Final Fantasy Hitting the 360 in April

Hard drives at the ready as the most popular RPG series around comes to Microsoft's box. New screens.

Xbox 360 owners with a hankering for some Final Fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online fun should get out their red markers. Square Enix has announced release details for both the Xbox 360 debut of the massively multiplayer chapter and the third PC expansion pack.

Final Fantasy XI for Xbox 360 is the first game in the series to land on a Microsoft console. As such, it's being watched closely, to see whether success will lead to more support from both the Japanese and Japanese developers - both of whom have been iffy on the console.

Square Enix has worked hard to get all the versions of the game working together, meaning Xbox 360 owners will be playing in the same world as the 500,000 people who have signed up for the PC and PlayStation 2 versions over the past 4 years.

The Xbox 360 version, which is in stores on 20 April, comes with both the expansion packs (Rise of the Zilart and Chains of Promethia) already out on PC and brings the upcoming third one, Treasures of Aht Urhgan, as well.

To play the game you'll need to have a broadband connection (natch) and more importantly a hard drive as well. (Final Fantasy XI is one of the first Xbox 360 games to require the hard drive.)

PC owners won't be left out of the fun. The Treasures Of Aht Urhgan expansion pack will be out for PC on the same day as the Xbox 360 version, 20 April. To play this new pack, you'll of course need to have the original game.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games