Square Enix has announced that it will launch the Final Fantasy XI Starter Pack in Europe and other PAL territories for a low price of £4.99. This Windows-only offering will net players a copy of the game as well as a one-month free trial to the MMORPG.

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to offer FINAL FANTASY XI to a whole new spectrum of gamers at such a competitive price,” said John Yamamoto, President and chief executive officer of Square Enix Ltd., “We are confident that this release, coupled with recent gameplay changes and the forthcoming Wings of the Goddess expansion pack will encourage even more to try what is an exciting and prolific online experience.”

Final Fantasy XI is an MMO based on the famous RPG franchise, enjoying about 500,000 active players on the PC, PS2 and Xbox 360 combined. An upcoming expansion dubbed Wings of the Goddess is slated for release this Winter.

Summer cleaning has been going on at full force at Square Enix and Blizzard recently, as the two companies have announced that they have banned accounts from Final Fantasy XI and World of Warcraft, respectively, doe to “suspicious” activities and cheating.

In an update on the Final Fantasy XI website, the publisher states that after investigation, over 2000 PlayOnline accounts have been either suspended or terminated July 21 due to “malicious and intentional use of third-party tools.” The update also mentions that the publisher is not friendly towards RMT (Real Money Trade) activities and will be breaking down on individuals who carry out these sort of transactions.

On the Blizzard front, World of Warcraft has been approximately 59,000 bans, as well as the removal of 22 million gold from the total economy to eliminate cheating in the extremely popular MMORPG. The company also called for players to take action against suspicious users by reporting them to in-game GMs, or emailing details to hacks@blizzard.com.

Square Enix’s Xbox 360 MMORPG Final Fantasy XI will be available in Europe through Ubisoft. The publisher will also handle distribution for the Windows expansion pack Final Fantasy XI: Treasures of Aht Urhgan. Both games will hit stores later this month.

FINAL FANTASY XI is a massively multi player online role playing game (MMORPG), taking place in the renowned world of Vana’diel®. With the release of the third Windows expansion pack FINAL FANTASY XI: Treasures of Aht Urhgan and the Xbox 360 version, combining PlayOnline™, FINAL FANTASY XI and all three expansion packs for the title - Chains of Promathia™, Rise of the Zilart® and new Treasures of Aht Urhgan expansion packs, the world of Vana’diel will be an even livelier place to visit.

According to a confirmation from a Square Enix representative, the Final Fantasy XI beta on the Xbox 360 will come to an end on April 2. The retail game will be hitting stores on April 18. It was also confirmed that beta characters can be transferred over to the full game.

Having seen some success with Final Fantasy XI, the team behind the game confirmed at the Final Fantasy XIX Fan Festival that it is working on a new MMORPG for consoles and Windows Vista. No other information was stated.

An unrelated, but interesting bit - when asked about the possibility of Final Fantasy XI for the PS3, the team had this to say: “Right now, we still don’t know what type of machine the PS3 is, so we are waiting on Sony to finalize the hardware before we can make that decision.”