The mobile version of Final Fantasy 11 has been in the works for quite a long time now, but recent news indicates that developer Nexon may have decided to officially scrap the entire project. According to Korean gaming site MTN, the long-running project has been canceled due to the fact that no progress has been made throughout the game’s development.
No one ever thought that creating a mobile version of the MMORPG wasn’t going to be a challenge. There are several hurdles that a developer needs to face, especially in the case of Final Fantasy 11. First and foremost, the initial online multiplayer has been around for a very, very long time — nearly two decades now, to be more specific.
In addition, Nexon would have had to find a way to seamlessly transfer every aspect of the PC game into a comparably small smartphone. Obviously, doing so is no small feat either. There aren’t a lot of MMOs in the current mobile market that gives their players the same PC-like experience. Plus, most of these titles were specifically made to cater to touchscreen devices and weren’t remakes of a classic title.
That being said, a rough translation of the MTN article reads as follows: “It is a project that adopted the Unreal 4 engine and started developing in earnest from 2016, but the production was not smooth.” The report goes on to say that Nexon One Studio was responsible for creating the game since 2018, but apparently “it is known that the development direction has changed once.”
Clearly, Nexon had a difficult time trying to transform Final Fantasy 11 into a mobile MMORPG, and it appears that the developer just wasn’t sure how to proceed and which direction the game should be going.
The studio initially wanted to release the mobile title during the second half of 2019. However, the game’s launch was delayed due to the fact that the third quarter of last year brought about changes in Nexon’s production leadership.
Now, the developers who worked on Final Fantasy 11’s mobile MMO have allegedly been reassigned to other teams within Nexon’s studio, including Tales Weaver M and Project NRG.
While unfortunate, this sad news isn’t altogether that surprising if you really think about it. There was barely information about the mobile title even after it was announced, and besides, Final Fantasy 11 wouldn’t have survived in the already-saturated market of mobile MMORPGs.
There are several popular MMOs available on mobile right now, all of which were painstakingly created for touchscreen devices. These include titles such as Black Desert Mobile, Runescape, and Lineage 2 Revolution.
Well, it’s worth noting that while Runescape was initially released on PC, the title has since evolved. In addition, it has relatively simple gameplay mechanics compared to Final Fantasy 11, so it wasn’t as difficult to translate to mobile devices.
That being said, if you’re looking for a mobile MMO to immerse yourselves in, we recommend any of the above-mentioned games. At this point, it’s best not to put any hope on Nexon’s ambitious port, as it will most likely be a game that will never see the light of day.
