Final Fantasy 11 is still kicking, despite the MMO's boss expecting a "sharp decline" in interest once its Final Fantasy 14 crossover and welcome back campaigns wrapped up

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The original Final Fantasy MMO – none other than Final Fantasy 11 – continues to go from strength to strength, and not even director and producer Yoji Fujito expected to be here.

Over the past year or so, Final Fantasy 11 has had to stop accepting new players to some of its most popular worlds because the servers clearly aren't currently built to handle that level of popularity. A nice problem to have, though not one the developers expected.

Speaking to Famitsu, Fujito reckons the surge in popularity is due to a Final Fantasy 14 crossover, free prize events, and a welcome-back campaign. I'd also float that Final Fantasy 14's less-than-popular Danwalker run might have sent a few grumpy Warriors of Light their way, but I digress.

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Still, despite the surge in popularity, Fujito expected it all to calm down eventually. Expect it hasn't.

“Overall, the player count remained stable at a high level, and we never saw the kind of sharp decline we had anticipated, so honestly, the outcome exceeded our expectations and came as a surprise,” Fujito says, as translated by Automaton.

It's all rather nice, isn't it? As we previously reported, Square Enix considered winding down Final Fantasy 11 in 2024, but it's still drawing enough players to convince the powers that be to keep the good times rollin' on.

As for the future, Fujito says Final Fantasy 11 will live on. Major developments like a new world or story expansion, though, will prove tricky. There are technical limitations to overcome, and the team remains short-staffed.

Still, there's a desire on the team to overcome all of that, so Fujito would like you to think of the current moment as a preparatory phase where "we’re continuing to lay the groundwork for that sort of future development."

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Final Fantasy 14 Evercold is the MMO's next big expansion, and it's coming early next year.

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Iain HarrisNews Editor, Games

I joined GamesRadar+ in May 2022 following stints at PCGamesN and PocketGamer.Biz, with some freelance for Kotaku UK, RockPaperShotgun, and VG24/7 thrown in for good measure. When I'm not running the news team on the games side, you'll find me putting News Editor duties to one side to play the hottest JRPG of 20 years ago or pillaging the depths of Final Fantasy 14 for a swanky new cloak – the more colourful, the better.

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