When Final Fantasy XIV launched in 2010 expectations were high, as the newest online title from one of the most beloved RPG series around, and a successor to the wildly successful MMO Final Fantasy XI. Unfortunately, Final Fantasy XIV ended up being a catastrophic failure for Square Enix, easily one of the worst the company had ever seen. That’s what makes it so remarkable that all these years later, it’s the most successful MMO in the entire world.
The original 1.0 version of FFXIV had a disastrous launch, and the game was clearly not ready for prime time. Major technical issues marred the experience, and entire systems were simply broken. All of this led to Square Enix issuing massive apologies and shutting the game down, while it worked on a completely new version that would relaunch FFXIV, with A Realm Reborn in 2013.
A team led by Naoki Yoshida was brought in to work on a new vision of the game. Yoshida had previously worked on Dragon Quest series, including serving as chief planner on the MMO Dragon Quest X. Yoshida would prove indispensable to the relaunch of FFXIV, and his work would lead him to become a superstar within the player community.
