Thoughts on a shared subscription?

[Tharly]

And if it increases revenue from people on the fence more than it loses from people already subscribed to both? You cannot admit it for some reason, but it could end up working both ways. Nothing you can say can change that.

Do you have some inside SE information that isn't public? Seems to me the surplus from 14 right now could cover any realistically conceivable losses for the short term on a limited time gamble should it turn out that way.

So 14 didn't stop sales for long, why? By your thoughts they cannot respond to demand spikes within 1-3 years. Yet they did. All your arguments require SE to think only the way you think and respond only the way you respond. It appears to not be the case.

By your own standards then growth is impossible unless its accounted for 1-3 years ahead of time. From the best of my knowledge, player numbers for 11 have been stable for awhile now and something to help boost those numbers absent major new content should be welcomed.

[Alhanelem]

And if it increases revenue from people on the fence more than it loses from people already subscribed to both? You cannot admit it for some reason, but it could end up working both ways. Nothing you can say can change that.

Do you have some inside SE information that isn't public? Seems to me the surplus from 14 right now could cover any realistically conceivable losses for the short term on a limited time gamble should it turn out that way.

So 14 didn't stop sales for long, why? By your thoughts they cannot respond to demand spikes within 1-3 years. Yet they did. All your arguments require SE to think only the way you think and respond only the way you respond. It appears to not be the case.

By your own standards then growth is impossible unless its accounted for 1-3 years ahead of time. From the best of my knowledge, player numbers for 11 have been stable for awhile now and something to help boost though numbers absent major new content should be welcomed.

I'm pretty convinced he's just speaking out against the idea either purely due to his hatred for FFXIV or because I actually like an idea someone posted. He's made his bias against me abundantly clear.

[Tharly]

There will be no convincing him otherwise, no matter what his reasons. He will never accept a viewpoint other than his own on this subject.

[Pixela]

So 14 didn't stop sales for long, why? By your thoughts they cannot respond to demand spikes within 1-3 years. Yet they did. All your arguments require SE to think only the way you think and respond only the way you respond. It appears to not be the case.

Neither game has excess money and all the money they have been given years ago is accounted for, ff14 cannot meet increased demand so literally had to stop people buying the game (you cannot run out of digital codes, this is impossible and the only reason they did so was to stop people buying the game). They even chose to close data centers over just..adding new servers as wow did continually to encourage growth. Blizzard wanted wow to get big, so they kept adding more and more servers to keep encouraging growth. Square Enix (not the developers, it's not upto them) do not want this and will never do this (outside of eventually retooling some JP servers in to oceanic servers maybe), they want the game to stay as it is now.

What the players and developers want and what the people at Square that pay the bills want are two different things.

If the ff14 players got every single wow player to quit and want to move to ffxiv tomorow, they would again stop digital sales and still add no new servers, they would probably close all the data centers next.

These game are not run like western games where they embrace boom and bust, they are happy with them as they are and do not want mass growth at all costs.

Anyway we have argued this entire suggestion out, not like it matters cause nobody at square reads it and barely any of the players do either.

[Teraniku]

Well with the troubles now happening over at Activision / Blizzard, It may be WoW's days are finally numbered.

[Alhanelem]

Well with the troubles now happening over at Activision / Blizzard, It may be WoW's days are finally numbered.

Drama can't kill WoW. It's certainly good for FFXIV though. But FFXI could also potentially benefit a little bit if this idea was a thing

[Immortal]

Unfortunately the company themselves are working against XI's interest. SE has no interest in promoting this game or supporting it anymore than the bare minimum. The sad truth is that no XIV player is going to touch this game, most certainly not long-term. We live in a vapid world these days, SE needs to get rid of most of the spaghetti code and slow global cooldowns and loading times, clunky UI and slightly outdated graphics along with that archaic login system. People just look at the login process and older style graphics and are immediately turned off. XIV is now their cash cow and they couldn't care less about XI outside of obligation to keep it running. It really infuriates me but it is the reality and at this point they've shown they do not care, I barely have hopes for the 2022 announcement, probably some meteor to crash into Vanadiel to ferry our souls to Eorzea. I can't believe they won't invest in both games so they can have two successful MMO's with different play styles. They would make more money in the long run than lose, with more options to benefit via add-ons like wardrobes, race changes, etc. One can only imagine what goes on in the head of those execs at SE.

Truthfully people saying that they won't play this game due to the sub cost, are generally liars. They just don't want to play it, who thinks 12 dollars is a lot of money in 2021? A sub decrease if you have XI or XIV sub, won't matter much with the underlying issues we have with this company.

[Pixela]

People have this child like mindset of products, we are creatures of habit. WoW will still be the biggest mmorpg 10 years from now, and neither ff11 or ff14 has seen significant benefit from the anger about blizzard. Most WoW players won't leave WoW, of those that do it won't last long.

Streamers have far less impact on players than people think they do, and not only that but WoW players are angry with ff14 for causing this in the first place. Ff14 is the last game they would move to.

[Pixela]

Unfortunately the company themselves are working against XI's interest. SE has no interest in promoting this game or supporting it anymore than the bare minimum. The sad truth is that no XIV player is going to touch this game, most certainly not long-term. We live in a vapid world these days, SE needs to get rid of most of the spaghetti code and slow global cooldowns and loading times, clunky UI and slightly outdated graphics along with that archaic login system. People just look at the login process and older style graphics and are immediately turned off. XIV is now their cash cow and they couldn't care less about XI outside of obligation to keep it running. It really infuriates me but it is the reality and at this point they've shown they do not care, I barely have hopes for the 2022 announcement, probably some meteor to crash into Vanadiel to ferry our souls to Eorzea. I can't believe they won't invest in both games so they can have two successful MMO's with different play styles. They would make more money in the long run than lose, with more options to benefit via add-ons like wardrobes, race changes, etc. One can only imagine what goes on in the head of those execs at SE.

Truthfully people saying that they won't play this game due to the sub cost, are generally liars. They just don't want to play it, who thinks 12 dollars is a lot of money in 2021? A sub decrease if you have XI or XIV sub, won't matter much with the underlying issues we have with this company.

XI exists for XI players, its here as a service to us. It's an old school mmorpg with appeal to a niche of hardcore mmorpg players, if they were to alter XI to appeal to XIV players enmasse it would be crap and none of us would want to play it anymore.

Why do people lust after mainstream audiences when you don't like mainstream products?

[Alhanelem]

XI exists for XI players, its here as a service to us. It's an old school mmorpg with appeal to a niche of hardcore mmorpg players, if they were to alter XI to appeal to XIV players enmasse it would be crap and none of us would want to play it anymore.

Why do people lust after mainstream audiences when you don't like mainstream products?

The only thing working against FFXI is its age and SE's level of commitment.

My biggest gripe about FFXIV was and is the ongoing homgenization of the jobs (i.e. there's really just four: tank healer melee ranged, within each category there's little reason to play one job over another) But even today FFXI still has plenty going for it as does FFXIV (and some others out there). you underestimate the ability of both non-current players to enjoy elements FFXI and that of FFXI players to enjoy elements of any other games out there. You may be hard locked on FFXI as the only good MMO ever made and everything that came after is crap, but not every current player feels that way.