Final Fantasy XIV launched as a broken mess, but it?s grown into itself a little more than a year after it?s release. For a long time, FF XIV has remained free until the game can be made better, something that will hopefully happen with the new 2.0 patch (set for release in late 2012). However, payment will resume on the title starting on January 6th.
To prepare, Square-Enix will suspend all FF XIV accounts to ensure no unauthorized billing of users is done, and those who want to keep playing will need to set up a payment method on December 16th. There will be a reduced payment until the 2.0 patch is released at $9.99 per month.