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 2022, 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. At the "Square Millennium" event in Japan on January 28, 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. The service was first announced as costing ¥500 for monthly membership, and a ¥1000 monthly user fee. Final Fantasy XI, then nicknamed Final Fantasy Online, was the first game to use the online service. 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. PlayOnline opened on June 6, 2000 to both Japanese and English speaking countries with news about upcoming software titles, interviews, and wallpapers. The site's merchandise included pieces from Parasite Eve, Vagrant Story, Chocobo Racing, Front Mission, Chrono Cross, and Final Fantasy. 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