silly NA/EU players, JP ps2's are transformers
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And this is a first step in that direction. Hence all this joy. A few years ago they wouldn't have thought about axing PS2 users in other regions either. This pretty much confirms that it's on their to-do list. Just need to wait for the remaining Japanese PS2 players to disappear, and hopefully this will extend to them as well. One can only hope they take a hint from this and switch to PC or the 360 sooner rather than later, to make this entire procedure go over quickly and painlessly.
I still want a PS2 download of the expansion and I've yet to hear a good reason why we can't have a download version made available through PlayOnline like the Abyssea expansions.
I feel like there's a simple solution hidden somewhere in this post...
...maybe...
http://www.nerdlocker.com/wp-content.../05/hitman.jpg
That's a pleasant thought. And, I hope it's true. We're way beyond the time that people should be off the PS2. However, excluding the other regions from future PS2 content may be as far as this goes. Remember, we're talking about an expansion that is quite a ways off. If they were going to rip the PS2 band-aid off, doing it for all regions during this expansion would have been the perfect time to do it, giving all PS2 players plenty of time to shift to a new system. I see this as more of a "we really can't care any less about the non-Japanese players" rather than "we're moving away from PS2."
That's how I see it. In isolation, I might be convinced that it's a ps2 issue but given that SE tried to enact preferential tendencies in fee payment for Japanese players not less than a year ago (which they have since had to back away from), I'm sensing a "screw you" vibe in this decision. Not a good move when the whole relaunching of FFXIV is going to hinge on people who didn't see how bad FFXIV really was, a la the console player, buying it for the ps3. Anyone who thinks otherwise is delusional; the game's already been more or less written off by the vast majority of PC players.
I'll certainly remember the slight the next time I have a choice of games to pick from.
I'm shocked PS2 still works, between me and my cousin we have like 15 dead ones being used as paper weights and book ends, it's not worth the cost to replace the board or disk drive to get them working again. I can up-sample the games on my mac to 1080i and a USB device to transfer the memory cards are 20$... on my mac I can play any PS2 game on my 52 inch tv and do web browsing without an issue or even play a game on dolphin on a sperate screen without issue. Granted this is a 800$ computer... 80$ (about the cost of a used PS2) can get you a computer with windows installed and an ethernet and graphics card that will play FFXI at any pre-built place.
On a side note, I have a friend who's been dumpster diving at best buy and he's built two computers that would play FFXI that way.
So a quick story that probably doesn't matter too much to anyone but a few years back (5-6yrs maybe) i had a business meeting in northern japan. A co worker that i was staying with for the few days had a PS2 but it had a ton of things attached to it that i have never seen in the states before. Large hard drive much larger then what is available here and it actually had HDMI port on the back but he told me it doesn't cast in HD at 1080p but it looks much better then the ones in the states. Also as we were walking down town and in the gaming district, which was funny to me that there actually was an area that had a ton of shops revolved around games, comics, anime, and so on. We found that the major gaming machines is still the PS2. Now that being said I haven't been there since then and could be wrong now but they do have a much higher player base and a much larger supply of upgradeables available to them for the PS2 so it doesn't surprise me that they kept the support there.
And to the PS2 users here, yes i loved the ps2 very much but it may be time to let it go. Either way there will always be elements out there that we don't want to get rid of but it is time. Just like the RDM job in XI, i say RIP PS2. Sorry folks.
And if they can make the game more cost effective its more likely to keep going and keep being supported generally.