The game entered into alpha testing stage in April of 2010, and ended it on June 19 of the same year. There was a closed beta phase from July 10, 2010 to August 25, 2010. The open beta ran from September 1, 2010, until September 19, 2010. The game was officially released on September 22, 2010, only for the PC. While there was mention of the PS3 version, including a beta offer with the release of Final Fantasy XIII, nothing came to be with that version.
Despite the concerns that the game had way too many bugs, Square still decided to release it. Because of all the bugs, the game received mostly negative reviews from the press, citing the game felt unfinished and largely unplayable. Due to the many problems, Square offered an apology to all players and announced a major shift in the development team. The game's producer, Hiromichi Tanaka, resigned and eventually left the company, with Naoki Yoshida becoming the game's director and producer.
The Playstation 3 version, which was scheduled for release in March of 2011, was delayed until the game was made up to Square's standards. In addition, the free trial was extended past the initial 30 days to indefinitely, since Yoichi Wada wanted players to experience the new updates to the game without having to commit to it. Many patches and updates were introduced to the game, changing a lot of gameplay elements. On November 11, 2012, Version 1.0 was announced to be ending, paving the way to Version 2.0, or A Realm Reborn.
