FFXI after FFXI

[Zhinse]

I know that FFXI as a service still has a long way to go before being shut off.

I can't help but feel kind of sad and anxious of when the time is going to come when the game is gone and I can't pop back into Vana'Diel for a nostalgia trip. I'm very happy that Square is treating FFXI as a proper final fantasy title and is making sure that it gets the proppor treatment in the series pantheon (with appearances of shantotto and prishe in dissidia). Unlike the other games in the series, FFXI isn't going to be easily remade or rereleased for when we turn into nostalgia craving old geezers.

So how do you guys feel about this? I would like them to make an archival offline version of the game, but if there were any demand and money to be made off such a thing, then the game would still technically be online and running. Maybe we'll be lucky and the service will go on until the end of time.

Sorry to be a bummer

[Beowolf]

Final Fantasy Forever: the adventure continues... theres your title

[Miera]

I think there are two threads like this.

Anyway, Offline would be nice but it would kind of be hard to solo SOME hard NMs that still takes alliances to kill even at the current level cap.

[Henihhi]

FFXI never really got the respect it deserved from the get go due to lack of advertising etc. It is a shame because i do love this game, but SE has always treated it as third rate since the beginning, and games like WoW etc beat them to the mass advertising punch. It was never even advertised in my area, I only found it because a friend that worked at a game shop called me and asked if i wanted him to hold a copy for me when it was released because he knew i loved final fantasies.

[Miera]

Yeah, I never seen an advertisement either, one day I was looking in the stores and saw a copy and i wanted it.

I didn't have the computer for it so I waited until it came out on Xbox..

[Zyeriis]

I think it would be nice if they went the PSO route and allowed/distributed the data to be used on non-official servers, allowing the game to live on through private hosting. This may not be possible due to Playonline but, it would be nice.

[Beowolf]

yea but wouldnt it be cool if you could go around and recruit all the high lvl story/mission line npc from each nation to your link shell, and in the party option to create parties/alliance just check mark them who you want and when u close the menu they warp to your location.... ;o

[Greatguardian]

FFXI never really got the respect it deserved from the get go due to lack of advertising etc. It is a shame because i do love this game, but SE has always treated it as third rate since the beginning, and games like WoW etc beat them to the mass advertising punch. It was never even advertised in my area, I only found it because a friend that worked at a game shop called me and asked if i wanted him to hold a copy for me when it was released because he knew i loved final fantasies.

Pretty much this. While it seems that it was advertised extremely heavily in Japan, it never really got any sort of mention at all in the US. Heck, we've had the occasional year without a Vanafest here. It's a real shame, considering NA players make up such a huge portion of the playerbase. EU players have it even worse, but there really aren't that many of them to be honest (which may have to do with lack of advertising, who knows).

While it's fairly late in the game's life to be spending money on advertising dollars, it is a shame that most people I know don't even know what FFXI is.

[Beowolf]

i'll be honest i found it by accadent while trolling gamestop.com for socom2 way back then 2004? i think it was, w/o even a hint of commercial advertisment, and pre ordered it thinkin "omg omg omg online final fantasy woot!" it hadnt been that long sence i beat 9 and 10 and i was like in heaven...lol

[Zhinse]

Haha, Sorry for restarting on this topic if its been done before.

IF they do another version of this game then Recruitable NPC's/party members or mini multiplayer (PSO/Diablo/MH) would be interesting directions to go in.

Heck I would love it if they released manga, or a novel.

[Neika]

While it's fairly late in the game's life to be spending money on advertising dollars, it is a shame that most people I know don't even know what FFXI is.

Same here! Even my gamer friends had never heard of it :(

[Zyeriis]

I am not even sure what prompted me to buy it. Think I was merely in a gamestop and was like "hey, i'm getting this because I said so." 5-6 years later....

[Decstrose]

Now this is a touching subject. I dont think that ffxi will ever go away. Im sure SE will bring it down to 1 server and just leave in powered on in a closet somwhere before that happens. :) But I believe we still have a long way to go before even that happens. But hay,, thats my 2 cents on that.

[lowkey]

I think it would be nice if they went the PSO route and allowed/distributed the data to be used on non-official servers, allowing the game to live on through private hosting. This may not be possible due to Playonline but, it would be nice.

I don't see that happening. FF is the company's bread and butter. They aren't going to let anyone use any part of the property it without properly licensing it, and paying through the nose.

On the bright side, the only MMOs that have shut down, were flops from the beginning, or intentionally sabotaged by their owners (see Neverwinter Nights, and The Shadow of Yserbius, both of which were destroyed by AOL out of spite). The Realm Online is still up. UO is still up. Everquest is still up. Asheron's Call, Lineage, RO, DAOC, Anarchy Online, all still up. These sorts of games have incredibly long lifespans, and I don't see any reason FFXI will be any different. Besides possibly Lineage, FFXI probably has the healthiest populations of all of the aging MMOs.

[Zhinse]

On the bright side, the only MMOs that have shut down, were flops from the beginning, or intentionally sabotaged by their owners (see Neverwinter Nights, and The Shadow of Yserbius, both of which were destroyed by AOL out of spite). The Realm Online is still up. UO is still up. Everquest is still up. Asheron's Call, Lineage, RO, DAOC, Anarchy Online, all still up. These sorts of games have incredibly long lifespans, and I don't see any reason FFXI will be any different. Besides possibly Lineage, FFXI probably has the healthiest populations of all of the aging MMOs.

If we consider UO to be the oldest mmo, that game is like 20 years old? or something. I'm not really sure. I'm talking 30 years-50 years down the road. When i'm a old geezer trying to remember my childhood.

[Miiyo]

100,000(players) x 13(monthly fee) = 1.3 million dollars a month. I'd keep it running for that amount of money coming in and population is at least triple that right now. I think we're good for awhile.

[Lynchilles]

I don't see that happening. FF is the company's bread and butter. They aren't going to let anyone use any part of the property it without properly licensing it, and paying through the nose.

What? Even if we assume 100,000 Content ID's at $12.95 per ID then that is approximately $15M USD in recurring income. Their 12/31/10 Annual Report puts their company recurring income at $75.5M USD

Moreover, there was a decrease of 70.9% in recurring income year-over-year from 12/31/09 to 12/31/10. There was a decline of 76.6% in Net Income from that same period.

Those of you who think that shutting down FFXI forever would cripple or even bankrupt Square Enix are fooling themselves into a false sense of security.



I wouldn't call 20% of their recurring income their "bread and butter."

[Futan]

He meant Final Fantasy in general, not just FFXI.

edit: I also don't understand how you got 15 million from 100,000*12.95.

edit2: nvm. Annually, you mean.

[Kingofgeeks]

only way i could ever see it going offline would be to just completely remake the game from the ground up. you'd prolly make 3 characters and it would prolly be storyline based like all other final fantasies. This would be a lot to do and SE would only do this if they were sure it will sell well. it would be really nice to have actually.

[Silentkill]

FFXI was my first MMORPG and i tell you it wouldnt bother me in the slightest if FFXIV ended up being a total ripoff of ffxi with major improvement on graphics, i hope it doesnt end however as servers close and get consolodated its just like stores, they close and the pool gets smaller and smaller and eventually its gonna end. But i hope they at least wait until a decent ffxiv version is around so we can have something to move to.