Swan Song of Vana'diel; ~Why I Won't Play the Mobile Native App~

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Originally Posted by Raiyara

To be honest I think the mobile app is gonna be a massive flop. FFXI is a console/pcmasterrace game. Always has been. Had they been willing to sink money into a complete rebuild of the game or even a port over to the XIV engine I wouldve given them a hell of a lot better of a chance in that area than a cheap mobile app from Nexcon :/

Maybe things might change in the long run but I dont see it working out well in the future.

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SE doesn't have a good history with FF properties developed by third parties, none have ever finished development.

What's with all the FFXIV hate? I play XIV as well and I love it. Granted, I get that a lot of your frustrations are due to loyalty to a game you've spent a great many years playing... and I can't really understand where you're coming from because I just started XI yesterday, and I've logged 1.5 hours total. Nothing compared to your tireless devotion and countless hours spent.

I'm glad I get to experience Vana'diel! I hope to get many months, hopefully years, of playing in! But all things do come to an end. I know it's sad, it's hard, it's not something we ever want to experience... but it's reality. :/

I probably won't play the mobile app either. If I do download it, it'll be just to see what it looks like. I'll still be plugging away at Vana'diel on my laptop.

I'll be splitting my time between Eorzea and Vana'diel, but loving both. :)

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Originally Posted by Duskira

What's with all the FFXIV hate? I play XIV as well and I love it. Granted, I get that a lot of your frustrations are due to loyalty to a game you've spent a great many years playing... and I can't really understand where you're coming from because I just started XI yesterday, and I've logged 1.5 hours total. Nothing compared to your tireless devotion and countless hours spent.

I'm glad I get to experience Vana'diel! I hope to get many months, hopefully years, of playing in! But all things do come to an end. I know it's sad, it's hard, it's not something we ever want to experience... but it's reality. :/

I probably won't play the mobile app either. If I do download it, it'll be just to see what it looks like. I'll still be plugging away at Vana'diel on my laptop.

I'll be splitting my time between Eorzea and Vana'diel, but loving both. :)

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People dont hate ffxiv, they're just dissapointed in what it is. Think all us so called "haters" wish xiv the best but have settled with the idea that its just not our type of game we want to dump many hours in.....also well that money to develop xiv did have to come from somewhere.

And it is sad to see so much sadness here on the forums, as a new player. Not that I blame any of you - had I been playing a game this long only to have it being effectively ending, I'd be pretty damn sad too.

But while you're disappointed in what XIV is, that's not really the fault of the developers. They used that money to make a successor to XI, and while it's very different, there's a reason for that... XIV 1.0 was VERY reminiscent of XI in a lot of ways... and it was a critical and commercial failure. The changes they've made have distanced it from XI, which is actually what has caused it to flourish. It's now a critical and commercial success. I have a hard time faulting SE for listening to the overwhelming majority of people calling their game "crap" and remaking it to fit the wants/needs of the playerbase.

As a newbie to XI, I also wish SE had put more effort into revamping XI a bit... graphical updates, etc. Though the graphics are actually not bothering me as much as I thought they would. Maybe it's because the PS2 was the console I spent the most time playing on (I have a PS3 but I have a grand total of 3 games for it: FFXIII, FFXIV, and a game called LIMBO), but I'm actually digging the XI graphics. Still, a little extra TLC to XI in those areas would've been nice.

I can't have a truly strong opinion, because I can't imagine the situation long-time players are in, but being bitter at SE for using XI's sub money to fund a new project is kinda... I dunno. Isn't that how business works? A movie production company makes a movie, it sells millions, which finances the next project. A record label releases an album, it sells millions, it allows them to fund other albums. A video game company releases a game, it generates revenue, it allows them to put money towards a new project.

I'm sure XI subs helped, at least in part, fund several other SE projects in addition to XIV.

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Originally Posted by Duskira

And it is sad to see so much sadness here on the forums, as a new player. Not that I blame any of you - had I been playing a game this long only to have it being effectively ending, I'd be pretty damn sad too.

But while you're disappointed in what XIV is, that's not really the fault of the developers. They used that money to make a successor to XI, and while it's very different, there's a reason for that... XIV 1.0 was VERY reminiscent of XI in a lot of ways... and it was a critical and commercial failure. The changes they've made have distanced it from XI, which is actually what has caused it to flourish. It's now a critical and commercial success. I have a hard time faulting SE for listening to the overwhelming majority of people calling their game "crap" and remaking it to fit the wants/needs of the playerbase.

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FFXIV 1.0 was a commercial flop cause they launched an unfinished game. I actually enjoyed playing the version of the game just before FFVIX ARR, but the game it is now....its something totally different. I've tried it a couple of times and although almost my whole ls is on there i dont see myself playing it. I guess i'll have to settle with the thought that i'm one of those grindy niche people.

Not quite actually. Even in its 1.0 form XIV was a vastly different game from FFXI.
The huge mistake they made with XIV 1.0 was completely ignoring the huge amount of beta testers telling them to wait a few months and to actually develop some content for it, but they decided to release the game in a state far from ready for commercial release.

That said, I don't hate FFXIV. I've even played it for a couple of months, but it simply isn't a game I feel at home in.

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Originally Posted by Shirai

Not quite actually. Even in its 1.0 form XIV was a vastly different game from FFXI.
The huge mistake they made with XIV 1.0 was completely ignoring the huge amount of beta testers telling them to wait a few months and to actually develop some content for it, but they decided to release the game in a state far from ready for commercial release.

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Exactly. Comparing 1.0 to FFXI -- and even using that as a basis for why the game failed -- is a huge insult to FFXI, in my opinion. It's also just plain wrong.

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Originally Posted by Duskira

But while you're disappointed in what XIV is, that's not really the fault of the developers. They used that money to make a successor to XI, and while it's very different, there's a reason for that... XIV 1.0 was VERY reminiscent of XI in a lot of ways... and it was a critical and commercial failure.

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It flopped because it was a bad game with copypasted zones running on a terrible poorly programmed game engine that looked like something from 2005 but which had high end system requirements in 2010. Tanaka siphoned development funds from FFXI to make this turd starting around when COP was released and left FFXI to rot. Any planning for the eventual end of PS2 services and migration of the dev environment to the PC was not considered necessary as Tanaka had deluded himself into thinking we'd all just quit FFXI and switched to FFXIV and they could just pull the plug on the servers.

Then they had to do a complete rebuild of the game from the ground up which pretty much sealed FFXI's fate at that point as they couldn't afford to rebuild FFXIV *and* modernize FFXI at the same time.

So yes I hate FFXIV, it's hard for me not to when it murdered something I love. I hate it with the blazing fury of a thousand angry suns.

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Originally Posted by vienne

People dont hate ffxiv, they're just dissapointed in what it is. Think all us so called "haters" wish xiv the best but have settled with the idea that its just not our type of game we want to dump many hours in.....also well that money to develop xiv did have to come from somewhere.

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I agree with this;

Will add my personal experience of being a bandwagon mmo player.

I have no loyalties to any game; will play the MMO which gives me the most enjoyment.

I do not enjoy FFXIV, some do, this is all subjective.

not sure if anyone is hating per se, but they may not enjoy it.

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Originally Posted by Seillan

Exactly. Comparing 1.0 to FFXI -- and even using that as a basis for why the game failed -- is a huge insult to FFXI, in my opinion. It's also just plain wrong.

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We'll have to agree to disagree. Of course it was an entirely different game, but there were a lot of similarities to FFXI in 1.0 - exact copy, obviously not, but similar in a lot of ways. I meant no insult to XI, but let's be honest: almost nobody plays XI anymore while XIV has a huge playerbase. Which happened AFTER 1.0... after they further distanced themselves from XI. That said, I'm very happy I've picked XI up. I found a great LS, and the in-game community is very helpful and friendly. I've yet to meet a single player with a bad attitude - several even gave me large amounts of gil after asking if I was a new player! I completely understand why people left XI, but, I'm pretty sure I'll be playing it for a long while.

I can't wait to start unlocking some advanced Jobs. :D

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Originally Posted by Atomic_Skull

So yes I hate FFXIV, it's hard for me not to when it murdered something I love. I hate it with the blazing fury of a thousand angry suns.

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Yeah... still gonna maintain that XIV did not murder XI. Time murdered XI. From a business standpoint, it makes more sense to make an entirely new game than to "modernize" a game with so many expansion packs and add-on scenarios that it's overwhelming and daunting to new players. The story ran itself out. I'm glad they didn't beat a dead horse by continuing on to expansion 35 or what have you; how utterly displeasing to a new player base. XI is already very much a catch-up game for new players at this point, adding even more expansions and add-on scenarios... it would be silly to start as a new player in a game that would take you years to clear up to the point of being current.

Having said that, XI is far from "murdered". Yes, it's a shadow of what it once was, but every time I log in I see new players. Granted, they aren't filling the streets of the major cities in droves, but I play during what you would not consider "peak times" (tonight I logged in for the first time today at a little past midnight) and I encountered two newbie players. I also found a LS with a great mix of veteran players (some 10+ years) and newer players (one who's been playing less time than I have!).

They also must be selling more copies recently, because when I bought the complete pack it was $19.99, I looked today and it's $29.99.

So, XI is not dead. Nobody murdered it. It's here, it's beautiful, it's enthralling, it's exciting. It's just old. It fell out of popularity. Oh well, it happens. I'm sorry the state of things have upset you, but your game has not been murdered. New players are finding themselves there every day, I'm glad to be one of them who wandered into Vana'diel recently, and I don't see myself leaving any time soon. :P

So I've come back after taking a couple months off, and I am enjoying myself. Still can't see myself playing the mobile version. I love my character and I never want to start a new one again. I'm hanging with a new player and two returning players (in addition to another LS of people I don't know as well). Last night we were doing Zilart missions (missions are a lot more fun with friends!) and we ran into another returning player doing them as well. He joined up with us, which is cool, and it shows that the game still has a lot of life in it.

I am having trouble understanding the devs. They say the game can't be developed anymore because PS2 dev kits are failing, but then they are doing this mobile farce? Why port to mobiles? It can't be cheaper than a proper port to PC. I am glad to be back but I worry about when the updates stop.

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Originally Posted by Olor

I am having trouble understanding the devs. They say the game can't be developed anymore because PS2 dev kits are failing, but then they are doing this mobile farce? Why port to mobiles? It can't be cheaper than a proper port to PC. but I worry about when the updates stop.

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Because in japan console and pc gaming is declining and mobile gaming is surging. Also the mobile version isn't a port from my understanding its being developed from the ground up so no ps2 dev kits required.

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Originally Posted by madmartin

Because in japan console and pc gaming is declining and mobile gaming is surging. Also the mobile version isn't a port from my understanding its being developed from the ground up so no ps2 dev kits required.

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This is what I am saying though - that's ludicrous to make a hollow shade of XI on mobile instead of doing a "rebirth" on PC like they did for XIV. And Japan isn't the only market for MMOs, its not even the biggest market for MMOs

It doesn't matter if billions of people have cell phones if no one wants to play your game on a cellphone. Cannot for the life of me see a cell phone gamer wanting to play anything like XI.

Mobile client is a different engine with different resources, and they are launching it with content including the first two expansions. There's a lot more content to update in PC FFXI to redo it, and by dropping consoles, they are leaving it on an unpopular platform in Japan, the PC. Globally, PC is popular, but inside Japan, mobile rules as a platform they would have a large playerbase for. Also, the game is not likely to be as complicated as PC FFXI on mobile, as they have to assume you just have a touchscreen, so mechanics like gear swapping and macros are probably going to be dropped. Zones are probably going to be shrunk down.

Cell phones destroyed the market for real computers, and also the market for real games. That's progress.

The reason Square Enix isn't doing a PC rebirth has been touched upon above. Let me also offer this: Right now, Square Enix has two PC MMOs. One is dying (Let's face it, FFXI is not full of life right now), one is extremely active and successful.

They could "rebirth" FFXI on PC but you know what that would result in? Two of Square Enix's own MMOs competing with each other. From a business perspective, that's just a waste of money when FFXIV is already capturing that market. What would be the point?

The smarter decision is to re-position FFXI. To tap into a customer base that Square Enix hasn't already captured. The MMO market for cellphones is currently weak (but traditional MMOs do exist for cell phones, so hopefully that fact will ease the worries that FFXI mobile will just be screenshots and selecting quests from a touch screen), so that's a way FFXI AND FFXIV can coexist and make money for them at the same time. I think this is a good thing for FFXI overall. And if you're that attached to your characters/the current page, this will still be here for a few years yet.

They can't realistically hold onto the current FFXI forever. At least the game will continue in some official form after the death of the original.

Nobody wants it for the mobile, nobody. It can't ever be as complex as the current FFXI and will be a complete step down. You say that about FFXIV, but do you realize SE was creating FFXIV and released it when FFXI was successful and captured the market? Yet they released it anyway, why can't they do the same and make both games different. You don't lose any customer and even gain some if you reduce the sub price.

FFXIV was meant to succeed FFXI in the first place. That's why it had, like 90% of its races and throwbacks to all of FFXI's locations and lore. The only reason FFXI continued to stick around afterward was because FFXIV 1.0 failed miserably.
I don't think Square Enix anticipated ARR to be to blowout success it's been. But it is, so now FFXI with its 700ish active players tops on most servers no longer has a place here. Times change and so do plans. It would make them more money, especially in Japan, to move it to mobile phones and let both markets generate income instead of one.

You think FFXI can't be done on mobile phones? Go look up some traditional MMOs on mobile phones. They exist. And frankly, I think it'll be a step up. Because it's a chance for FFXI to have a modern UI and finally get the streamlining it sorely needs. There's nothing in this game that is so complicated that it can't be done on a mobile phone. However, I do hold no illusions that it's going to be a different game in a lot of ways too. They already stated they want to make it more solo friendly. So who knows what the future holds?

But I'm of the opinion that not all change is bad. And if nothing else, Squeenix is handling this gracefully by keeping the old servers alive for a few more years so everyone can play the original for a while longer.

First off the graphics will be worse, I can't imagine it having the same graphic quality on a phone? Second, who likes to sit and play on a phone when you have a perfectly capable PC or console? Maybe grandma's with their candy crush but not actual gamers who pay for these MMOs in the first place. I'll hold my judgment until its released but I don't expect much, I don't like to play phone games over a PC. Also the only MMO games I found to go mobile was silly free to play ones or maple story type stuff, that isn't exactly sealing the deal here.

I look at it this way: We'd all love for this version of the game to last forever and get expansions and a new UI and stuff. But it's not going to happen. I'd rather it live on, active, in another form, than die and be inaccessible.
With what Square Enix has been doing in the mobile market lately, I have faith that they don't intend to half-ass any of this. Even their announcement makes it pretty clear they want to preserve the game as much as they can, while upgrading the experience.

We'll see.

As for graphics...eh. FFXI isn't exactly cutting edge graphics. I won't mourn too much if some corners are cut. But like, there are mobile games out there that look really good.

I mean, look at this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBXH9ecBsYU

That's a game that generally has more going on at any given time than FFXI does, too.

I can't exactly make you be optimistic about this, but as someone who currently prefers this to FFXIV and missed the boat on playing during its more active years...I'd really like this mobile version to work out.

That game doesn't look bad, but is it online? I would imagine they have to dumb the graphics down for online mode so its accessible to everyone with a phone. Also the problem still remains that we would have to play on a phone... I can't imagine getting serious about any kind of phone game. I really enjoy FF record keepers, but I'm not super serious about it its more casual. This just screams to me, we don't care about FFXI anymore so we are throwing it off onto a third party where they will make it a pay to win game that people play 10 minutes out of the day. This game deserves better than that imo, they could have invested in a PC revamp and made it unique compared to WoW-esque MMOs like FFXIV.

It is. Kritika is an online game.

http://www.siliconera.com/2015/03/19...ourtesy-nexon/

This seems to have the most information of all the news I've read and it all points to them at least trying to keep the core of the game intact. The screens, tiny as they are, at least seem to resemble FFXI.
But that's all we have. So who knows? I guess we'll have to wait for them to show off some actual gameplay to see what's happening.

I don't consider it a 'we don't care about FFXI' anymore move, though. To me, if they didn't care, they'd just quietly kill it and not devote all this development they're currently devoting to it. It costs a lot of money to remake a 13+ year old game, you know :P.

I guess, lets just hope its decent.

That much we agree on.

I just don't see this working well here in the states.

It's not as if the USA is the primary target for this. Japanese company, Japanese targets.

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Originally Posted by bungiefanNA

It's not as if the USA is the primary target for this. Japanese company, Japanese targets.

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Correct, which is why it's on a mobile platform. They are are showing a complete bias on the demographic that they want. Big shock, because it's not the first time that this has happened. I don't live in Japan, and have like 2 friends that I talk to regularly that are from there, so I've no clue how their mobile/cellular data and Hot spotting works as a country. The reason I say that I don't see this working in the states is because of the huge cap on cellular data plans, and the lack of overall Wi-Fi Hot Spots that can be trusted.

Japan is the testing ground of new cell phone models. They've had more features than us for longer than us for a long time in that market. We get maybe 10% of the phone models that are released there. It's easy to cover Japan in cell signal, with how compact the country is.

Before I begin let me just apologize in advance for what is going to be a long post.
After SE announced the Vanadiel Project, I wasn’t sure what to think of it and it really took me a long while to understand where they were coming from.. and over the past few months I think I finally get it.

Perhaps the most confusing part of the Vana Project was the decision to announce everything together, because it seemed like none of the 3 separate announcements were actually linked.

XI ending regular updates was a signal of the end, and Rhapsodies was essentially the apology. I believe this was always an inevitability, but the reliance on PS2 hardware meant that this came sooner than later. Essentially, FFXI’s dev team had painted the game into a corner and there was nothing else they could do. Service would slowly wind down, and the very least they could do left was keep the servers online for PC gamers, for now.

The deal with FF Grandmasters? I honestly think this one was in no way influenced by FFXI winding down, and was just another side project, but related to FFXI. This is just another way for SE to cash in on the expansive mobile gaming market, alongside FF WWW, Pictlogica and Record Keeper. Having seen videos of the beta in action, I’d go as far as to say its basically another generic mobile+gacha kind of game, except that it’s FFXI flavored and conveniently uses its lore, monsters and equipment to furnish the game, just like how FFRK draws from all the other numbered FFs.

It was really the third announcement that struck me as odd - and I think the first thing that came to my mind was.. Why would we want to play FFXI on mobile after a decade on console/PC? And then I realized, the FFXI native app isn’t actually meant for us. I believe it’s really meant to introduce XI to a brand new audience of gamers, who would hopefully be drawn into the game.

Why are they doing this? Why are they telling us this? Perhaps SE knew that XI in its current form would die. This was its only saving grace - a MMMRPG.. multiplayer mobile RPG. I’ve never actually come across this term before, so perhaps they feel like they’re carving out a niche in the market for the game? I also believe they decided against going for a full remake of the game because it was a waste of resources and like some have mentioned would compete for the same pie as XIV, which doesn’t make business sense.. so a new XI would have to cater to a different market.

So what exactly is this native app? I wish I knew, and I wish they told us more. With no news in the last 4 months I’m left wondering if they even decided to proceed with it. If they did then I believe this is the future for FFXI. This is to be FFXI: A Mobile Reborn. (lol)

If I may be cautiously (or unrealistically) hopeful about it, I think this might be a chance for SE and Nexon to remake FFXI and get things right, from the very beginning. The main question of concern left for us would then be.. are we willing to do it all over again? My answer would be yes.

(Side note: I’ve been playing FFXIV: Heavensward for the better part of the last month, and I only have praise for the game for leaving me thoroughly impressed by the vast improvements made since ARR. I am also wont to comparing it with XI and thinking of how XI could have turned out if it was more well planned out.. and as a newer game on better technology. This also made me miss XI a whole lot)

How exactly does one recreate an MMO with over 10 years of content? The most logical step from both a business and development standpoint would be to start from the beginning and work progressively. When this app game releases, I expect it to be the vanilla FFXI. No expansions. Level 50 cap. After all, if everyone is starting from scratch, there’d be no one to do endgame immediately. And they could roll out the updates at a steady pace to keep gamers entertained. They’d not have to worry about designing new content because it’s all already been done before.

The game changer, and major difference really, is they’d be able to implement all the QoL additions they made to the current game into the app. I’m talking about Home Point warps, Survival Guides (hopefully integrated more efficiently), Fields of Valor and Treasure Caskets, Warp Rings, cheap Reraise scrolls, wide scan, no EXP loss till 30, Level Sync, Synthesis and of course Trusts. RoE could probably be implemented in a way that it would run automatically, like a true Achievements system or XIVs Challenge log.

For all the times I’ve said to myself.. ”if only these changes were around when i started the game”, this could be that chance. Of course, they’d need to figure out a UI intuitive enough to support all these features.. and I think that’s really the biggest challenge the native app faces.

But there are also the possibilities of them undoing past mistakes or limitations for the remake. For eg, implementing a unified teleporting system early in the game would save them the need to add so many overlapping systems in the future. Or to be able to tweak older gameplay systems to not be as totally redundant as they are now (Expedition Force lol, or a better Evolith system from the very beginning). Battlefields could be truly instanced. Quest fights could be instanced from a small section of an open area zone. Jobs would actually be fairly balanced from the beginning and not totally suck.

The possibilities are truly endless - but this is of course, mere speculation. My point really is that the sky's the limit with the native app. And if this is what they’re planning for it, then I want to see it succeed. It’d breathe new (rehashed ) life into FFXI.. at least until it runs out of content to implement - which won’t be anytime soon. By that time, if FFXI is doing well enough, we may see that version being ported for other platforms, or brand new content for FFXI.. maybe a new expansion.

But one thing seems very clear, it won’t happen to THIS FFXI, only the mobile one. OR, i could be totally wrong. I wish there was more info.

I was reading a Nintendo article following the recent very sad news about Satoru Iwata. Nintendo spokesperson was basically saying that mobile-phone games are pretty much the only thing they are looking at, going forward. The article kept saying how Nintendo is keen to leave consoles behind entirely, in favour of mobile-phone games.

This chimes with earlier posters' comments about this changing marketplace in the Far East.

As I said before, I will not be playing any of the portable games, I still use a Nokia mobile phone from like 1998 lol. I love my PC games, and enjoy gaming at a desk where I can set up my coffee and pizza in the traditional gamer way.

Me too, someone please explain to me the allure of mobile gaming? I guess if you are on a lunch break and you wanna play something quick and people won't notice you are gaming if using a phone instead of a PS VITA or something? What other reason could people want for mobile gaming lol.

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Originally Posted by Draylo-

Me too, someone please explain to me the allure of mobile gaming? I guess if you are on a lunch break and you wanna play something quick and people won't notice you are gaming if using a phone instead of a PS VITA or something? What other reason could people want for mobile gaming lol.

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You won't always have a Vita or something on you. Meanwhile, you'll always have a phone and it's always online. Bored at the doctor's office? Play something on your phone. Bored on a bus or as in the passenger's seat? Play something on your phone. Got some dead time? Well, you have a game to fill it nomatter where you are.

I'm pretty sure Square Enix is well aware mobile gaming is done in bursts rather than long sessions, so I doubt FFXI will be the timesink it is now. When I say timesink, I don't mean how long it takes to get gear and stuff. I mean, how long it takes to do things like get to a BCNM or Dangruf Wadi. A duty finder ala FFXIV seems like a likely addition for this reason.

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Originally Posted by Aquilah

You won't always have a Vita or something on you. Meanwhile, you'll always have a phone and it's always online. Bored at the doctor's office? Play something on your phone. Bored on a bus or as in the passenger's seat? Play something on your phone. Got some dead time? Well, you have a game to fill it nomatter where you are.

I'm pretty sure Square Enix is well aware mobile gaming is done in bursts rather than long sessions, so I doubt FFXI will be the timesink it is now. When I say timesink, I don't mean how long it takes to get gear and stuff. I mean, how long it takes to do things like get to a BCNM or Dangruf Wadi. A duty finder ala FFXIV seems like a likely addition for this reason.

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How are you expected to play anything in those jammed packed Trains? While I get that mobile gaming is nice, but it's a different lifestyle in Japan than it is here. They go to school, then more school, then cram school, after school job, back to night school... and just about every type of school you can throw in there. Where we in the west focus on having holidays and a division of 'work' and 'social' lives. Both the console market/PC Market are still strong this side. That being said, SE has said that if any more of their titles 'fail' it's not likely they'll stay in either of those markets and focus on mobile. Which is why I was surprise to see the FF7 Remake. But it also depends more so which demographic developers want to woo. If Nintendo does go to the 'mobile market,' I'd place my bet on it be a mobile console they develop themselves. Larger than the 3DS, and maybe a tablet-like functionality. I want these people to stay in the gaming market.... And I want my Playstation 9... D:< I better be getting my mind control, holographic surround movie system, and telepathic personal music!!

Japan is a country where people are in transit a lot of the time during the day. Trains are a big mode of transport there. Cell phone connectivity is cheap, and coverage is very good. Cell phones are also cheaper than game consoles there, and games on the phones are generally less expensive. That's why it has major appeal there.

One thing to keep in mind is that gaming on tablets at home or a Wi-fi location is becoming a bigger thing over here. Square Enix is probably going to retain more of its customers than you'd think, whether they stay here, play FFXI mobile or play FFXIV.

I also wouldn't rule out like, a PC viewer or a hand-held port. Until we hear more of what Square Enix's plans are, anything could happen.

I certainly hope none of their games fail, though. I happen to like them developing for console and PC lately.

one of the biggest considerations to take note of for mobile/tablet is the built in userbase. You don't need to encourage people to buy an android or ios device. Millions of people already own them.. and that means the potential outreach for that is exponentially higher than a dedicated mobile gaming device like the Vita, as more and more people feel such devices are not necessary when they have their phones that can already do most of that.

Most people also prefer convenience over technical specs for mobile so they dont care for a dedicated mobile gaming device. if they wanted quality it'd probably be on console? but even that has a smaller market

Now that they have X|V going, they don't need XI around to fund it that much any longer, and they will instead use the XI-fund into remaking VII finally (not entirely serious words there), and although I feel I should be excited for VII — The Remake Edition, I really can't say I am... I may play it at some point (on a Linux PC), but I'm sure the original will always be win for me.

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Originally Posted by Aquilah

You won't always have a Vita or something on you. Meanwhile, you'll always have a phone and it's always online.

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I don't own any hand-held consoles, and my main phone is from 2005, still running on its original battery. I also have some phones (that still work) from the 90s, but the point is that the phone from 2005 has not failed me yet. Should it become unusable, I'm not sure if I would find me a replacement phone, or one of those mini-PCs (smartypants phones).

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Bored at the doctor's office? Play something on your phone. Bored on a bus or as in the passenger's seat? Play something on your phone. Got some dead time? Well, you have a game to fill it nomatter where you are.

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Ha! How do people have the time to be bored, I wonder. I'm not sure I was bored much when I was younger even, though I remember I didn't like waiting for something (such as growing up, heh!). It's not like I'm old now, but it feels like time is only moving faster and faster, so it's getting worse, still. Heck, I'm currently unemployed (might be the why) and I still feel like I don't have enough time for things!

I do realise it's very different for many (most?) other people, like those who spend lots of time while waiting for something during their daily routines.

I have been playing around with computers since the 80s, which sometimes makes me wonder why I am not interested in the mobile technology of today and tomorrow: computers everywhere! I guess I'm simply stuck to them old ways like that. ^^

I especially dislike their integration with cars, but I digress!

Time. Give to me.

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I'm pretty sure Square Enix is well aware mobile gaming is done in bursts rather than long sessions, so I doubt FFXI will be the timesink it is now. When I say timesink, I don't mean how long it takes to get gear and stuff. I mean, how long it takes to do things like get to a BCNM or Dangruf Wadi. A duty finder ala FFXIV seems like a likely addition for this reason.

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I guess I like time-sinks, even though I often have been against certain ones. Not all of them are nice, but when it comes to exploring a world, all this fast-travel we now have do make the large world so very small. It takes something away, though it's not that I'm complaining about that. I, too, do on the other hand enjoy being able to effortlessly get to some places.

It's probably quite clear that I am not of the target audience for the future FFXI, and that's fine. Mobile is the future, desktop is history, right? Consoles kick around their own parts, but I don't do that, either (last console I bought currently is a PlayStation 2, which I got for FINAL FANTASY XII (the Last Fantasy I mean last Final Fantasy game I have played on a console, and aside from XIV and X|V, the last one in the series).

I sort of wish they would have left FINAL FANTASY XI out of this. Make another spin-off, if they must, for it will not be FFXI.

Still, I can think positive, if there are people who want it to happen and who will really enjoy it. It's the same with FFX|V, really. I was in that since the very first αlpha phase, helping as I could with issues it had, yet it never really made me interested in it more than on a technical level (I like squashing bugs I maybe guess, and I was — and during free-to-play periods still am — testing it for Wine; I have been playing on Gentoo Linux since 2010, and often do what I can to help out the open source projects I make use of).

After they put it behind service fees, I did pay for the 90 days required for the Legacy status (just in case I'd want to have it some day), but not more (partly of course because FFXI isn't cheap either, and I tend to have two accounts for that). That game simply doesn't do it for me. Not visually, or with its content. Not even with things I can never ever dislike: Nobuo Uematsu, and all the throwbacks to the old, the good games.

Once FFXI is no more, who knows. I might go say “Blubb!” to friends at Eorzea, but I hope that time won't be here for a long while yet.


Long story short, the mobile FFXI, the everything FFX|V, and likely any other future and/or past products from SqEX are probably not for me, and so be it! I'll accept that.

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Originally Posted by Draylo-

Me too, someone please explain to me the allure of mobile gaming? I guess if you are on a lunch break and you wanna play something quick and people won't notice you are gaming if using a phone instead of a PS VITA or something? What other reason could people want for mobile gaming lol.

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It's profit to expense ratio. Mobile apps are extremely cheap to make, a fraction of the cost of a console / PC game. Mobile apps also hit the largest target market since Apple and Google have pretty much standardized the entire cellphone industry, you can write the game for one platform and it's available to everyone. If Nintendo makes a console, they need to compete with every other console maker for market share that also is competing with mobile since people don't like carrying multiple devices with them. So from their point of view, it's cheaper and has an order of magnitude larger consumer audience. If if their games don't sell well and are cheap, they are virtually guaranteed to make a profit on them by virtue of having exclusive access to brands. The only Zelda, Metroid, Mario or other Nintendo brand games going to be made would be by them with a profit for them.

SE is seeing this trend and hoping on board. The game quality is going to be crap, expect bad graphics on a small screen that you need to squint to really see. It's going to have minimal development effort, as compared to a standard AAA title, but it will be so cheap to make and enough people will buy "just because" that SE will make profits of it. This is the trend in gaming now, massive amounts of cheap games that people play for a few months the toss away to buy something else. Games have become wallmart commodities and it's a race to the bottom for big developers. I foresee another gaming market crash in the next five to six years as this massive rush to mobile dilutes the market with enough clones and cheap knock offs that users just stop buying.

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Originally Posted by saevel

SE is seeing this trend and hoping on board. The game quality is going to be crap, expect bad graphics on a small screen that you need to squint to really see. It's going to have minimal development effort, as compared to a standard AAA title, but it will be so cheap to make and enough people will buy "just because" that SE will make profits of it. This is the trend in gaming now, massive amounts of cheap games that people play for a few months the toss away to buy something else. Games have become wallmart commodities and it's a race to the bottom for big developers. I foresee another gaming market crash in the next five to six years as this massive rush to mobile dilutes the market with enough clones and cheap knock offs that users just stop buying.

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Despite wanting to stay as optimistic as I can, I'm inclined to agree with this viewpoint. Honestly, if it wasn't for the dedicated fans running/developing private servers for many of the superior online games of yesteryear, I probably wouldn't have much hope for the future of this genre at all. That said, I feel a sense of relief when I see examples like Project1999 and how popular it is, or how the guys working on the SWGEMU are still going at it after many years, because it lets me know that no matter how far this genre ultimately falls commercially, gamers that appreciate all the care and effort that went into these old games will hopefully always have a place to go. I only hope that the FFXI emu is able to reach similar heights as development continues.