Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn fourth alpha test begins Dec. 3

The fourth alpha testing phase for Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn will begin on Dec. 3 and run until mid-month, and will include a third world to accommodate more testers, producer Naoki Yoshida announced in the latest producer letter for the upcoming MMO.

Yoshida also announced that A Realm Reborn will consist of 40 separate areas that can support over 1,000 players at a time, and promised that the game will be "chock-full of Final Fantasy goodness."

According to Yoshida, the fourth will be the final alpha test, although developer Square Enix is considering keeping all alpha worlds online until the end of the year. He also shared regional statistics for the game's group of testers: one is six applicants from North America were admitted to the alpha, while one-fourth of Japan's total applicants were added and one-third were admitted from Europe.

The producer asked that new testers coming online on Dec. 3 create characters in the newly added world, as the current two worlds in use — Chocobo and Moogle — are full, and packing them would generate "unprecedented levels of server stress" and increase alpha lag.