My continued support of FFXI, and SE as a company.

[Haldarn]

For example, making a reasonable attempt at a remake for this game would cost upwards of $400,000,000.00 or more.

XV was $275mil. An XI remake into the XIV environment already has all of the models, it already has all of the storyline, dialogue, cutscenes storyboarded, the drops and drop rates decided, the crafting system, the events, the enemy behaviours, the networking protocols. It would need a new UI (the XIV one is really good, so use that), the environment meshes increased in resolution, could use XIV textures in the main, and exclusive systems coded (please make gearswapping an actual mechanic), etc etc. That's nowhere near the cost of a AAA game, could be done over an extended period by a smaller team, and if announced in advance, would cause huge positivity within the community (as long as we were updated with progress every month like Yoshi-P used to do for XIV).

My accountancy experience is in healthcare, events and charity, not video games, so I can't budget it accurately, but it's well under $275mil and vastly under the $400mil you quote (which may be an appropriate figure for eg an FFXVII MMO).

Also consider that while doing this, you're using an existing IP and adding value to it, adding experience to your staff, and solidifying loyalty of your customers, all which have financial value.

[Standstill]

XV was $275mil. An XI remake into the XIV environment already has all of the models, it already has all of the storyline, dialogue, cutscenes storyboarded, the drops and drop rates decided, the crafting system, the events, the enemy behaviours, the networking protocols. It would need a new UI (the XIV one is really good, so use that), the environment meshes increased in resolution, could use XIV textures in the main, and exclusive systems coded (please make gearswapping an actual mechanic), etc etc. That's nowhere near the cost of a AAA game, could be done over an extended period by a smaller team, and if announced in advance, would cause huge positivity within the community (as long as we were updated with progress every month like Yoshi-P used to do for XIV).

My accountancy experience is in healthcare, events and charity, not video games, so I can't budget it accurately, but it's well under $275mil and vastly under the $400mil you quote (which may be an appropriate figure for eg an FFXVII MMO).

Also consider that while doing this, you're using an existing IP and adding value to it, adding experience to your staff, and solidifying loyalty of your customers, all which have financial value.

FFXIV 1.0 cost the company a whopping 400,000,000 USD in development and marketing costs. They exceeded the budget in 2011 to increase marketing costs due to dismal subscription and sales rates. FFXIV 2.0 ARR financial figures were never publicly disclosed; however, they did state they went over budget for marketing again. Development costs for 2.0 were lower, considering 2.0 utilized much of the existing infrastructure and assets from 1.0. Many financial analysts highly agree upon that 2.0 was also close to 400,000,000 USD. Square-Enix would have to invest in new server infrastructure for a remake of FFXI.

Simply put, everything from outside the storyline and dialogue would have to be rebuilt from the ground up. They have that going for them.

Just to clarify on the subject of XI and XIV 1.0. They both used the Crystal Tools development engine. The latter was modified heavily, but both were technically built for offline play. 2.0 incorporated Luminous tools, allowing the development team to reach their desired results. The current networking protocols for XIV would probably work, but as with everything else would have to be tailored to fit FFXI's environment.

As I previously stated, a remake could be accomplished by rolling out the game in the same tiered set of expansions as the original. But it would take considerable effort and a large development team to take on such an endeavor. I personally would like to see a remake made.

There are other ways to achieve the effect of gear swapping; in fact, they coded against it in FFXIV. But that doesn't mean it couldn't be brought to a remake in a new and different form. I have thought of of a system that would fill this role nicely.

Would I want a true-to-the-original remake? No, not really. The Job/Subjob system yes of course was part of the appeal. From a geographical standpoint in the game, yes the layout of the zones in relation to one another would have to be the same. But there are countless changes that need to be made to the game which would make it more appealing and user friendly.

FFXIV already uses instanced areas for player congestion; there is no reason to think this couldn't be done for the dungeons in FFXI. The zone could be instanced, you would be allowed to enter solo or via party finder.
The fate system in XIV is a wonderful idea, that could be used for NMs. The NM" S could also be level synced, and group participation allowed, the chance of drop based off performance to all those who contributed. That would be a fair system for that.
The crystal and aetheryte system would also have to be incorporated, the use of XIV's UI, flying mounts, and the storage system of XIV, the questing system of XIV, the movement and targeting system of XIV.

Things that need to be removed.
1. Having to purchase maps
2. Being pigeonholed into the use of one subjob. Duel wield anyone (They could honestly allow a set of passive abilities that don't eat up space for further customization without taking away from the subjob system)
3. Currency Bloat
4. Group play going from 6 to 5 players.

As I said, just too much to mention.