Single Player Future

[bungiefanNA]

I meant the answer of "we can't continue updates due to PS2 limitations" is BS. The real answer is "we don't see any profit so we are winding things down"

PS2 development kit limitations, they say they're down to about a dozen left, and that's after acquiring every dev kit they could get their hands on from around the world, Sony doesn't make them anymore. The gist of their explanation is that the resources like graphics, music, sounds, zones, etc, are made on PS2 dev kits, and then ostensibly converted to DirectX-compatible data from there. They don't have tools to just make such content for PC, it has to be converted. making new tools or overhauling the engine, they say is as expensive as making a game like FFXIV from scratch.

I do find it weird the DAT-modding community has been so easily able to make new models (but then not so much in the way of new animations), while SE says it would be hard to do themselves. Still, when the last dev kit dies, they lose the ability to make new content. They might as well draw a line in the sand while they still have working units, rather than have them fail in mid-development and release of an expansion.

[Alhanelem]

PS2 development kit limitations, they say they're down to about a dozen left, and that's after acquiring every dev kit they could get their hands on from around the world, Sony doesn't make them anymore. The gist of their explanation is that the resources like graphics, music, sounds, zones, etc, are made on PS2 dev kits, and then ostensibly converted to DirectX-compatible data from there. They don't have tools to just make such content for PC, it has to be converted. making new tools or overhauling the engine, they say is as expensive as making a game like FFXIV from scratch.

I do find it weird the DAT-modding community has been so easily able to make new models (but then not so much in the way of new animations), while SE says it would be hard to do themselves. Still, when the last dev kit dies, they lose the ability to make new content. They might as well draw a line in the sand while they still have working units, rather than have them fail in mid-development and release of an expansion.

This, it's just an unfortunate reality of developing the game for console first. Today I don't think it's as big of an issue since I"m pretty sure both PS4 and Xbox One use an x64-based CPU and thus software for them can easily be developed on a PC, but from the ps3 era and prior, you needed dedicated dev hardware.

For a company like SE, again that just sounds like BS.

It's really a reasonable, plausible explanation. It's also hard to argue SE can't get more bang for its buck on a new game than it can get for searching the entire world to find working ps2 dev kits to keep updating this game. It's not bullshit, it's just business. It sounded to me like they genuinely wanted to keep going but found it impractical to do so.