FFXIV's Producer and Director, Naoki Yoshida, just released an updated roadmap for the relaunch of FFXIV: A Realm Reborn. The schedule has changed a bit from the previous incarnation, but it's all in the best interest of the game's second chance to impress the world.  Read on for details.

The beta testing application site opens in early January, and the full details of the roadmap can be found on the game's official Lodestone site.

As a Legacy STatus member with dibs on phase 1... i approve of this message.

Housing, level sync, and structured PvP?

Didn't know any of those features were going to be in XIV.

Nice... hopefully can get my paws on a beta key in a few months!

Originally posted by BadSpock

Housing, level sync, and structured PvP?

Didn't know any of those features were going to be in XIV.

Nice... hopefully can get my paws on a beta key in a few months!

Housing is a great idea,i also heard it will be sort of liek Archeage and have outside plots/gardens.However,it shoud lahve been there on release,that is a sign the developer as i already knew for past 3-4 years has become very greedy and releasing unfinished content.

Level sync ,again what was the hold up?

PVp imo is ALWAYS done god awful and will be a negative on anything positive the game is doing.Their direction to be yet anotehr WOW copy cat,is frustrating as heck.

IMO it  was an absolute terrible rendition of FFXI,even with improvements,it's whoel design does nothing to curb me from a much better product in FFXi.

The Company ideas are the worst,here they are trying top copy cat the trends ,yet are creating ideas that enforce large group content.I wish they would pay attention,the majority and i mean a LARGE majority want solo.I do NOTY want solo, but i do want to see NOTHING resembling Leves/dailies or Raids,i want top see what has PROVEN to work ,three to 6 man group content.

Most of all i want to see a stop to over used menus and forcing too many clicks.Fishing for example ,NEEDS to FUN ,not more clicks and menus.FFXI fishing was a boring start,but it had substance and depth,it just needed graphics and FUN mechanics.

TP system in FFXI was imo the best design in combat over any game,the Renkai system also great,all they had to do was tweak and improve the depth of it in FFXIV.What they did was ruin combat in FFXiv .

I am not really surprised art the poor design decision,it is not supposed to please me but instead please whomever they think they are catering to.I have seen and played the FF franchise forever,i have not agreed with many of the games,but i did soprt of like X and the FFFXi predecessor FFV.I actually could not stand FFVII while that is the game that saved Sqaure Enix from bankruptcy,so you can see how people have a huge contrast in likes and dislikes.

Originally posted by Aalamr
Lucky I have legacy status but that's a pretty big kick in the teeth to alpha testers who actually gave productive input rather than treat it as early access.

A lot of the good alphas would have legacy I guess (not me alas), but we don't want too much exposer to the beta, it now seems will have a lot more of the content in each phase now than we thought, which makes the risk of beta burn-out much higher. Even those alphas that did indeed treat the alpha as early accsess, and worse broke NDA to bad mouth and pre-judge the game (you know who you are) may change their minds if they get into beta and see a fuller version of ARR.

If Yoshi and his team manage to get all those things listed into each phase I'll be very impressed.

Originally posted by hikaru77
Didnt know about the housing system and PvP, looks good. This will be P2P or B2P, i remember someone talking about B2P model thats why i ask. 

It will be P2P 12.95 usd for one character on every sever 14.95 usd for 6 on every server.

I'm curious: what's so exciting about level sync?

Phase 4 being an Open Beta is good I guess, people will get to try the game out before deciding to purchase.

Originally posted by atticusbc
cool. so mid 2013 release then. i'm looking foward to arr mostly to see if they can pull it off.

Highly doubt its gonna be mid 2013. At most probably late march.

Originally posted by Phrame

I'm curious: what's so exciting about level sync?

Phase 4 being an Open Beta is good I guess, people will get to try the game out before deciding to purchase.

Makes finding/making parties a bit easier as people outside your level range (ie those who are higher than you, or in some cases lower if you wish) can still group with you. 

Driven: It's 8 character slots per server not 6.