Square officially unveiled the complete PC version of online-only PS2 RPG Final Fantasy XI at a press conference in Tokyo today. The fact that it exists (and is coming out November 7 in Japan) isn't exactly news—what is news is president Yoichi Wada's announcement that a U.S. version is definitely in the works.

Officially titled Final Fantasy XI for Windows, the PC port will be 100% faithful to the PlayStation 2 game, to the point that PC and PS2 users will get to share the same online world. What's different is the graphics—thanks to the PC FFXI's high specs (a GeForce 4 or higher is practically required), the characters and backdrops will be hi-res and rendered in far more detail than the PS2's capable of.

According to Square president Wada, the company is aiming for 200,000 PC FFXI players, a very high number for the relatively tiny Japanese marketplace. "For businesses and users that deal with PCs, the next leap forward is online gaming," he said. When asked about whether the high specs would pose an obstacle, he turned the question around and said the requirements "would make users think about what is necessary, or what they need to buy, in order to experience something they've never played before." Nice spin there, sir.

The conference also included representatives from the Japanese offices of Intel, NVidia, and Dell Computer, all three of which have signed on with Square to support FFXI's PC release. Dell is actually releasing a special computer in Japan on October 31 that comes with FFXI, a controller with the Final Fantasy logo, and a hint book included in the box. They're too kind to their gamers over there.

Still no news about a european release.