TOKYO--Following reports from numerous Final Fantasy XI gamers that characters have been deleted without their knowledge, Square Enix will offer a data recovery service to recover any deleted characters.

　　Square Enix says the lost data is not the result of server-side problems, but that reports of deleted characters are the result of user-side actions. Those comments are backed up from reports that state some PC cheat programs have maliciously wiped out the user's characters. While it is highly irregular for online services to recover users' lost data--especially when it is the result of external programs, in the interest of promoting the cross-platform game--Square made the decision to intercede.

　　"We recognize that this is a major issue to the Final Fantasy XI community," read a statement on the Square Enix site. "This decision is the result of numerous discussions among our staff addressing the issue of rescuing deleted characters, and other problems, caused by users."

　　While Square Enix doesn't guarantee that all deleted characters and other item data will be restored, the company will post a submission form online tomorrow and attempt to recover the user's data (under a number of conditions) for no charge. Only one request per account can be made, but the recovery of multiple characters' data can be requested. In a case where the data can be recovered, but a character with the identical name has already been created, the user recovering the data will need to change their character's name. Square Enix comments that they may charge a fee for the character recovery service in the future.