Is there secrecy over the 20th anniversary?

[Haldarn]

There's no real secrecy at all, they've made enough comments for us to know what's up. The Voracious Resurgence will open up a new battle content. They've outright stated it.

The Master Levels cat is already out of the bag and in progress.

Reforged Empyrean armor will be available this year.

We're getting some changes to allow for more inventory.

That's all I meant. Is what they've announced truly all that we've got in store? As it doesn't seem much more than we've had in previous years, and they had repeatedly said that the 20th was a big anniversary (not that they said they were intending to do anything big with it). Or will there be something announced that they haven't talked about openly, like FFXI mobile, before it was cancelled, where an announcement was made for the project but those interested had to scour the internet or rely on reviewers to put the question to Yoshi-P during interviews about XIV.

As Immortal was saying, it's hard to tell with FFXI because they're often tight-lipped about their plans, which is frustrating, as it keeps the possibility open. Also, there was good reason to think that they might choose to capitalise on the uptick of new subscribers a couple of years back.

[Pixela]

First, don't listen to any of these armchair devs as they have no idea what this company is planning. I can't even count the amount of times I was told "SE will never remake FF7! They lost the assets and its impossible!"

Second, I completely agree that they should focus on BOTH mmo's and be more transparent about XI related things. It makes my blood boil to see how much care and dedication they pour into XIV yet over here (paying the same or MORE money as XIV legacy is cheaper at 9.99) we get whispers and rumours still... Like this is still 2005 and we are all speculating on the next avatar and XIV gets a full 1~2hour live broadcast with all the new bells and whistles of a modern age. The company really doesn't care for the game that much in my opinion... Even that old star wars MMO is getting new expansions regularly. All the modern MMOs have reached old ages, including XIV, and they still get more support and love it feels like.

I personally feel they do have something big planned like an expansion or HD remaster. They have been remastering a LOT of older games, even recently bringing something super obscure like that chocobo racing game to switch... I wouldn't write off something big for XI but I also would not be surprised at all if they decided to finally axe the game after the recent success of XIV. I just won't get my hopes too high.

You know what also bugs me? That XIV sends players surveys on how they could improve if they cancel subs, or why they havent logged into the game in x amount of time... They are pouring constant streams of money into XIV and yet we are paying monthly subs for not even 1% of that effort lol. I get this game is old (altho XIV is also very old in modern age) but cmon, you can have two successful MMOs, nostalgia sells very hard just look at the recent spiderman. You could revamp XI and have people play a different type of MMO when all these companies are coming out with copy and paste models of successful games.

The main reason XIV is the flagship MMORPG is because they have managed to monetize their players to a level that has never been seen before in this industry, if you told me 10 years ago that someone would bring out an MMORPG with a sub, a cash shop, paid expansions, punishments for unsubbing and all the other things I would of laughed. However, not only have they managed it but the players LOVE the cash shop and see it as content additions now. They beg for new outfits and mounts to pay $20 for and complain if outfits are brought out for China exclusively, the developers aren't ashamed of it but show new cash shop stuff off proudly on the streams. XIV could and will add NFTs and most of the players would swoon over them, showing them off on their twitter profiles.

This is why that game is the flagship title, if they could find a way to shut down XI and shunt us all on that game to be highly monetized payers they would do it in a heartbeat (and they tried mutiple times btw). The reason they keep XI running, and will continue to do so for a long time is because we won't move to XIV if they do tgat, and they have finally accepted that as a fact so closing this game would be a complete loss of revenue.

Closing a product that brings in a lot of money when you have near no chance of converting them to your other product is bad business, Square Enix is a business first and foremost becasue they have to answer to the share holders.

As for you mentioning the ff7 remake, ff7 was not remade for fans of the original. It was made for a new audience, which is why they made it action combat. If they spend 10-20M on remastering XI it would not be for us, which is why I don't understand why anyone that plays the game would want it. The only way they could justify spending that much money would be if they could add a cash shop, would you accept a cash shop for higher res textures?

[Haldarn]

would you accept a cash shop for higher res textures?

I mean is this not what the Mog Wardrobe is, but with minimal effort?

[Shouk]

Honestly I don't think we should expect anything good or interesting from the 20th anniversary, they do not care. FFXI is just an easy cash grab for them at this point.
I love this game with all my heart but I can also say that I despise SE with all my heart, they are one of the most disgusting gaming company on the market and they get away with a lot of awful things. The game deserves better than SE and we deserve better than SE.

The new paid wardrobes are taking it way too far for me, the original ones were already too much so it's time for me to part ways, I have been thinking about it for quite a while now. It won't be easy but they know all too well that we are addicted to this game.

I'm not even sure this game would have made it this far without the amazing support of the third-party community that care more for this game than SE themselves.

[Pixela]

I love this game with all my heart

For me, this entire argument is centered around grown adults not understanding how inflation works. Almost everything I pay for, has increased with inflation....except XI. Instead of just increasing the sub fee as they should, they offer a totally optional way to increase revenue to offset inflation to the people who use the service the most.

The horror.

You managed before they added it, you can pretend it doesn't exist and keep managing just fine if spending a little extra on something "you truly love" is so repulsive to you.

[Dragoy]

Is what they've announced truly all that we've got in store? As it doesn't seem much more than we've had in previous years, and they had repeatedly said that the 20th was a big anniversary (not that they said they were intending to do anything big with it).

Without digging up the posts at this time, my memory is telling me that they pretty much said that they've got funding to work for a certain goal over three years, more or less concluding with the anniversary.

I, too, took that as a 'thing' that would be unveiled at, or around this anniversary, but at some point I also started thinking that maybe it's just that they got funding for at least three years more now (instead of the usual 1 year or so that they normally get), and what we've seen during these years are part of that goal (instead of there being one bigger additional thing).

I haven't looked at the Japanese version at all, so I wonder a little if translation could have played a part (I bet if there was any considerable difference people would have brought it up pretty soon though).

In any case, I do appreciate the work they're still allowed to put into XI, and am still very interested to see what will happen during this year as a whole. I did very much hope that the new inventory space would be free, and not just for equipment, but they did mention early on that it will likely require an additional fee... so, eh. I shall continue to struggle with the non-payment kind.

Edit:

Having gone through the version update digest videos and more, it does seem more like they were talking about the things we now mostly have (with some more still on the way of course), although they would like to also hold some special in-game event(s) for the anniversary time itself as well.

[Grailhawk]

FFXI was the most profitable FF for a long time. SE has been remaking/remastering all FF for a long time. I can see a scenario where someone talks the bean counters into funding a engine update (possibly with an expansion) for this game by calling it a HD Remaster with a rerelease on modern console.

I can also see a scenario where they build hype for the 20th anniversary and its a bunch of hot air.

[Immortal]

Yeah thats my point, I can see it going both ways. They have remastered such obscure games and why? Who asked for Chocobo's Racing? Maybe we'll get a switch port

[Alhanelem]

First, don't listen to any of these armchair devs as they have no idea what this company is planning.

Excuse me, armchair dev? No one here said they knew for sure wh at was going on, this thread ias all about speculation in the first place. We can, however, make logical conclusions about certain things, where information is available and / or precedent.

I love this game with all my heart but I can also say that I despise SE with all my heart, they are one of the most disgusting gaming company on the market and they get away with a lot of awful things

Clearly you've never met EA or Activison, both of which are infinitely worse in virtually every way.

[Alhanelem]

Honestly I don't think we should expect anything good or interesting from the 20th anniversary, they do not care. FFXI is just an easy cash grab for them at this point.
I love this game with all my heart but I can also say that I despise SE with all my heart, they are one of the most disgusting gaming company on the market and they get away with a lot of awful things. The game deserves better than SE and we deserve better than SE.

The new paid wardrobes are taking it way too far for me, the original ones were already too much so it's time for me to part ways, I have been thinking about it for quite a while now. It won't be easy but they know all too well that we are addicted to this game.

I'm not even sure this game would have made it this far without the amazing support of the third-party community that care more for this game than SE themselves.

The devs themselves have mentioned in the past how this paid service has helped them continue operations for the game. A lot of people use it. You're salty that they want more money (and it's totally optional, not everyone needs it, I'm getting by just fine with the free wardrobes), but the reality is, in 20 years, the price of just about everything has risen considerably but the subscription fee has remained the same. The cost to play the game has decreased relative to what most people earn. You say you truly love the game, but it seems that it isn't worth a couple bucks more, which equates to still less than the overall cost of the game 20 years ago.

SE chose to offer this optional service. They could have raised subscription fees instead. Would you have preferred that? I didn't think so. Raising the cost to everyone would have gone over far worse than offering an add-on feature for money.

Frankly I'm stunned they haven't implemented an optional item store like FFXIV. You should be thankful, not angry. I'm not using the paid wardrobes because I don't need them, but I don't mind that they exist.

and? They've "officially" stated the game was ending updates and no new story or anything, yet here we are?

And? That doesn't mean anyone was wrong for citing SE/the devs. Times change, things change, plans change. They were correct at one point.