Rapture, a Flagship Title

Some more news came out recently relating to Square Enix's address to investors last month.  According to Kotaku, Square Enix's president, Yoichi Wada, stated that while Final Fantasy XI was indeed profitable for the company, it would not last forever.  He continued by informing investors that they are currently developing a post-FFXI flagship title.  In my opinion, this leaves little doubt that Rapture will be a feature rich and dynamic title, rather than a casual/free MMO, in an attempt to recapture profits for their online gaming division.

Square Enix's President Yoichi Wada

Source: http://kotaku.com/5165833/square-enix-still-workin-on-that-new-mmo

Special thanks to ClovisVer for submitting this story.

Rapture to Replace FFXI?

Some interesting news was contained in Square Enix's financial reports for this past year.  It seems as though FFXI subscriptions have been declining since last year.  Combine that with the worsening exchange rate and the result is a hit to the typical high revenue production from SE's Online Gaming Division.  A supplemental information packet was put out with the report (only in Japanese) that indicated that SE was developing a game to replace Final Fantasy XI.

Does this mark the end of FFXI?

Popular opinion around the gaming community have sided with the idea that this news indicates that FFXI will be closing the servers with the launch of Rapture.  However, SE has stated that as long as enough people play the game, they will continue to support it.  Whatever the case, I recommend checking out the source to this post as a couple of their writers have contributed some interesting view points on the topic.

Source: http://www.jpbutton.com/?p=2122