Final Fantasy XIV: ARR beta for PS4 will launch on February 22nd of 2014 with Japan's PS4 release. You can transfer your current PS3 character to Beta to play on it. SE also confirmed that owners of PS3 version, will get the PS4 version without any extra costs.

Square Enix has also confirmed that owners of the PlayStation 3 version of the game will be able to upgrade to the PlayStation 4 version for free, and will also be able to carry over their existing character data and continue playing on the new platform at no extra cost.

As a person who bought PS3 version and thought of upgrading to PS4 version when it comes out, this was fantastic news. Let's hope other games would follow this trend with current to next gen games coming up before the next gen consoles release dates.

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/428552/final-fantasy-xiv-a-realm-reborn-ps4-beta-announced/

Square has done a really amazing job of doing right by their customers after the 1.0 launch. Maybe they didn't have any other option, but they've made many considerable moves in the consumer's favor, which is a nice thing to see when you so often hear about shitty microtransactions and day 1 dlc etc..

I wonder how long that deal will last. I'm probably not getting a PS4 right away. That's a great deal though. Amazon has the PS4 version listed at $60, which means even if you consider the price of the PS3 version you're still getting it cheaper.

Guess I'm picking up that ps3 pre-order

@zeik: I'd guess that as long as you've registered a PS3 copy, you'll be able to download it for your PS4. I'm sure SE has taken to account that supply of PS4 might not necessarily meet the demand.

@nicked: It was a horrible broken mess when it released, and was still a mess when it shut down. If you showed me the current incarnation of the game back then I would not have believed it. The improvements cover every aspect of the game, right down to their policy on payment processing.

I've played a lot of MMOs, both good and bad, and i've never seen one recover to the extent of XIV. But then no developer has ever had the guts to take down their game and remake it from the ground up before.

MMO fans are a bit of a mystery - they are very quick to criticize, yet are fiercely brand loyal and aren't likely to give up on a game unless it bores them, or they burn out on it.

@verendus said:

That would be nice, but I'm hesitant to believe they'll still allow that like a year from now. Then again, by that point the price of the game itself would probably have dropped, so they'd be losing less money, so maybe they wouldn't care. I have to assume this only applies to people who register their copy before a certain date.

Excellent news and even better because of the fact that this will be around the time I will be getting the PS4 anyway.

This is fantastic news! I had a pre-order in place for the PS4 game but knowing i can just upgrade my ps3 version is even better! Unless of course they do another special edition...im a sucker for special editions....

That is pretty darn good of Square Enix. They could have gone the Activision route of charging $10 upgrade fee. Good on them.

The free upgrade is classy and right.