13 to 25. 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. Decline In June 2009, Square Enix announced they had decided not to use PlayOnline for Final Fantasy XIV due to the marked decrease of content on the service. Instead, they would migrate 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. In June 2011, Square Enix announced that they would merge the account management portion of the PlayOnline service into Square Enix accounts from July 2011 and culminate on August 31, 2011. However, PlayOnline is still required in order to actually play Final Fantasy XI. Square Enix replicated the idea of the friends list from Final Fantasy XI in XIV. The termination date of service for Final Fantasy XI and PlayOnline for PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 was March 2016. 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. On January 7, 2004, Square Enix announced that PlayOnline had over 500,000 registered user, and slightly under one million active players. In September 2004, Square Enix stated that the service had 1.2 million characters, with most players having two to three characters. 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. 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. Composer Nobuo Uematsu stated that Square's efforts to push forward with online gaming was important to the video game industry's development. The PlayOnline Viewer was criticized as being nothing more than a longer way to get to Final Fantasy XIs content. The game also had unmoderated chat rooms that ended up with explicit content. The interface was also described as "clunky" with "strange functional restrictions". References External links PlayOnline Original site (Web Archive) Online video game services Square (video game company) Square Enix