Square Enix Rumored to Order Destruction of FF XIV Copies

Yesterday, a NeoGAF user who claims to work at a video game retailer said that Square Enix sales reps sent out “field destroy” orders for all copies of Final Fantasy XIV. Retailers who have to liquidate their merchandise because of the order will get a credit of $16 each, says the post. Apparently the order was given because of the forthcoming reboot of the game.

A post on Massively from Gamescom revealed last week that Square Enix was looking to shut down FF XIV’s servers in the near future, paving the way for the reboot called A Realm Reborn, which was officially announced in July. Joystiq sought a comment from the publisher regarding the news of the destroy order, and the theory that A Realm Reborn will soon be released as a replacement:

“We haven’t announced pricing and launch time for the title yet. However, we have publicly stated that beta will begin at the end of this year.”

Serious question: does anyone actually play this game? I don’t think I know anyone who’s even mentioned it to me in the last year or more.

Via NeoGAF, Massively, and Joystiq