I think their thought is "we DID re-develope the game for PC, and name it Final Fantasy 14! Just switch over already so we can concentrate on 1 game." Not saying I agree with it, but there it is......
I think their thought is "we DID re-develope the game for PC, and name it Final Fantasy 14! Just switch over already so we can concentrate on 1 game." Not saying I agree with it, but there it is......
The extra wardrobes would seem like a more reasonable option if their price was closer to that of extra characters, since storage-wise you can get a lot more benefit out of using one as a mule, like more AH slots. If the price were the same, the amount of potential slots would even out with the convenience of not having to switch characters to get stuff done.
I want to game to stick around for a long time and there are things I wouldn't mind paying for, but as it stands the cost-benefit ratio doesn't really work well considering the option already available.
Maybe after I clear some room by turning in my bonanza marbles, if inventory is still a problem for me, I'll consider getting my first mule to help with that pitch in slightly toward XI's financial effort. If the wardrobes were a better deal, maybe I'd go for those instead.
Not sure which is more (un)likely, SE bumping up the cost of extra characters on an account, or lowering the extra wardrobe prices...
Personally I hate logging off to my mule and then sending things back and forth 8 at a time. Instead I gained a ton of inventory space with just wardrobe 3. If I get into playing any more jobs I'll get wardrobe 4. It's $2. I work at Pizza Hut and that's still not a significant number to me.
Yeah, the price isn't really an issue. Although I agree that in comparison with everything else in the game it's fairly overpriced for what it is. But again it's only 2-4 bucks so, yeah.
Now if that money ended up going to XIV, XV or the mobile garbage they are releasing then I would not get them even if they were 10 cents a month. I'm sick and tired of seeing XI being bleed to death to feed other projects.
'Don't ever, ever try to lie to the internet. Because they will catch you. They will de-construct your spin. They will remember everything you ever say for eternity.'
- Lord Gaben
That's not how these things work at all in the basic sense.
A gaming company sets out at yearly financial meetings how much each game gets per year in a mass budget (all lead devs levy for a bigger budget and fights against other titles they run at these meetings to justify why they should get whatever they get), they get a chunk of money set to that project for the whole year based on how much it's earned in the last year and potential for growth of income from further increased investment. If a game adds a pokemon GO outfit for $10 and it makes a 10 million dollars, NONE of that money goes back into the game directly. It's all pure profit that goes direct to the mother company (although as stated, if it's shown the game has more potential to make money it's in a far stronger position next year at budget meetings for an increase next year)
If a lead developer can show at financial meetings that a game has made more money this year they are in a far better position to levy for an increased budget or continued support going forward, if the game has made less money it's more likely to have the budget reduced for the following year.
Every game they run gets a set budget no matter what it does or how much money it makes, none of the extra money any game makes goes directly back into the games at all.
Both XI and XIV has seen their yearly budgets reduced because of falls in profits, player drops and little true possibility of that changing going forward (both games are losing players year on year) has lead to this (Although xiv fully embracing the cash shop is boosting it's profits up). The sad fact is that the level of content XI is getting right now is based on a few things and unless they can think of ways to increase the profitability of this game above and beyond what they are currently doing, next years financial meeting won't usher in an increase at all. If anything it will be reduced for very obvious reasons (less content = more people quitting and a vicious circle on and on).
Oh and the mobile version of XI isn't run by Square at all anyway, it's run by a totally different company and it's going to be a complete joke when you see it. Nexon have a track record.
Oh and interesting bit of infro was posted from the mog lottery:
1,074,002 sold, lets say everyone bought 10.1,074,002 mog lottery balls sold.
107,400 characters, let's round it up to 110k (even though it's probably more) because some don't know about mog lottery or didn't bother with it due to space / low chance etc.
110k characters, making an educated guess I'll say that maybe 50k are main accounts and 60k are mules.
50k x $12 (not counting that eu players pay $18) = $600k
60k x $1 = $60k
$660k per month.
Last edited by Castanica; 07-16-2016 at 12:18 AM.
The problem is your guess isn't any more informed than mine or anyone else's.
A lot of people have more than one mule. A number of people have all 15 so if we assume the average is 2 mules:1 main, that becomes
36666 mains * 12 = $440,000~ ($439,992)
$73,332 from mules.
$513,000 total
But if the average is 3 mules to one person
$27,500 mains * 12 = $330,000
$82,500 from mules.
$412,500 total
I do not think the average could be higher than 3:1, but we don't know.
I mean, if we total up the number of players playing at peak times on their respective servers, it might not total 15,000. There are 16 active servers and a few are peaking at sub-500 range (356 on Valefor, 6PM Chicago, USA Time [CST]), it's rarely over 500.
Last edited by OmnysValefor; 07-16-2016 at 05:35 PM.
The point I was making is that the game is still pretty profitable given their own numbers, also peak numbers are irrelevant on worldwide servers. As people log off in one region others log on, these are not all NA servers. They are JP, EU, NA, AU etc etc
It was just a very rough idea given an educated guess of how the playerbase of this game is, not many people have more than 1-2 mules.
Whatever estimate you use, they'd probably be thrilled with a few extra dollars per month.
You think that $660k - operating costs is PROFITABLE? You can't just quote a companies sales as profit....there are expenses as well you know.......
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