Thank you Matsui

[jasnekholin]

I would like to express gratitude for your work on FFXI these past 10 years. Thanks for all the hard work and enjoy retirement!

[Zubis]

Thank you Matsui and I'm very grateful to the work you and the team have done for FFXI.

Wishing you and the team the best in what comes next.

[Pixela]

I appreciate the work Matsui has done and am grateful he put so much effort into the game and obviously fought to keep it being updated, but that new message from Fujito is awful and it's basically stating the game is winding down on his watch now.

The Fujito famine is upon us!

It's odd and utterly tone deaf to see it being said that the developers are complaining because they want to work on something new (I don't think they are saying this at all and I think this actually management saying it), instead of being happy working on what they are working on. Everquest developers seem happy working on that game because they love the game, same for Runcescape etc. I mean your customers are happy paying to play this game with our money when we could be playing something newer from another company, why aren't they happy to be working on it? The oblivious nature of this statement is astounding given we are paying to play this game instead of devoting our time to something else, it seems it ok for us to devote our time and money to it but not them devote their paid time to it.

Matsui has decided to quit early, he isn't retirement age from his own statement. My guess is that inflation is a serious concern, and this is actually what is behind all this and not what we were told. Not because the game isn't profitable, but because Square Enix (more likely YoshiP) demands on profit margins is ridiculous. Someone has to pay for all their 100m gambles, with all their flops lately.

My guess is just as with Tanaka, he will most likely move off and work for some mobile company now.

It's funny reading what Matsui wrote and it coming across fairly positive, and then Fujito basically comes in with the rainstorm.

Regardless, it is what it is.

Matsui: " I feel I was rather conservative and placed too much emphasis on ensuring that FFXI continues on."
Fujito: "hold my beer"

[Voidstorm]

I appreciate the work Matsui has done and am grateful he put so much effort into the game and obviously fought to keep it being updated, but that new message from Fujito is awful and it's basically stating the game is winding down on his watch now.

The Fujito famine is upon us!

It's odd and utterly tone deaf to see it being said that the developers are complaining because they want to work on something new (I don't think they are saying this at all and I think this actually management saying it), instead of being happy working on what they are working on. Everquest developers seem happy working on that game because they love the game, same for Runcescape etc. I mean your customers are happy paying to play this game with our money when we could be playing something newer from another company, why aren't they happy to be working on it? The oblivious nature of this statement is astounding given we are paying to play this game instead of devoting our time to something else, it seems it ok for us to devote our time and money to it but not them devote their paid time to it.

Matsui has decided to quit early, he isn't retirement age from his own statement. My guess is that inflation is a serious concern, and this is actually what is behind all this and not what we were told. Not because the game isn't profitable, but because Square Enix (more likely YoshiP) demands on profit margins is ridiculous. Someone has to pay for all their 100m gambles, with all their flops lately.

My guess is just as with Tanaka, he will most likely move off and work for some mobile company now.

It's funny reading what Matsui wrote and it coming across fairly positive, and then Fujito basically comes in with the rainstorm.

Regardless, it is what it is.

Matsui: " I feel I was rather conservative and placed too much emphasis on ensuring that FFXI continues on."
Fujito: "hold my beer"
Have to hard agree.
Matsui, thank you for all you have done.
Fujito, why'd you have to give dedicated customers a slap across the face?
Spend time developing new games to bring what they learn back to FFXI? You think anyone buys that?!
No way in hell management is going to be like, oh yeah the staff we moved from our 20yo game to new stuff. let's move them back. Never going to happen.

Also, no one who played FFXI during the flop that was FFXIV's original release thinks for a second that FFXI isn't profitable.
Instead of putting them on new games, get them to rebuild the game for current DirectX. No changes needed to graphics and only slight ones to the UI. Back end can be made more secure at the same time.
It's not profitable to rebuild a 20yo game? Then why remake FFVII? Even if it's basically break even you know you won't take a loss over it. It'll ensure the game doesn't fall apart in the long term allowing you to keep this mainline title game operating long term at reduced cost & with fewer back-end issues. There are other benefits but I think keeping a mainline title game operating is reason enough even if it's literally break even for cost/return.

[Pixela]

. . . . . . . . .

[Sp1cyryan]

Players that know nothing passing judgment. We get it, you like FFXI. Doesn't mean you get to vent at the Dev team for not having your desires met.

[jasnekholin]

i'm also concerned with the future of the game but let's keep this thread as a simple thank you for years of enjoyment.

[Pixela]

They are going into maintenance mode to reduce costs to keep it running as long as possible. Inflation and other issues have been serious problems over the past 3 years and have basically negated the gains made.

However if you're going to do that you need to point it out in a better way and not make a story about the developers careers, you want your players to want to financially support you to keep the game alive and not be annoyed by nonsense.

[Sp1cyryan]

They are going into maintenance mode to reduce costs to keep it running as long as possible. Inflation and other issues have been serious problems over the past 3 years and have basically negated the gains made.

However if you're going to do that you need to point it out in a better way and not make a story about the developers careers, you want your players to want to financially support you to keep the game alive and not be annoyed by nonsense.

You don't have access to their financial figures.

[Pixela]

Inflation rises every year.
FFXI has not raised the sub fee since 2002.
Since Square is a big corporation they will be raising wages inline with inflation.
This means costs to run the game via wages have increased and the revenue has not.
In 2016? they addressed this with mog wardrobes and reasons to buy alt accounts, this linked with a lot of players returning worked pretty well and allowed them to argue for a 3 year funding cycle in 2020.

However Covid lockdowns caused inflation to explode out of control in every country they operate in, due to massive money printing.

This linked with a sudden drop in player numbers due to a certain PS launching probably lead to a panic reaction, thinking the drop in players was a sign of more player losses to come and that lead to this.

Also the 3 year funding cycle is ending in a few months, and will need to be renewed soon. So 3 things all happening at once caused this to happen.

The thing to keep in mind is the developers are mostly completely obvious what is going on in the community, and probably don't even know why player numbers suddenly dropped. All they knew is they were trying their best and 500-1k people suddenly unsubbed out of nowhere.

[Vyre]

Thanks for your hard work, Matsui. I hope you enjoy your next adventures outside of Vana'diel.

[Monsuta_Man]

/salute...................

[Vonima2]

Thank you for everything Matsui-san!

Fujito-san,
You are now responsible for dreams. Dreams we dream from our mog houses, from amongst the crafting stalls of those veteran crafters with dusty aprons and a hate for synergy fewell; from those fledgling adventurers, adventurer coupon still crisp in hand; from those counting the last number of alexandrine, metal slabs, or ancient coin collections left to meet the pinnacle of their job. Take this energy and let it give you imagination and the drive to keep Vanadiel expanding and the limitless potential this game brings to so many. Best of luck to you.

[Immortal]

Thank you Matsui, you did what you could. I really wish they would realize how much potential revenue this game can have, you could have two really successful MMOs if you put forth a respectable budget and expanded your services for this game. This news was not good and will have lasting effects, sadly... Lets try to keep hope and remember that this game has "died" before and worse than this because before they said "no major updates, maint mode" and we kept hanging in there and supporting the game and eventually got new stuff. Hopefully by some miracle they are able to get a budget approved after this year and we get stuff.

[ClownyCobalt]

Thank you Matsui!!! I'm a quite recent player and I've had so much fun with FFXI!!! It has so much lasting appeal, and I think that's in part because of the commitment to supporting the game all these years! It really is insane to imagine the dev teams having to work on PS2 Devkits to make content for a game in 2023? That really is quite the task I imagine! I don't blame many of the devs for wanting to work on more modern projects heh, coding is hard enough without dealing with such arcane technology!

Anyways I hope Fujito can carry Matsui's legacy! I'm sure he can as he's worked on the game for quite the while as well! I'm sure the game is in good hands!

[Rinuko]

To all the doom and gloom individuals, I wouldn't expect the game to shut down any time soon. We will see new stuff added and not just ambuscade rotation.
I can't imagine the game is that expensive for SE to operate given the running cost would be much lower than XIV. They already share engineers and developers between both projects.

Likely not a whole lot will change cause we get a new guy at the helm.

[Allestra]

Thank you Matsui!! ♥

[Teraniku]

Thank you for your hard work Matsui-san. m(. .)m

[Pixela]

I would bet Matsui does not want to leave the project, my guess is inflation (and a recent loss in subs due to certain things we can't mention here) has taken such a bite into the profit margins that he decided to step down to lower costs to keep the game running. In his position that's what I would do.

My original reaction was they should lower the sub fee if we are going to get less content, however since a lack of profits is already leading to this situation we face now. An even lower sub (just to please principle) would make it even less profitable and potentially lead to the game being shut down.

[Immortal]

Yeah, I share a similar opinion. I think its all a smokescreen, the reality is they are cutting back after their hardcore losses and maybe he didn't want to continue under those conditions or they forced him out. Its not surprise considering the massive losses SE has had lately and I can't imagine their assets being stolen to support some fake server has helped at all with their bottom line. They don't have to lower the fee, there are so many ways to profit off this game, its insane they haven't already to continue support. How many people have been asking for paid race changes? Why not take some inspiration from their other MMO and instead of cutting back content and budgets, just implement a dinky cash shop. If it gets the game funding to continue expansions or storylines or real content, I wouldn't mind. Story skips, level cap skips, etc. At the least they could bundle XIV/XI subs and it might incentivize them, they are not making wise choices lately.

[Sp1cyryan]

I would bet Matsui does not want to leave the project, my guess is inflation (and a recent loss in subs due to certain things we can't mention here) has taken such a bite into the profit margins that he decided to step down to lower costs to keep the game running. In his position that's what I would do.

My original reaction was they should lower the sub fee if we are going to get less content, however since a lack of profits is already leading to this situation we face now. An even lower sub (just to please principle) would make it even less profitable and potentially lead to the game being shut down.

Why is it in a thread about Matsui's retirement with direct comment from Fujito about responding to questions and things from the community. That you have to sit here aimlessly loading up such a place with worthless speculation and other posts? Ask something pertinent or wish Matsui well. Otherwise knock it off and go post in a different thread.

There is no justification for a lower sub fee. Just stop being obnoxious and entitled. If you don't feel your subscription gets you enough then you cancel and go on with life. There is no bargaining, asserting meaningless "principle", or asking. Accept it or move on.

[Semco]

First off I want to say as a long time player, since N/A release, Thank you Matsui for all you have done for this game, we love you. With that being said I’am extremely disappointed with this new letter about the future direction of the game. All along in VR I was under the assumption that we would be getting a new area, Valhalla. Now all we are going to get is some Master Trial? Thousands of people still love this game, why people are playing on private servers. Not listening to faithful customers is not wise. I’am reading articles all over the internet and the reaction is not positive. I’ll continue with my sub till VR ends but if you go in this direction I will have to reevaluate how I feel about SE as a company and purchasing products in the future.

[Pixela]

There is no justification for a lower sub fee. Just stop being obnoxious and entitled. If you don't feel your subscription gets you enough then you cancel and go on with life. There is no bargaining, asserting meaningless "principle", or asking. Accept it or move on.

learn to read

[Pixela]

First off I want to say as a long time player, since N/A release, Thank you Matsui for all you have done for this game, we love you. With that being said I’am extremely disappointed with this new letter about the future direction of the game. All along in VR I was under the assumption that we would be getting a new area, Valhalla. Now all we are going to get is some Master Trial? Thousands of people still love this game, why people are playing on private servers. Not listening to faithful customers is not wise. I’am reading articles all over the internet and the reaction is not positive. I’ll continue with my sub till VR ends but if you go in this direction I will have to reevaluate how I feel about SE as a company and purchasing products in the future.

I believe what they were talking of was beyond that, we are still getting the new areas at the end of VR. That stuff was made long ago no doubt and it's been in testing for the past 5-6 months.

[Monsuta_Man]

Well, since we are talking about other stuff.....lol.

XI been my MMO of choice since 2004. Tried to get into XIV for around 8 years now, couldn't do it. If you have to try to love something for nearly a decade because of the IP, maybe you don't love it lol?

Wish Matsui the best. The best FF producer imo, to help keep the game going this long with scraps. Hopefully XI stays up for a while. Pretty much this or Race Wars (Elder scrolls Online). I play other offline stuff, but XI is pretty much my online go to title. GW2 is solid, but trying to turn a 80s baby into a mouse & keyboard guy..... Give my my gamepads/joy sticks.

Hopefully XI stays going at least ES6, but we gotta get Starfield out the way 1st. Starfield is like the girl that is in the way of the girl you really want.

All speculation though, so I digress with the doom & gloom....

[Sp1cyryan]

learn to read

If only that were the issue.

[Alhanelem]

Wait, the guy who is so adamantly against offering a combo discount wants a lower sub fee now? What? The same guy who constantly used "lowering the sub fee will bring in less money" as an argument?

My life is complete.

Unless it's a discount as part of ANY sort of promotion, there is no justification. $12.95 is considerably less money now than it was 20 years ago, so the sub fee is already lower.

[Pixela]

Wait, the guy who is so adamantly against offering a combo discount wants a lower sub fee now? What? The same guy who constantly used "lowering the sub fee will bring in less money" as an argument?

My life is complete.

Unless it's a discount as part of ANY sort of promotion, there is no justification. $12.95 is considerably less money now than it was 20 years ago, so the sub fee is already lower.

What I said was my initial reaction to getting less content is to get a reduced sub, however doing so would reduce revenue even more and potentially lead to a shut down of the entire game.

[Alhanelem]

What I said was my initial reaction to getting less content is to get a reduced sub, however doing so would reduce revenue even more and potentially lead to a shut down of the entire game.They're spending money to replace the servers, they clearly intend to preserve history here.

Which is more than can be said for Nintendo shutting down the WiiU/3DS eShops.

[Pixela]

Fujito needs to state if we are still getting the endgame at the end of VR, literally days after the announcement all the people have been moved it seems.

This was a sudden action, are we still getting more missions and that endgame?

[Sp1cyryan]

Fujito needs to state if we are still getting the endgame at the end of VR, literally days after the announcement all the people have been moved it seems.

This was a sudden action, are we still getting more missions and that endgame?

Fujito doesn't need to state anything. You can wait and see or you can unsub and see, it doesn't matter which.

[Alhanelem]

They never said content was stopping. THey're just going to be leaning more heavily on CBU3, using staff only as needed, for the benefit of the people who have only been working on this game for a long time. For such people, their experience working on decades old tech doesnt translate well to other things.

Personally, I'm largely in the same boat. I've been involved with an unreal engine 3 game for almost as long and now unreal engine 5 is coming out, and I've barely even used 4.

[jasnekholin]

just a reminder that the april fools joke replacing racin' raminel and shattered homepoints originally appeared under matsui during the 15-17th anniversarys. sorry for vagueness, i don't recall the exact patch.

[Pixela]

https://i.imgur.com/1OFetRZ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6QiLPiJ.jpg

[Tarmarkvar]

They never said content was stopping. THey're just going to be leaning more heavily on CBU3, using staff only as needed, for the benefit of the people who have only been working on this game for a long time. For such people, their experience working on decades old tech doesnt translate well to other things.

Personally, I'm largely in the same boat. I've been involved with an unreal engine 3 game for almost as long and now unreal engine 5 is coming out, and I've barely even used 4.

I know the feeling. I've been doing software development professionally for 7 years, and a lot of that was in the antiquated Struts 1.3 framework, and core Java. I've done some Angular but I barely understand it and mostly just copy and modify existing code. I'd love to get experience in more modern frameworks but my career has not offered that opportunity yet.

I can see how someone not in the software development sphere would not understand why some of these developers want to move off Final Fantasy 11.

[Pixela]

I can see how someone not in the software development sphere would not understand why some of these developers want to move off Final Fantasy 11.

They don't.

We already know what happened, cause they have said it. One of the dev kits broke during VR and they had to try use some other ones to get it done.

This lead to them having to re-evaluate and matsui decided to leave 2 years before retirement (but unofficially keep working on the game in some fashion) and Fujito to take over, it's him that is forcing them to work on other stuff and not their own desires.

Matsui actively recruited people who wanted to work on 11, many of them are ff11 players who came on board purely for that.

To be clear, these people are not coders where they need to learn to use some new engine. They are all designers, they design content.

Moving to other teams to make zoomer tripe is going to be absolutely disgusting for them, I would quit in their place and go work on a farm or something worthwhile rather than make zoomer trash.

[Alhanelem]

They don't.Oh really, so you've conducted interviews with the people in question and they specifically told you personally that they don't?



We already know what happened, cause they have said it. One of the dev kits broke during VR and they had to try use some other ones to get it done.Weren't you arguing earlier that they don't need the dev kits? Why are you now suggesting that this excuse is in fact valid after previously disputing it?



This lead to them having to re-evaluate and matsui decided to leave 2 years before retirement (but unofficially keep working on the game in some fashion) and Fujito to take over, it's him that is forcing them to work on other stuff and not their own desires.When he retires is when he retires, he didn't decide to leave, he retired.




Matsui actively recruited people who wanted to work on 11, many of them are ff11 players who came on board purely for that. [citatiion needed] Not that I think anyone would join a project they didn't want to be on, but sometimes things you loved when you started you fall out of love with. And over a period of several years, in many cases they probably didn't love how working on FFXI might be limiting their future career prospects.



Moving to other teams to make zoomer tripe is going to be absolutely disgusting for them, I would quit in their place and go work on a farm or something worthwhile rather than make zoomer trash. This kind of offensive rubbish is why no one is going to take you seriously. If you don't like something that's fine but different strokes for different folks. Most of the people you call zoomers would probably call stuff from our generation "boomer trash." Generational gaps and all. It's time to stop being so dang toxic.



To be clear, these people are not coders where they need to learn to use some new engine. They are all designers, they design content.You clearly know nothing about how these things work. Designers are the MOST affected by moving between different game engines. Coders are the people with the power to change those engines. They don't work with engines, they make them.

I am a level designer. Moving from UE3 to UE4/5 is like moving to a different country where no one understands your language. Things are vastly different and only symbols and signs that are universal translate over. I am a wizard with Unreal 3's Kismet gameplay scripting, and I can't do much of anything well with Blueprint, the system designed to replace Kismet. They share a few design elements but are otherwise totally different and it is not a simple task to take something you made with one and make it work in the other.

[Pixela]

Your post just made me realize something obvious.

They are moving all our developers we pay for onto ff14, making us pay the same overpriced subscription for ff11 and giving us zero content from here on out. So we are paying their wages to work on ff14.

Ok I'm done.

I think I agree with Spicy now, it's time to invest in something different but the same.

o/

[Alhanelem]

They are moving all our developers we pay for onto ff14, making us pay the same overpriced subscription for ff11 and giving us zero content from here on out. Good. I'm glad you've finally decided to stop wasting money on something you don't like. See you around :) Or not....

[Sp1cyryan]

Your post just made me realize something obvious.

They are moving all our developers we pay for onto ff14, making us pay the same overpriced subscription for ff11 and giving us zero content from here on out. So we are paying their wages to work on ff14.

Ok I'm done.

I think I agree with Spicy now, it's time to invest in something different but the same.

o/

Look, you need to understand that this game is a business for a company. It is not your personal identity and greatest of untapped monetary value for both parties due to your personal attachment. So the whole conspiracy of moving us to something else. Whether true or not, is irrelevant.

If you have fun then play. Otherwise move on to something that makes you happier. These sort of posts are nonsensical whining.

[Pixela]

https://i.imgur.com/d8EJmNd.jpg

[Alhanelem]

I thought the skeleton in the chair was you

[Tarmarkvar]

Your post just made me realize something obvious.

They are moving all our developers we pay for onto ff14, making us pay the same overpriced subscription for ff11 and giving us zero content from here on out. So we are paying their wages to work on ff14.

The subscription cost has been the same for 20 years. Because of inflation, it is actually cheaper.

[Rinuko]

It's sad to see we're losing Matsui-P trust in the May update.
Will we see some form of replacement?

[Pixela]

I don't get that at all, I watched a video interview with both of them and Fujito said he would not remove the trust from the game and now almost right away he does?

[DoctooOkay]

Wasn't the Matsui-P trust always meant to be seasonal? The original implementation of it was from Dec. 2020 - May 2021: http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics/ff11/detail/18099/detail.html

[Rinuko]

Wasn't the Matsui-P trust always meant to be seasonal? The original implementation of it was from Dec. 2020 - May 2021: http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics/ff11/detail/18099/detail.html

You're probably not incorrect. I think people had hoped for a permanent implementation now that Matsui has stepped down and meant a lot to the game and its development last decade.

[Pixela]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgGUiIwtIGQ

It's difficult to understand from the translations but doesn't it say in this video he wanted to keep Matsui-P?

Someone asks question 2 about it, 28:52

https://i.imgur.com/JXyOTZ3.jpg

[Alhanelem]

Wasn't the Matsui-P trust always meant to be seasonal? The original implementation of it was from Dec. 2020 - May 2021: http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics/ff11/detail/18099/detail.htmlIt was. But for me he just made a lot of stuff possible that wasn't. On summoner I can do chains with him and maigc burst them every time, for me it was a massive solo DPS boost.

The bottom line is trusts that are just seasonal or associated with events should not be a thing, they should be permanent.

[Sfchakan]

They are going into maintenance mode to reduce costs to keep it running as long as possible. Inflation and other issues have been serious problems over the past 3 years and have basically negated the gains made.

However if you're going to do that you need to point it out in a better way and not make a story about the developers careers, you want your players to want to financially support you to keep the game alive and not be annoyed by nonsense.

In their Japanese only census information released last year alongside the anniversary festivities, they revealed that they were operating at about 30% profit over expenses. For a game without a lot of large development costs on the horizon, that's a pretty safe margin. Unless subscriptions decline severely, I don't think it's that much of a concern at the moment.

And, to be honest, with the amount of people multiboxing and megaboxing in this game these days, I don't see their subscription numbers dwindling too bad anytime soon.

[Immortal]

I personally have a different opinion, you can already see the decay as sub numbers slowly drop. They have not helped their case at all by casually saying they are literally going to do less for the game and still take the same pay. The only thing left is for them to actually give the players the finger in some meta cutscene from the developer like they have in XIV. I think you 'll begin to see the decline more clearly once they wrap up TVR and theres not much after to look forward to.

[Sfchakan]

One way people never look at it is that the sub keeps essentially becoming cheaper with inflation. A normal player might spend $13-25/month on this game. That means almost nothing in 2023 dollars compared to when the game was new.

[Alhanelem]

In their Japanese only census information released last year alongside the anniversary festivities, they revealed that they were operating at about 30% profit over expenses. For a game without a lot of large development costs on the horizon, that's a pretty safe margin.

If this is true it's worse than you think. Do you know how you get the approximate actual cost of something based on its MSRP? It's not perfect but it usually comes pretty close:

Just take the MSRP and divide it by 3. 1/3 the cost to make, 1/3 profit for the maker, 1/3 profit for the seller. Obviously it doesn't work out exactly like this but it's a good rough guideline. If SE's income is only 30% over the cost of the product, a non physical product (the subscription, to the end user), that's a fairly low margin.

[Rinuko]

I personally have a different opinion, you can already see the decay as sub numbers slowly drop. They have not helped their case at all by casually saying they are literally going to do less for the game and still take the same pay. The only thing left is for them to actually give the players the finger in some meta cutscene from the developer like they have in XIV. I think you 'll begin to see the decline more clearly once they wrap up TVR and theres not much after to look forward to.

How do you gauge that? On all the servers I play on the logged in number of players seem to be same past 6-12 months

[Sp1cyryan]

How do you gauge that? On all the servers I play on the logged in number of players seem to be same past 6-12 months

I wouldn't trust it to be more than projection.

Personally, I don't measure the decay in character numbers. They aren't reliable and are significantly inflated or AFK.