Japan online games halted to conserve power

Update: Services for Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV will resume on March 25 at 4pm PDT.

Japan's earthquake and tsunami disaster last Friday has caused power companies in Japan to ask consumers to conserve electricity. As a result, game publishers Square Enix and Konami will be contributing by suspending their services on their respective online games.

Square Enix will temporarily halt its online services on massively multiplayer online role-playing games Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV. The services will be halted for a week starting on March 13 at 7 p.m. The Play Online support services linked to both games will also be stopped. As courtesy, Final Fantasy XI's April service will be free of charge. Because the service halt affects sessions in and out of Japan, players outside of Japan will need to check the Play Online site for further details.

Konami will be suspending its services for Metal Gear Online. It has halted it since March 12 at 10 p.m. At this point in time, there hasn't been any announcement on Konami's site on whether maintenance has finished.