Questions Regarding the Vana’diel Project

[Malefactor]

No, the master plan is to close the ps2/xbox versions and then milk the PC and mobile until there's nothing left to milk.

Okay this is what im madly curious about, and its kinda nagging at me. I assume they believe the profits coming in from the playerbase isnt sufficient to justify any further development and content costs, which is why they are doing it. However i took a look at EQ and DAOC, both games that are equally if not older.

I googled and saw EQ has had 1-2 major content patches/expansions each year, and its still going, even with a supposedly smaller playerbase than ffxi.

DAOC has an expansion coming out this year, with no apparent news on shutting down, again with a smaller playerbase.

From a very bare and uneducated assumption, this seems like its possible to keep the game going on a very small budget and have it under SE's portfolio as a cash cow.

What is different with ffxi? If someone could offer some explanation, the only thing i can think of is they wish to move their finances elsewhere into some other project.

[Olor]

Why should long time players stick with the game- are our characters safe for years more? No one wants to put effort into a character if it is just going to be deleted.

[Genz]

Vana'diel is amazing like every other FF worlds, and we need more people discovering it, but a mobile port doesn't cut it (the camera angle in FF Grandmaster is totally useless), it will still feel like a "hole" in the series (actually, FFXI already feels like a "hole" to many people, and an offline spin-off is long needed)
Any plan for a full 3D spin-off? it doesn't need to be a full AAA game, and it doesn't need to cover every story from the original game. We just need a game that allow anyone to (re)discover some parts of Vana'diel.

[Bluestar2kx]

I definitely support the idea of a offline mode type of FFXI after the game fully sunsets. (hopefully though, it never will)
Give it lan support, or make a server kit for players to run themselves with simple and understandable game master controls so we can adjust difficulty or details as needed ourselves to accommodate the number of players or challenge we want. I don't know if anyone else would, but I would pay for that kind of personal access kit, making it moddable would be most ideal so the community could keep it functioning even if windows decides it doesn't like the game anymore. (so far no issues with windows 10, but who knows about 11, 12, 13 etc...) Or even expand the game even more.. Like with minecraft. I know it's engine limited, but still, so many places of Vana'diel to see that have never been added.

So my question is: With the game entering the first stage of a long sunset in november, will all content become unlocked so we can access it with lesser number of players/solo or duo as populations dwindle? Will timers be changed? As people leave on their own sunset, prices and other things are going to become widely imbalanced, esp RME upgrade items. 2hrs in dynamis isn't going to supply people, esp if quantity drops severely, people won't be able to make anything before the final curtain draws to a close. This also goes for other time constraints.

[Akson]

If we're killing off PS2 and XBOX360 support could we please get a Next Gen port along with that iphone idea. FFXI on PS4.

[Olor]

NEXEN is notorious for "pay to win" games. Will FFXI remain primarily a subscription service?

[Sharniex]

Because FFXI is nearing the end of its lifespan, I was wondering what the possibility would be of lowering the requirements for Mythics? It may sound a silly question, but I am genuinely interested at this point.

[Raydeus]

In the event XI becomes popular again after console support is dropped and the PC version is improved. What are Square-Enix's plans regarding such a possibility?

[Lisotte]

Here's a thought - can we either make the FFXI and FFXIV subs one subscription, I.E. sub $14.99 a month for both, or at least let you get a significant discount on both of these, like $19.99 for both? I feel like most FFXI players that still want to play MMO's are going to FFXIV, if it were more affordable for people to play FFXI for the old content and nostalgia, and play FFXIV for new content, I think that would make it dramatically better for both games.

If not there's always EVE Online for your slow-paced MMO that actually makes you interact with other people, folks...

[Taruitis]

A few more thoughts, starting in 2016-ish allow more trust (up to 5) for solo play. Also have an easy/normal/difficult versions of things that require alliance since we can assume to lose some of the players. Consider trust used in alliances and in abby(just for screwing around). Introduce new bcms in the final update that have a chance to drop upgradeable items that are annoying to get, like colorless souls.. give us something to spend cruor on, like convert it to materials at crafting guild, or allow us to purchase all trust ciphers not mission related or something useful. Allow us to fully max merit points in all categories. Just random ideas to consider. But really want max merits, all trust unlocked, and full pty trust. Thank you SE for the memories!!