Square Enix has announced that the userbase of its internet service platform has reached 500,000 in Japan and North America, as of December 2003. Currently, the main application running on PlayOnline is Final Fantasy XI for the PlayStation 2 and PC platforms. The number of characters making up the game's virtual population is close to one million.

Final Fantasy XI was originally released for PlayStation 2 in Japan on May 16th, 2002. The Japanese and North American PC versions followed suit in November 2002 and late October 2003 respectively. A North American PlayStation 2 version bundled with Sony Computer Entertainment's hard disk drive will be available on March 23rd.

• Famitsu