Thank you Matsui

[jasnekholin]

I would like to express gratitude for your work on FFXI these past 10 years. Thanks for all the hard work and enjoy retirement!

[Zubis]

Thank you Matsui and I'm very grateful to the work you and the team have done for FFXI.

Wishing you and the team the best in what comes next.

[Pixela]

I appreciate the work Matsui has done and am grateful he put so much effort into the game and obviously fought to keep it being updated, but that new message from Fujito is awful and it's basically stating the game is winding down on his watch now.

The Fujito famine is upon us!

It's odd and utterly tone deaf to see it being said that the developers are complaining because they want to work on something new (I don't think they are saying this at all and I think this actually management saying it), instead of being happy working on what they are working on. Everquest developers seem happy working on that game because they love the game, same for Runcescape etc. I mean your customers are happy paying to play this game with our money when we could be playing something newer from another company, why aren't they happy to be working on it? The oblivious nature of this statement is astounding given we are paying to play this game instead of devoting our time to something else, it seems it ok for us to devote our time and money to it but not them devote their paid time to it.

Matsui has decided to quit early, he isn't retirement age from his own statement. My guess is that inflation is a serious concern, and this is actually what is behind all this and not what we were told. Not because the game isn't profitable, but because Square Enix (more likely YoshiP) demands on profit margins is ridiculous. Someone has to pay for all their 100m gambles, with all their flops lately.

My guess is just as with Tanaka, he will most likely move off and work for some mobile company now.

It's funny reading what Matsui wrote and it coming across fairly positive, and then Fujito basically comes in with the rainstorm.

Regardless, it is what it is.

Matsui: " I feel I was rather conservative and placed too much emphasis on ensuring that FFXI continues on."
Fujito: "hold my beer"

[Voidstorm]

I appreciate the work Matsui has done and am grateful he put so much effort into the game and obviously fought to keep it being updated, but that new message from Fujito is awful and it's basically stating the game is winding down on his watch now.

The Fujito famine is upon us!

It's odd and utterly tone deaf to see it being said that the developers are complaining because they want to work on something new (I don't think they are saying this at all and I think this actually management saying it), instead of being happy working on what they are working on. Everquest developers seem happy working on that game because they love the game, same for Runcescape etc. I mean your customers are happy paying to play this game with our money when we could be playing something newer from another company, why aren't they happy to be working on it? The oblivious nature of this statement is astounding given we are paying to play this game instead of devoting our time to something else, it seems it ok for us to devote our time and money to it but not them devote their paid time to it.

Matsui has decided to quit early, he isn't retirement age from his own statement. My guess is that inflation is a serious concern, and this is actually what is behind all this and not what we were told. Not because the game isn't profitable, but because Square Enix (more likely YoshiP) demands on profit margins is ridiculous. Someone has to pay for all their 100m gambles, with all their flops lately.

My guess is just as with Tanaka, he will most likely move off and work for some mobile company now.

It's funny reading what Matsui wrote and it coming across fairly positive, and then Fujito basically comes in with the rainstorm.

Regardless, it is what it is.

Matsui: " I feel I was rather conservative and placed too much emphasis on ensuring that FFXI continues on."
Fujito: "hold my beer"

Have to hard agree.
Matsui, thank you for all you have done.
Fujito, why'd you have to give dedicated customers a slap across the face?
Spend time developing new games to bring what they learn back to FFXI? You think anyone buys that?!
No way in hell management is going to be like, oh yeah the staff we moved from our 20yo game to new stuff. let's move them back. Never going to happen.

Also, no one who played FFXI during the flop that was FFXIV's original release thinks for a second that FFXI isn't profitable.
Instead of putting them on new games, get them to rebuild the game for current DirectX. No changes needed to graphics and only slight ones to the UI. Back end can be made more secure at the same time.
It's not profitable to rebuild a 20yo game? Then why remake FFVII? Even if it's basically break even you know you won't take a loss over it. It'll ensure the game doesn't fall apart in the long term allowing you to keep this mainline title game operating long term at reduced cost & with fewer back-end issues. There are other benefits but I think keeping a mainline title game operating is reason enough even if it's literally break even for cost/return.

[Pixela]

. . . . . . . . .

[Sp1cyryan]

Players that know nothing passing judgment. We get it, you like FFXI. Doesn't mean you get to vent at the Dev team for not having your desires met.

[jasnekholin]

i'm also concerned with the future of the game but let's keep this thread as a simple thank you for years of enjoyment.

[Pixela]

They are going into maintenance mode to reduce costs to keep it running as long as possible. Inflation and other issues have been serious problems over the past 3 years and have basically negated the gains made.

However if you're going to do that you need to point it out in a better way and not make a story about the developers careers, you want your players to want to financially support you to keep the game alive and not be annoyed by nonsense.

[Sp1cyryan]

They are going into maintenance mode to reduce costs to keep it running as long as possible. Inflation and other issues have been serious problems over the past 3 years and have basically negated the gains made.

However if you're going to do that you need to point it out in a better way and not make a story about the developers careers, you want your players to want to financially support you to keep the game alive and not be annoyed by nonsense.

You don't have access to their financial figures.

[Pixela]

Inflation rises every year.
FFXI has not raised the sub fee since 2002.
Since Square is a big corporation they will be raising wages inline with inflation.
This means costs to run the game via wages have increased and the revenue has not.
In 2016? they addressed this with mog wardrobes and reasons to buy alt accounts, this linked with a lot of players returning worked pretty well and allowed them to argue for a 3 year funding cycle in 2020.

However Covid lockdowns caused inflation to explode out of control in every country they operate in, due to massive money printing.

This linked with a sudden drop in player numbers due to a certain PS launching probably lead to a panic reaction, thinking the drop in players was a sign of more player losses to come and that lead to this.

Also the 3 year funding cycle is ending in a few months, and will need to be renewed soon. So 3 things all happening at once caused this to happen.

The thing to keep in mind is the developers are mostly completely obvious what is going on in the community, and probably don't even know why player numbers suddenly dropped. All they knew is they were trying their best and 500-1k people suddenly unsubbed out of nowhere.