December 2022 FINAL FANTASY XI Digest

[Alhanelem]

Analhelm seems to know how everything is handled, despite never providing any kind of proof for it.

I don't know everything, but the stuff i've said about Creative Business Unit 3 is all factual. Yoshida is its head, Yoshida is thus in charge on FFXI, FFXIV, and FFXVI, and possibly other projects, and I just have a good basic grasp on how corporations and business work. Basic economics, basic business and corporation concepts. The information about CBU3 and its projects is publicly available on Square Enix's website. And if you think this CBU3 thing is something im just making up, I mean, they have a logo, the name is prominently featured in the opening cutscene/trailer for FFXIV's Endwalker expansion.

It's worth noting that despite constantly referring to some financial report, Pixela has never linked to it or given any basis for his assertions, while I at least have my basic facts straight.

I will, by the way, report every post in which you deliberately change my username to be inappropriate.

[Sp1cyryan]

Analhelm seems to know how everything is handled, despite never providing any kind of proof for it.

Hahahahahahahaha.

Whew—that is right. So don't stoop to that level either, lol.

[Alhanelem]

No it goes to XIV operations, they are a combined service. All money paid into XI is paid into the XIV account system.

Dude just stop it already with the false BS. The fact is some of CBU3's income is going to FF16 and not either other FF game, because that's their primary project right now.

This whole argument is silly and pointless in the first place. It's like complaining that the money I spent to buy Final Fantasy III (that is VI in Japan) was used to fund the completion of FF7 which was on a diffrent platform. I hate Sony and therefore they screwed me over using my money to make something I"ll never buy!

IT'S JUST HOW A CORPORATION WORKS. They can spend their money however they see fit. All I'm telling you is that income is not allocated the way you think it is or want it to be. They simply do not individually decide, okay, these FFXI sub fees will be used to pay the FFXIV server costs, and these server transfer fees will be used to pay the XIV developers, etc. It simply does not work that way, no matter how much you want it to.

[Immortal]

We just have to disagree then because I believe the opposite. XI was faltering before 1.0 because they were already beginning to siphon funds to XIV... lower dev time and resources as a result, hell even the same producer was working on the new game (Tanaka.) It did bounce back after XIV 1.0 failed, thats why an expansion was greenlit for XI, Adoulin. Also most people left because they were butthurt their precious 75 era crap was outdated w/Abyssea. SE made the mistake of outdating things all at once instead of a slow burn. I can only imagine that was because they planned to end XI if their XIV 1.0 was a success because Tanaka was that kind of person. Instead it bombed and they had to pedal back and pour something into XI to hold onto while they fixed the new game. After Abyssea, we had Voidwatch which ended up without the powerful atma buffs and people had more of a challenge with it. Future content did live up to it, but the players became jaded, so many of them just could not get over the fact that things changed so drastically and with XIV on the horizon they felt it was just over. I know so many people who literally forced themselves to like 1.0 because they felt XI was done for.

You don't need absolute paper trail proof that the funds from XI went to XIV, just use your common sense. Its so easy to see that is exactly what happened, I would bet everything that if 1.0 was a success, we wouldn't even have XI around and there would never have been an Adoulin. Just look at Star Wars Galaxies, arguably they had a bigger IP than Final Fantasy and they shut that down so quick once a new star wars MMO came out.

[Stuzey]

does it matter? I mean what is this argument about? it's lack of funds going into ffxi, you honestly think it's fair, how much they spend?

do you not want to see new zones? new mobs? just want to see the game given a fresh breath of life?

se do the best they can, but without a clear plan for the future, how to retain players, how do you keep them entertained?

[Alhanelem]

does it matter? I mean what is this argument about? it's lack of funds going into ffxi, you honestly think it's fair, how much they spend?

do you not want to see new zones? new mobs? just want to see the game given a fresh breath of life?

se do the best they can, but without a clear plan for the future, how to retain players, how do you keep them entertained?

I'd love to see new stuff. where'd you get the idea that I wouldn't want to?

Be realistic: Why would you or anyone expect SE to suddenly invest tons of money in a 20 year old game and give it tons of new content? It just isn't going to happen. There's no way anyone on the FFXI team or even anyone at CBU3 would be able to convince SE's investors that doing so would have a substantial impact on their business. Now, I don't have clairvoyance, I don't know what any specific person at SE is thinking. Maybe they might have plans for a remaster or something somewhere down the line. A "new" product can make new money. FFXI, even with major new content announced, is unlikely to make significant gains in its playerbase. Not even if FFXIV suddenly stopped existing tomorrow. But a "new" product, like a re-released remaster or something like that, where we can carry over our progress or something, might MAYBE be able to do that.

As for what the argument is about- I just spoke to refute Pixela's false notions that SE is specifically and explicitly "funding" FFXIV with FFXI money, that we're specifically paying for them to develop FFXI and not simply enrich SE's business as a whole. This comes from Pixela being heavily biased against FFXIV and being convinced that everything about FFXI's current state is entirely FFXIV's fault, so he wants to smear it as much as possible.

Games industry companies do not allocate income from one product specifically towards another (unless it's the only other product, perhaps). But all game projects fund all other ongoing and future projects. Pixela is trying to argue that literally every dollar we pay to play this game pays an FFXIV developer's salary and that FFXIV is the *only* thing those developers work on.

It simply is not how companies and corporations work. Money goes into a pot (Accounts receivable) and money is taken out of that pot (accounts payable) to finance its operations. You simply can not directly connect one dollar of income to another specific dollar of expenses. It just doesn't work that way, and Pixela lives in this fantasy land where it does.

I don't really want to spend forever discussing this but I can't abide false information being tossed around.

[Stuzey]

I am realistic, I see people coming back and then leaving again, It just feels like such a wasted opportunity, we all care about the game, we want it to go on for many years and it probably will, but it could be so much more

[Alhanelem]

I am realistic, I see people coming back and then leaving again, It just feels like such a wasted opportunity, we all care about the game, we want it to go on for many years and it probably will, but it could be so much more

Coming and going happens with every game, not just FFXI. Yes, we all care about the game, but any big new thing has to be financially justified. Companies use what's called a cost-benefit analysis or CBA to determine if an idea is worth the effort and expense. And while some major new update may certainly bring some players back for longer, FFXI is still FFXI, it's not likely to bring in many new users that haven't played before, which makes it harder to justify the cost. Companies want to see growth, existing cancelled players resubbing isn't really growth. A remaster *could* grow the playerbase, but they seem to still feel that the cost of doing that wouldn't be justified by the income they'd gain.

[Pixela]

I don't know everything, but the stuff i've said about Creative Business Unit 3 is all factual.

I've provided tons of evidence that XI was absorbed into XIV operations many times, you refute it no matter what becasue you think it somehow hurts XIV.

Dragonquest10 is also in BS3 and has zero connection with any of the other games, in any way. XI and XIV are merged, with XIV being the dominant product.

To put it into perspective, XI is to XIV what Tetramaster used to be to XI.

XI effectively just works as a few extra servers clamped onto XIV operationrs, everything XI does or achieves is counted towards XIV.

[Pixela]