Tough news for Xbox players as Final Fantasy XIV is set to drop on the console soon, but it’s been announced the game will require a Game Pass subscription on top of the game’s own monthly fee to play. The open beta test for the Xbox Series X/S version will take place later this month to kick things off, but some strange news has been shared on the official website about the requirements to play.
For those who haven’t played before, Final Fantasy XIV is a mostly multiplayer online role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix, a Japanese video game publisher. So far, the game has been playable on PlayStation 3, 4 and 5 as well as macOS and Windows, with lots of speculation as to when the game would finally arrive on Xbox. Now the news has arrived, the gaming requirements are proving controversial with many gamers not expecting to have to pay what is being dubbed as a “double fee” to participate.
For UK players, the subscription will cost up to £8.99 a month for the game and then the additional Xbox Game Pass fee of £12.99 a month.
The information was included in the open beta details available on the official Final Fantasy XIV website this week in the ‘How to Participate’ section. According to the announcement, whereas the free beta test won’t require players to have Xbox Game Pass, the full version will require this subscription going forward.
This is sadly contrasting with Sony, where PlayStation players do not require a PlayStation Plus subscription to have to play the game. PlayStation players should have an entirely separate Square Enix account linked to their PlayStation network, so there are a lot of curious questions ringing as to why this was not possible for Xbox.
It hasn’t been confirmed as to why this isn’t the same case for the Microsoft console, but speculation is that it could have to do with different partnerships between Square Enix and the two consoles. The open beta test will go ahead and launch on Wednesday 21st February and is available to new players who will be experiencing the game for the very first time.
Words by Maisie Hancox
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