Greetings, adventurers!

Today, FINAL FANTASY XI celebrates another milestone with its 23rd anniversary. I would like to thank each and every one of our adventurers for your part in making this possible.

■ Looking back
This past year, we carried out various updates and maintenances to ensure that FINAL FANTASY XI continues operating in a stable and robust manner.

In a recent example of this, we recently conducted an extended server maintenance during a version update. This allowed us to upgrade our essential server clusters and provide a stable platform for the game's continued operations, and I am grateful for your patience and cooperation during this time.

We're also excited to have added a new battlefield to the game, item level support for Besieged, as well as other new features and updates to existing content. We have prepared a special "Version Update Digest" video featuring some of what's been implemented so far, as well as content we are planning to add in the near future, which we hope you'll enjoy.

■ Looking to 2025 and beyond
The results of the Adventurers' Survey from last November have been most valuable in determining our future direction for FFXI.

- Many players tend to play solo or with a fixed group
- While FFXI offers a diverse variety of content, they have mostly fulfilled their character progression purposes for our current players; thus, there is a need for "new adventures"

These two points will be our main focus as we proceed with revising the game's character progression, which will primarily entail renewing, refining, and making quality-of-life changes to existing content.

Examples of these revisions include the Limbus revamp and item level support for Besieged, which were detailed in the video. As these sort of changes are implemented, we will continue monitoring feedback to make further adjustments with the goal of providing an enjoyable experience for our adventurers.

Furthermore, as I mentioned in my New Year's Greetings, we are looking to upgrade alter egos as a means of enhancing the solo player experience. To prepare for this undertaking, we are starting with the following tasks:

- Informing new and returning players of the alter ego system
- Adding more opportunities to obtain alter egos

Upgrading alter egos is just one of the updates we have in mind. We will be carefully planning and implementing each feature at a time, and we'll informing of our progress through our version update news and other channels, so I hope you'll look forward to hearing more!

Separately, our sister title, FINAL FANTASY XIV, has implemented the first part of its FFXI collaboration content, "Echoes of Vana'diel." It features Lower Jeuno and Tu'Lia, familiar music, and battles against Shadow Lord and the Ark Angels. The battle content is packed full of nostalgia while also featuring plenty of new discoveries waiting to be made. If that sounds intriguing, I hope you'll pay a visit to Eorzea and experience the collaboration for yourselves.

Our ability to continue implementing fulfilling content is owed to the generous support of our adventurers, as well as the many supporters that have aided with FINAL FANTASY XI's operations. The team and I will be giving our all in meeting your expectations.

FINAL FANTASY XI will continue to evolve! To that end, I kindly ask for your continued support.

FINAL FANTASY XI Producer & Director Yoji Fujito