Final Fantasy XIV is one of the most successful MMORPGs currently on the market, with around 30 million registered users worldwide. The FFXIV player base is currently split across the PC, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms, but soon mobile users will be able to get a taste. Earlier this morning, Final Fantasy XIV producer and director, Naoki Yoshida, announced Final Fantasy XIV Mobile.
There is no word on an official release date, but Square Enix made it clear that the game would release in mainland China first, and then release globally after all of the kinks have been worked out.
The initial release in China makes sense because Chinese developers Lightspeed Studios are behind the development of FFXIV Mobile. Lightspeed Studios is known for also co-developing PUBG Mobile. But there’s one burning question about the emergence of this announcement…
Why Release Final Fantasy XIV On Mobile?
Many current players of Final Fantasy XIV were taken aback at this news. Especially considering that the original game continues to thrive, with patch 7.1 releasing last week on November 12th, 2024.
Final Fantasy XIV is known for its fun and enthusiastic community. From personal experience, it’s the politest gaming community I’ve ever encountered in an online game. Aside from this, Final Fantasy XIV also has some of the most epic storytelling found in a Final Fantasy game for decades. Stories in MMOs don’t always hold up well against its multiplayer content, but in FFXIV, many players come just for the story alone.
Little is known about the direction of Final Fantasy XIV Mobile, but it is widely speculated that this version of the game aims to make the story of FFXIV more accessible to everyone. This looks to be a completely separate experience from the main Final Fantasy XIV live game.
Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail was the latest expansion, which was released on July 2nd, 2024. With a slew of new content in the game, long-term players are more invested in the experience than ever. However, some may feel overwhelmed by the number number of story expansions, finding it hard to catch up with the latest content. Final Fantasy XIV Mobile could be a way for Square Enix to provide a wider audience with the immersive FFXIV story experience, without them needing to commit to the main experience.
Should FFXIV Mobile hook people like the original game, perhaps they can even convert players over to the main experience. On the flip side, we can assume that FFXIV Mobile will have monetization baked into the experience, which would have the potential to evolve into its own money-maker for the company.
What Should We Expect From FFXIV Mobile?
Smartphones have come a long way. In 2024, we’ve seen the release of the iPhone 16 Pro Max, and the Galaxy Z Fold 6. These phones are powerful, but it’s still unfeasible to run the main version of FFXIV on these devices for a lengthy amount of time. Gaming is often marketed as a part of the high-end Smartphone experience, but the fact remains that phones aren’t designed to run intense experiences like FFXIV for lengthy amounts of time.
For this reason, we can expect Final Fantasy XIV Mobile to be a much more streamlined version of the experience. I expect the game to have shorter cutscenes and smaller environments. The nature of its online multiplayer might be completely transformed because of this. There will likely be several lobby interfaces in place for dungeons, trials, and raids.
Square Enix has confirmed that testing will occur in several regions before FFXIV Mobile releases in China. We can only hope that they tend to bring a test version to North America and Europe so we can see their approach.
Either way, Final Fantasy XIV is an incredible experience that isn’t celebrated enough. Let’s hope that FFXIV Mobile depicts the best parts of the Eorzean epic.
