Final Fantasy XIV[b] is a discontinued 2010 massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) for Windows, developed and published by Square Enix.

Critic and fan backlash caused Square Enix to suspend subscription fees, indefinitely postpone the PlayStation 3 version, and replace the development team leadership, with Naoki Yoshida brought in as producer and director.

Yoshida decided to make marginal improvements before the game's shutdown, ultimately replacing it with a new version initially subtitled A Realm Reborn, which met with a favorable reception upon its release.

Final Fantasy XIV was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) in which the player controlled a customized Adventurer avatar from one of the five playable races.

[8][9] Other important locations include the scholarly city-state of Sharlayan and the Garlean Empire, a hostile northern power with highly developed technology.

In response to the Empire's threat, the three nations of Eorzea reformed the Grand Companies, comprehensive centers of command which combine the cities' military and economic assets.

The playable races are the human-like Hyur (ヒューラン, Hyūran), the elf-like Elezen (エレゼン, Erezen), the physically-imposing Roegadyn (ルガディン, Rugadin), the diminutive Lalafell (ララフェル, Raraferu), and the feline Miqo'te (ミコッテ, Mikotte).

[13] Aside from these races are the beastmen, tribes who worship ancient gods called the primals, which require aether-rich crystals and whose presence damages the planet.

With the aid of Garlean defector Cid nan Garlond, the Adventurers discover that Nael has set up a beacon for summoning Dalamud in the new fortress of Castrum Novum.

The Adventurers pray to altars dedicated to the Twelve across the land, then rally with the armies of the Eorzean Alliance to fight Nael's legion on the Carteneau Flats, the predicted impact site of Dalamud.

While it had been decided within the company that MMORPGs would be mainline entries rather than spin-offs, the team was worried that the final product would be too radical for the main numbered series.

The setting and gameplay were decided upon before Sato was brought on board, with the result that she needed to consult the rest of the team when she wished to use one of Eorzea's main locations in a certain way.

The placement of the Garlean Empire to the northeast of Eorzea was not meant to simulate a real-world location but naturally ended up there as the map of Hydaelyn was being created.

Alongside creating a seamless travel experience for players, careful work was put into the topography and varied lighting of environments so they would not seem repetitive.

[18] One of the most challenging sequences to create was the opening real-time cutscene for the Limsa Lominsa story route: the giant sea serpent's fins were each individually animated.

[19] All the in-game models were first created in high-resolution form using a 3D sculpturing program, then readjusted so they could appear in the game with a lower polygon count but equivalent graphical quality.

[22] This issue also impacted the game's environments; to save on memory space while preserving seamless travel, the team needed to reuse environmental features and textures on a regular basis.

[25][26] During the time XIV was active after the initial release, other composers including Masayoshi Soken, Naoshi Mizuta, Tsuyoshi Sekito and Ryo Yamazaki contributed to the score.

[32] XIV was first hinted at the 2005 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) when Square Enix announced that they were developing a new MMORPG, showing it off using a tech demo.

[33] In 2006, rumors emerged that Square Enix was developing a direct sequel to Final Fantasy XI, but further details remained unknown.

[39] According to Yoichi Wada, then-CEO of Square Enix, XIV was being planned as a serious rival to the successful western MMORPG World of Warcraft.

[46] The open Beta test was originally scheduled to begin on August 31 but was indefinitely postponed due to the discovery of critical bugs in the game.

[5][50] During its debut week in Japan, the Collector's Edition reached #2 in the PC games charts behind Civilization 5 and ahead of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.

[2] PC Gamer called the game "a shallow, slow, grind-heavy MMO crippled by a horrible interface and nonsensical player limitations".

[57] GameSpy was again highly critical, saying that "barring a complete overhaul of the user interface, the combat, the player interaction mechanics, the progress system, and of the layout of the world itself, Final Fantasy XIV is unlikely to ever be fun".

[64][65] The position of producer and director was taken over by Naoki Yoshida, a staff member at Square Enix who had previously worked on the Dragon Quest series.

[61] Yoshida also introduced the official Final Fantasy XIV forums in order to obtain player feedback and suggestions, and stated that interacting with and growing closer to the community would be a high priority.

[77] The flawed release and poor reception of the game had a heavy impact on Square Enix: citing XIV among other reasons, the company reduced its projected income for the year by 90%.

[81] Yoshida, commenting in a later interview, said that A Realm Reborn was just the first part of regaining player trust after the release of XIV, predicting that the process would take a long time.

[21] In a 2019 interview with Easy Allies, Yoshida joked that the idea of a legacy XIV 1.0 server (in the vein of World of Warcraft Classic) would be a "nightmare".