June 8^th, 2005 (8:13pm) - As seen in the newest issue of Famitsu, Final Fantasy XI producer Hiromichi Tanaka has made mention of new projects his staff is currently undertaking. One mentioned was Final Fantasy XI for the Xbox 360, and the other being a new MMORPG for next-gen consoles.

The identity of the new next-gen title has not yet been completely revealed. Tanaka wouldn’t give many concrete details, but hinted at many things. The new MMORPG could be a successor to FFXI or a completely separate property. It is known, however, that a tech demo clip shown at the Xbox 360 E3 conference was a sneak peek of the game’s technology in it’s "research" stage of development.

As far as the platforms the new title would be for, Tanaka didn’t reveal much. An Xbox 360 version is speculated and the Playstation 3 is still a possibility. He did note that the PS3 would require a hard drive to play these types of games in general, and was suprised that Sony may not include a hard drive with their new console.

With the Xbox 360 version of Final Fantasy XI confirmed, Tanaka admitted the title would be more like the Windows version of FFXI than the PS2. While it is still under development, the draw distance for this title is expected to greatly surpass that of the PC version.

Square Enix will be holding a beta test for the new title at the Xbox 360’s launch later this year, but there is no word on whether or not that will take place in Japan only or in America also. The purpose of the test is to see how Xbox Live handles the game, and of course, to strike up some anticipation.

As if one version wasn’t good enough, the FFXI team will also be developing a full-on expansion that in theory will extend the play life of the product.

We’ll have more on this as it comes.