To everyone involved with FINAL FANTASY XI,

Greetings!
I'm Yoji Fujito, the producer and director for the game.

As some of you may know, May 16, 2023 marks the 21st anniversary of FINAL FANTASY XI. On behalf of the entire team, I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all of you adventurers out there for bringing life to Vana'diel all these years. At the same time, I would also like to thank everyone who has ever been involved in the development or operation of XI. Without your support and cooperation, we wouldn't be here today.

Last year, we celebrated the game's 20th anniversary last year. In honor of that momentous milestone, we wanted to create content that got you excited as well as enhanced your playing experience, and I believe we were able to do that with The Voracious Resurgence, Sorties, the term filter, and so on. As it was a rather content-packed year, it flew by for me, and without the assistance of countless individuals along the way, it would have been a much more difficult one.

We also launched the WE ARE VANA'DIEL website to mark the game's 20th anniversary, where we posted interviews of various industry luminaries—including the original producer of FFXI, Hiromichi Tanaka. In addition, we spoke with people responsible for helping to guide the FFXI community, members of the video game media, and many of those who were involved with the creation of game itself. The site proved extremely popular due to its in-depth look at what went on behind the scenes during those 20 years of development. I'd like to think it serves as a new "memory of the stone," as it were.

Starting this spring, we significantly scaled down development to create a more realistic roadmap for the game. Though the amount of new content will gradually decline over time, we're cooking up some new things that should help keep you motivated to play. We'll also continue to perform maintenance on the game, so Vana'diel's not going anywhere!

Speaking of motivation to play, we are currently running the "Return Home to Vana'diel and Discount Campaign" and the "21st Vana'versary Celebration Campaign". May these serve as an impetus for both current and returning adventurers to reacquaint themselves with all the wondrous sights, sounds, and experiences that Vana'diel has to offer.

Once again, I'd like to thank all of you for your continued patronage of FINAL FANTASY XI as it celebrates its 21st anniversary. In just one more year, we'll have our second "doubles" Vana'versary, and I hope you're just as excited to see it as I am.

FINAL FANTASY XI Producer/Director Yoji Fujito