Square Enix has announced that a mobile version of its hit MMO, Final Fantasy 14, is in development.
Introducing a trailer, Final Fantasy 14 producer and director Naoki Yoshida revealed the mobile version of the game is being developed by Lightspeed Studios. Lightspeed is a Chinese studio, part of the Tencent conglomerate, and the developer of the hugely successful mobile version of PUBG. Final Fantasy 14 Mobile will launch in China first, with a global release following later.
Converting Final Fantasy 14 to mobile will be no easy task. An 11-year-old PC and console game, it’s easily within the technical capabilities of most modern smartphones. But like most MMOs, it has an involved interface and controls that cover a wide range of functions and player abilities. Square Enix promises “controls optimized for mobile devices.”
It’s apparent that Lightspeed is producing a somewhat streamlined version of the game which will run on a separate track, rather than a mobile client for the current Final Fantasy 14. The official website notes that FF14 Mobile will start with just nine character jobs (the current game has 10 base classes and 21 jobs). Yoshida expressed a hope that “those who are interested in exploring [the] story” of FF14 will take an interest in the mobile version. But FF14 Mobile is otherwise quite full-featured, including side activities like fishing, Chocobo racing, the Triple Triad card game, and customizable housing.
Square Enix didn’t discuss a business model for the game. On PC and console, Final Fantasy 14 is a premium game that also requires a subscription. But a free-to-play conversion seems very likely for the mobile game.
This new mobile version seems like an attempt by Square Enix to find new players for Final Fantasy 14 — especially in China, where gamers tend not to balk at playing even the most involved online games on their phones. HoYoverse has found massive success there with games like Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail, and Zenless Zone Zero, and Final Fantasy 14’s pretty aesthetic and fairly relaxed, social gameplay seem like a good fit for this market. The China-first release and choice of a local, specialist developer to do the conversion are also signs of Square Enix’s intent.
Hopefully, FF14 Mobile will fare better than the mobile version of Square Enix’s previous MMO, Final Fantasy 11, which was in development for years in collaboration with South Korea’s Nexon before being canceled in 2020.
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