PlayOnline
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PlayOnline is an online gaming service owned by Square Enix as the launcher application and Internet service for many of the online PC, PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 games the company publishes. Launched on June 6, 2000, the service hosted games including Front Mission Online, Fantasy Earth: The Ring of Dominion, Tetra Master, and the Japanese releases of EverQuest II, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII and JongHoLo. As of 2025, however, the PC version of Final Fantasy XI is the only remaining game supported by the service.
PlayOnline was one of the first cross-platform gaming services, and hosted hundreds of thousands of players at its peak. It was shut down for twelve days during the 2011 earthquake in Japan. The platform was also subjected to denial of service attacks and players attempting to cheat were subsequently banned. Starting with Final Fantasy XIV, Square Enix began moving their online games off the service as membership declined. The termination date for Final Fantasy XI and PlayOnline on PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 was March 2016, with only the PC version of Final Fantasy XI still supported.
History
Launch
PlayOnline was originally conceived as an all-in-one solution to house multiple types of game content.<ref name="turnoff"/> At the "Square Millennium" event in Japan in January 2000, Square announced Final Fantasy IX, X and XI, with the last scheduled to release in the summer of 2001, and that they had been working on an online portal called PlayOnline with Japanese telecom company NTT Communications, which would feature online games, chat, email, online comics, Internet browsing, online shopping, sports, and instant messaging.<ref name="millennium">Template:Cite web</ref> The service was first announced as costing ¥500 for monthly membership, and a ¥1000 monthly user fee.<ref name="announce"/> Final Fantasy XI, then nicknamed Final Fantasy Online, was the first game to use the online service.<ref name="announce">Template:Cite web</ref> The WonderSwan Color portable gaming system was also planned to be able to connect to PlayOnline through an adapter connected to one of the PlayStation 2's USB ports.<ref name="usb">Template:Cite web</ref>
PlayOnline opened on June 6, 2000, to both Japanese and English speaking countries with news about upcoming software titles, interviews, and wallpapers.<ref name="opening">Template:Cite web</ref> The site's merchandise included pieces from Parasite Eve, Vagrant Story, Chocobo Racing, Front Mission, Chrono Cross, and Final Fantasy.<ref name="merch">Template:Cite web</ref>
To encourage early adoption prior to the release of Final Fantasy XI, Square partnered with BradyGames to publish a paperback strategy guide for Final Fantasy IX. The guide became notorious for barely containing any actual guidance. Instead, it asked players multiple times on each page to visit PlayOnline to obtain the solutions to puzzles, etc.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Initial plans to utilize PlayOnline with Final Fantasy X were eventually scrapped.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Service
PlayOnline was seen as part of Sony's strategy to turn the PlayStation 2 into an Internet set-top box. Accordingly, Sony brought broadband equipment and a hard drive to the PlayStation 2.<ref name="disk">Template:Cite web</ref> The quality of the browser was noted in its "clean" graphics, excellent page layouts, and "high quality sound".<ref name="disk"/> The browser was not a general purpose Internet tool, but only accessed Square content, such as news about Square products and a comic-strip walkthrough of Final Fantasy XI.<ref name="disk"/>
Porting Final Fantasy XI to the Xbox proved difficult due to compatibility issues greater than was hoped for between Xbox Live and PlayOnline, likely because the latter was designed first.<ref name="xboxes">Template:Cite web</ref> After negotiation, Xbox 360 players were able to play the game through PlayOnline's servers exclusively, despite Microsoft's initial wish that Square Enix would use its own platform.<ref name="xboxes"/> Downloadable content was also not available on the platform since the game played through PlayOnline.<ref name="xboxes"/> It was hoped that content would eventually be offered through the Xbox Live Marketplace.<ref name="xboxes"/> Final Fantasy XII started out as a game designed for the PlayOnline game platform.<ref name="Ffxii">Template:Cite web</ref>
Security and outages
In February 2005, 800 players were banned from Final Fantasy XI and the card game Tetra Master for monopolizing areas where high level items and monsters would spawn, making it impossible for other players to become stronger.<ref name="banned">Template:Cite web</ref>
On April 9, 2005, a distributed denial of service attack against PlayOnline's servers shut down Final Fantasy XI access for players in North America and Europe for three hours: the attack continued for over a week, leading Square Enix to involve law enforcement.<ref name="law">Template:Cite web</ref> At the time, Square Enix did not reveal if the Japanese server which hosted Front Mission Online, Fantasy Earth, and Japanese players of EverQuest II were affected.<ref name="law"/>
A new security system for players by Square Enix began on April 6, 2009, involving a security token that players could purchase for $9.99 and including an in-game bonus called a "Mog Satchel".<ref name="satchel">Template:Cite web</ref>
After Japan's 2011 earthquake, Square Enix disabled servers to conserve energy due to the incapacitated state of the region's nuclear power plant. This led to a temporary halt of the Final Fantasy XIV, XI and PlayOnline games and services from March 13 to 25.<ref name="japan">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="backup">Template:Cite web</ref> During the power shortage, air conditioning and lighting was reduced, and the subscription fees for Final Fantasy XI were waived for the month of April.<ref name="backup"/>
Decline
In June 2009, Square Enix decided not to use PlayOnline for Final Fantasy XIV due to the marked decrease of content on the service.<ref name="turnoff"/> Instead, they migrated to a new service that still allowed cross-platform gameplay, including the use of a universal Square Enix ID that would allow players to play from wherever they left off.<ref name="turnoff">Template:Cite web</ref> Two years later, Square Enix merged the account management portion of the PlayOnline service into Square Enix accounts from July and culminating on August 31.<ref name="merge"/> However, PlayOnline is still required in order to actually play Final Fantasy XI.<ref name="merge">Template:Cite web</ref> Square Enix replicated the idea of the friends list from Final Fantasy XI in XIV.<ref name="fourth">Template:Cite web</ref> The termination date of service for Final Fantasy XI and PlayOnline for PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 was March 2016.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Reception
In December 2001, Square Enix projected it would have 250,000 users by the end of the year, and 400,000 by the end of 2002. The service charged $10 per person, and thus needed 200,000 participants to break even.<ref name="even">Template:Cite web</ref>
By January 2004, PlayOnline had over 500,000 registered users, and slightly under one million active players.<ref name="halfmill">Template:Cite web</ref> By September, the service had 1.2 million characters, with most players having two to three characters.<ref name="twothree">Template:Cite web</ref> In May 2005, Front Mission Online became the second game to utilize the service, retailing at ¥7,140 with a monthly subscription price of ¥1,344.<ref name="mission">Template:Cite web</ref> In June 2009, a San Francisco resident sued Square Enix for "deceptive advertising, unfair competition, and unjust enrichment" from Final Fantasy XI, and sought a $5 million settlement.<ref name="fivemill">Template:Cite web</ref>
Composer Nobuo Uematsu said that Square's efforts to push forward with online gaming was important to the video game industry's development.<ref name="compose">Template:Cite web</ref> The PlayOnline Viewer was criticized as being nothing more than a longer way to get to Final Fantasy XITemplate:'s content.<ref name="viewer">Template:Cite web</ref> The game also had unmoderated chat rooms that ended up with explicit content.<ref name="viewer"/> The interface was also described as "clunky" with "strange functional restrictions".<ref name="viewer"/>