Final Fantasy XI 2.0

[Chamaan]

An FFXI 2.0 overhaul would mean the decision to cut out PS2 support, which shoots down the "XI but with prettier graphics" argument. They can afford to redo the entire engine for 14 because they're not currently hampered by a console's limited hardware configuration. Dropping PS2 means they can give us new expansions completely built around level 75-99 content. New places to visit and explore that can lure people back. A new engine could give us more than 80 max inventory spaces in each sack.

I'm beating the oldest drum in the game by pointing the finger at PS2 users, but it's an old drum because it's the most obvious problem.

[MarkovChain]

FFXIV is being rebuild from scratch, it's only keeping the name. All the maps are going to be changed. If you ever played FFXIV after or during beta, everything was laggy due to structural issues, from selling to NPC to using commands during a fight or just walking. They said they rebuild the UI from scratch, as well as the entire video engine and .. the server. The current storyline will also be lost from what I understand (though it was one of the coolest features : the missions and their cutscenes).


I don't think it's ok to do this to FFXI but on the other hand we all would like a less annoying macro system. We need to swap at least 16 slots per macro with a few /wait commands inbetween. I think they have already said that they have plan to revamp the interface. With all the thing they announced with FFXIV and the poll about hardware, we can expect a PC upgrade soon for the UI at least. Other than that I think the graphics are ok as is. It's not awesome but it's still very realistic and quite pretty. We would also need the ability to multibox with an official tool... and faster login obviously ... ala FFXIV.

[svengalis]

Whilst a vamped up FFXI would be nice, all you're really doing is reselling an existing product and yes remakes do sell, I mean I've got Final Fantasy I, II & III and Monkey Island 1 & 2 (also on my Xbox 360) on my iPod and I'm looking forward to the remake of Abe's Oddysee. I've also bought some old games off of Steam too. But it's all pretty much nostalgia for me and I'm not paying a montly subscription to play them and heck remakes and rereleases are cheap to buy.

A remake of an MMORPG would be a big risk because an MMORPG isn't the same as every other game as it's an ongoing subscription and people spend plenty of hours on an MMORPG, I reckon a portion of the current userbase they'd subscribe but they're already subscribed, but at the same time, the drop of console support would lose a number current subscribers, plus folk with below-par PC systems. FFXIV itself requires a powerful system.

FFXI 2.0 would have to be a lot of work too because of the current engine, it was built around the PS2's hardware...a decade ago and it horribly optimised and I suspect over the years different coders have touched it. The XBox 360 and PC versions are ports. But lets say they are able to do it or just use a different engine (and spend the time redoing everything) they'd have to make a lot of content - remoddelling and retexturing content to look more up to date. So it'd be time and money, perhaps more time and money than FFXIV 2.0 will take them.

SE of course would have to ask themselves: will it give us a return? Given the risk of losing a number of current subscribers, would it bring back players to fill the missing gap, attract new ones and increase the userbase? FFXI has been played and tried by many and people have played through the content and I suspect that'll have a huge factor to play. Does the current content have enough of a replay value for somebody to pay a monthly fee? Will a rerelease bring enough new players to make up for it?

Saying that, FFXIV 2.0 is a big risk too, but at least they've got FFXIV's content and all they need to do is build on top of it and improve the content and remarket it. The trouble will be convincing people who have already played it to play again and also to entice people away from the bad reviews, but then, a repackaged and remarketed FFXIV 2.0 could receive a new set of reviews praising it and giving it good publicity. A PS3 release will open up the market for more players as not everybody plays on a souped-up gaming power machine.

Of course, it could just be a flop. I'd hold out and see how good (or how bad) the end result is actually going to be. You never know, SE might actually do something to regain a little bit of their credibility. Saying that, SE thinks FFXIII-2 is a good idea.

What makes you guys think a XIV remake(basically) will give a return and an XI remake would not? Blizzard did it with WoW.

[Alhanelem]

Blizzard did it with WoW.

No they didn't. All they did was release an expansion, along with which they plopped some random steaming piles of lava and deamon around the landscape of the original world.

... Anyway, I don't think people realize what kind of an incredible task it would take to rebuild the FFXI engine, originally built for the PS2, and make it ocmpatible with all the new technology today and at the same time keep it compatible with all the user data both on their servers and our client machines. It's like rebuilding an Edsel to be a late model sports car. Rebuilding FFXIV on the other hand is just rebuilding last year's sports car to be like this year's and ironing out its defects.

To be perfectly honest: I'd love to see a rebuilt FFXI as much as anyone here. Even if they did choose to cancel FFXIV, however, that doesn't suddenly mean they'd start working on an FFXIV rebuild.

[Saefinn]

Blizzard didn't remake WoW, they've gradually improved the game as they've updated it and as part of an expansion pack they went out reshaped some areas of the game, what they didn't do was go out and completely re-do everything. Plus Blizzard didn't have PS2 limitations to deal with and when people say PS2 limitations they don't JUST mean the fact they still support the PS2 but because of how they've fundamentally built the engine, its built around the PS2 hardware and the XBox 360 and PC versions are ports and pretty bad ones at that - just look at how poorly it performs on the 360. WoW vs FFXI on my laptop has some major differences, WoW performs loads better, although I get 20-30 fps it's a consistent 20-30fps and they've really only had to focus on the PC hardware.

If SE were suddenly to drop PS2 support and improve upon the engine, it would be noble for 360 and PC users and probably would take less work but would hardly constitute as a FFXI 2.0 and wouldn't be a remake. A remake would mean remaking every piece of media in the game and improve upon it and would mean spending more money on 3D modellers and animators, they could probably recycle some stuff from FFXIV like some of the textures, scenery models (like trees) and the models used for character races, but you're still looking at a massive overhaul in terms of media. It would pretty much mean remaking a whole game with all the expansions...in the space of a year. It'd be a bigger (and more expensive) job than FFXIV 2.0.


FFXIV 2.0 could be a major flop like FFXIV 1.0 was, but at least as a FFXIV 2.0 it can be remarketed and rereviewed and be given a second opinion. But it had better be damn good to get people playing it.

[Twille]

You can debate it all you want, but 14 is still crap and will remain crap. They can only manage a meager 30k players when its FREE....
(besides, no self-respecting person wants to play an elvaan that glistens like a gay vampire)

[Runespider]

FFXIV is being rebuild from scratch.

I still find it amusing the mess they made and what little they did with the 5 years they had and are now saying they are going to redo almost everyting in 12 months. Cute that people believe it, at best it will be 2 years most likely before ps3/v2 launch. No matter how you wanna paint the picture they can't do everything they want to do with the team they have in such a short time. Add to this that they are pretty much in "destroy FFXI population" mode atm and they are going to see profits from this game drop too.

Blizzard could maybe do it and do a good job of something like that but not SE.

[SNK]

I also wouldn't consider SWG's reinventing a faliure. However, they developed their new game to replace the old game

I'm sorry but I'm going to call you out on this fallacy. SWG was doing very well at the start and had a huge memberbase which players had access to literally a world do be able to do anything along with if I recall 30+ classes to choose from in an econmy where everything was player controlled.

Sony decided to drop a turd by dropping 30 clases down to 10 and to make things worse, they never told anyone they were doing it. They just did the patch and told people what they did they same day without even consulting the playerbase about it 1st.

Guess what?

subscriptions dropped so damn low so damn fast that even with players screaming at Sony to do a roll-back on an obviously retarded idea, Sony ignored them and still tried to feed it to people that the game had lots of exciting new content with what they did, that they lost damn near 85% of thier subscribers within a month.

SWG in the end was a total failure and I'm glad that game finally got shut down.

Good riddance.

[Atomic_Skull]

... Anyway, I don't think people realize what kind of an incredible task it would take to rebuild the FFXI engine, originally built for the PS2, and make it ocmpatible with all the new technology today and at the same time keep it compatible with all the user data both on their servers and our client machines.

Not as much as you think if they licensed a third party graphics engine such as Gambryo Lightspeed or whatever. You save a huge amount of time and money by using middleware instead of developing everything in house. SE has already done this before with The Last Remnant, it was developed on the Unreal 3 engine using a team that was smaller than the current FFXI team.

Models and textures are just models and textures, you can convert between formats fairly easily (3D modeling is something I have personal experience with) Also many creature models are duplicated in FFXIV and could be taken from there and zone textures could be reused as well. All of the concept art for FFXI's zones exist already, so it's not like you are creating zones completely from scratch either. Duplicating something that already exists is less work than having to design and build it from the ground up.

[tinydog]

lol at the thought they would ever make XI-2. if you want something new your best bet is to wait until next year for ff14 2.0