Final Fantasy XI Shuts Down for Good on Xbox 360, PS2

The first-ever Final Fantasy MMO has ceased operation on consoles, with servers for Final Fantasy XI going permanently offline today on two platforms.

Both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 versions of the game have been phased out as of earlier today, March 31. Square Enix warned players this would be happening last March, around the time it announced plans to develop a mobile version in collaboration with Nexon Korea.

Final Fantasy XI first launched in Japan in 2002 on PC and PS2. Western releases followed over the next two years on both platforms, with the Xbox 360 version coming in 2006.

Service for Final Fantasy XI's PC version continues; a note from Square Enix says that console players are able to move over to that version without having to buy any new software. Of course, that requires them to have a PC capable of running the game. Being such an old game, it doesn't require a particularly modern system to run. Nevertheless, a benchmarking tool is available to see how your computer will hold up running the game.

Meanwhile, the more recent Final Fantasy MMO, Final Fantasy XIV, continues to operate on PC and PS4 and sounds like it's doing reasonably well. Xbox head Phil Spencer talked last year about why the game isn't also available on Xbox One, and just recently, he said on Twitter that it would be "great" to have on the platform.