More can be read at Square's recently revamped FFXI site, The Final Fantasy XI Van'Diel Journal

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Hype about the game's release seems high among Caves of Narshe members. In a recent poll on the website, over two thirds of the 201 responding members said they would purchase the game for one of the available platforms. Complete poll results are below:

Thinking about getting Final Fantasy 11?

25.4% - I'll buy it for PS2
34.8% - I'll but it for PC
6.5% - I'll buy it, but I don't know for which platform
16.4% - I'll try it before making a decision
16.9% - It's not for me

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Admittedly, I'm a little skeptical about the game.
After hearing about the major server problems upon initial release in Japan, and after witnessing first-hand the endless shelves of unsold FFXI copies in Japanese gaming stores, I can't help but wonder if the game will really work out to be everything Square's said it will be...

Sony announced today that it would be cutting 20,000 jobs worldwide. The 20,000 jobs constitue 13 percent of the company's total employees. It is not certain where the jobs will be cut, but it is known that the first 7,000 will be from Japan.

Poor sales of the Playstation 2 and Trinitron TV sets are being blamed for contributing to Sony's declining revenue and its thus needed restructuring.

Source: Gamestop

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It's never good to hear about job cuts. Hopfully, those who are getting layed off will find new employers quickly.