Final Fantasy 11 is twenty years old. The MMO RPG was pioneering for its time since it debuted on the PlayStation 2 at a time when online play via consoles was still new. Since it's been around for so long perhaps naturally rumours swirled that the game could be shutting down.
However, the game's director has now come out to put a stop to these rumours (via Eurogamer). Yoji Fujito was responsible for directing the MMORPG and the Square Enix veteran spoke up about the game to Japanese games bible Famitsu.
"Due to past comments, there may be some people who are worried that the game will be shutting down in 2022. But I don't think you will have to be concerned about that happening anytime soon", Fujito said (translation courtesy of Siliconera).
Producer Akihiko Matsui has echoed these sentiments previously, speaking to the same publication, and Final Fantasy 11's team had been told by higher-ups at Square Enix to "continue doing F11". So fans will be relieved to hear that the game will continue to be supported.
The comments from Fujito come from an issue of Famitsue that specially features a 20th anniversary tribute to Final Fantasy 11, with its cover dedicated to artwork from the game, which you can see above.
Final Fantasy 11 launched on PC a few months after its Japanese debut on the PS2 and would release on the Xbox 360 in 2002. It was one of the first console MMORPGs to allow cross-play. However, the console servers were shut down back in 2016, leaving just PC owners of the game still able to wander online in Vana'diel.
FF11 differed quite a bit from its single-player predecessors and successors, in that players could customise their characters and choose from one of five races. Also in contrast with other entries in the series the game took place in a fully open world with enemies that roamed freely, and allowing players to battle in real time as opposed to the random battles the series had hitherto been known for.