PlayStation 3

On a press conference held by Sony today the release date of the PlayStation 4 was announced for Japan which will be 22 February 2014. This is the first time that Japan, home of PlayStation, will get the system 3 months after the United States and Europe.

Square Enix has announced that starting on that day the beta tests of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn for the PlayStation 4 will begin. Also players who are currently playing the PlayStation 3 version can switch to the PlayStation 4 version for free.

After 3 closed beta's and previous weekend the open beta today is the day that Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is available worldwide for PC and PlayStation 3! Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (previously known as Final Fantasy XIV: Version 2.0) is a rebuild of the original version which was released back in 2010, but was poorly received.

Players who pre-ordered the game and players with legacy status can already play the game for three days, only during these days Square Enix had a lot of technical issues and due to high traffic a login limitation was setup causing a lot of players getting errors or standing in a queue.

To celebrate a launch of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Square Enix has released the launch trailer.

Square Enix has announced that Drakengard 3 (in Japan known as Drag-on Dragoon 3), which was set to release in Japan on 31 October 2013, has been delayed to 19 December 2013. According to Square Enix the reason for the delay is to further enhance the game’s quality to meet player expectations.

Today part VIII of the Letter of the Producer was streamed live on YouTube. During the stream a Q&A session was held and new details have been announced containing the open beta and early access.

The open beta phase of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn will run from 17 till 19 August. Those who participated in the beta phase 3 can participate on 16 August. During the open beta the level cap will be set to level 20 and game content will also be restricted to that which can be done within level 20.

Early access will start on 24 August while the official service starts 27 August. Next to the current methods of payment, players can now also buy prepaid cards in stores which comes in 30 and 60 day options.

Another feature that was showed today during the stream was the app called Libra Eorzea where players can login and check their character, check their gear, quests, instances and more. The iOS version will be available a week after the launch for free. Android will follow in a month.

To read the full details, check out the official forums.