Am I the only one ho thinks 8.0 should be delayed by like 6months?

Even more delay? Usually Savage raid is in between the patches to space things out, you really want to stay for over a year on one tier?
Raiding is already dead after a few weeks, so far the only thing that keeps people playing is the hostage/housing situation

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But am I really the only one who thinks that it's way too short of a period to give the developers the time to polish the corners of a next expansion and actual give something meaningfull for the end-game as well.

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The game is in development *way* longer than I think you are thinking. If anything, the timing of the FanFests is based on when they anticipate the game being ready, not the other way around.

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But from the players perspective, the players who play only the MSQ leave right after they're done with the MSQ, might even unsub.

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Need to look at SE's perspective here - they are fine with this. In fact, some of the changes they've been making (e.g. Duty Support) are specifically to attract the non-MMO portion of the FF fanbase. If SE gets a slew of people who prefer the single-player titles also buying FFXIV expansions, even if they only sub for a month or two at a time, it's a win. They fully acknowledge that not all FFXIV players will be permanent subs.

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I would much rather that expansions took the time they need to release a package that actually caters to the playerbase rather than investors.

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As a relatively casual player, I would definitely say what they release already caters to people like me. A new expansion with just the MSQ and Sidequests is usually ~60 hours of content, and that takes me quite a while to play through. Then add in the typical MMO grinds that are also available from the start (e.g. Shared FATE ranks, Hunt Trains, etc.) and I've got it made.

Also, the simple reality is that no matter how much content is frontloaded into the X.0 release, there will always be people that no-life it, finish everything, and then complain there's nothing to do. Heck, even with all the launch issues EW had with login servers, there were people who blew through the ~60 hours of content in under a week and were then whining that there wasn't more new stuff yet. SE did what any logical people would do and realized those people will *never* be satisfied, so they just get properly ignored instead. Straight up - people will always be able to play through content significantly faster than it takes to develop said content. Releasing more of it in the X.0 section just means it would take significantly longer to release an expansion, people would still finish it really quickly, and then the "waiting period" until the next expansion would be even longer. The way it's gradually released now over patches is intended for the primary audience of more casual players.

I would gladly delay 8.0 by almost a year if it meant that the job updates would be much more meaningful and impactful, rather than the crap they pulled in DT.

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Originally Posted by Derio

I would gladly delay 8.0 by almost a year if it meant that the job updates would be much more meaningful and impactful, rather than the crap they pulled in DT.

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I would almost agree to that, but I've already been alienated from most of the classes I enjoy due to whatever direction of design we've been stuck in for the past 3 expansions.

I think so too there is so much content to do and a delay will allow me to finish it

You're one of the few, for sure. The next expansion is already delayed, even if it releases in December 2026. The average expansion cycle used to be 2 years, but at this rate, we might end up with 4-year expansions in the next decade. I personally don't mind expansions lasting up to 3 years, as long as CBU3 adds content accordingly. But it's clear that these delays are being used to cut costs and produce less content overall.

This becomes evident if you think about it for more than a second. In a span of 30 months, they managed to release 4 Savage tiers and 3 Ultimates, from the start of Stormblood to early Shadowbringers. Now, we wouldn't even get a new expansion from the start of Dawntrail, which means falling behind on many dungeons and trials. Long-term, we'll be behind on Savage tiers, Ultimates, Deep Dungeons, and Field Operations, and it keeps adding up. Everyone loses out on content, from casual to hardcore players. The extra added content isn't worth it.

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Originally Posted by LilaIronman

Even more delay? Usually Savage raid is in between the patches to space things out, you really want to stay for over a year on one tier?
Raiding is already dead after a few weeks, so far the only thing that keeps people playing is the hostage/housing situation

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You do realize that would only happen ONCE.

Because delaying an expansion so that the game launches WITH tiers 1-3 would mean, that the update cycle would not change after the launch of 8.0. So for the following update cycle we would follow the same pattern, but add tiers 4-6 and since
by this point they would have had to schedule things much further down the line until 9.0 they have two options of going about it;

1. Space out each patch even more (undesireable, considering people already are angsty about the gaps between updates)
2. Keep the current update cycle, but add things beyond .58, so you could get more raid tiers for .6, .65 and so forth so there would be less of a gap between 8.0 content and 9.0, but allow the devs to have longer period developing 9.0.

People already complain about the long wait between patches and you want them to wait LONGER?

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Originally Posted by JadeCurtiss

People already complain about the long wait between patches and you want them to wait LONGER?

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No one's talking about changing patch cycle jeesh. Again it would only effect this cycle, not what happens afterwards.
Obviously if SE decides that now that they have longer time between the expansions they decide to increase the gap between patches, that'd be bad.

But delaying a single expansion shouldn't effect what happens after in a negative way, the best solution would be that they can do patches beyond .58 since they have more time.

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Originally Posted by Saraide

It's in comparison with Gamedev companies in Japan. SE does not rank amongst the top 20 highest paying.

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Your link is actually showing "average yearly income of employees", not just developers. Square Enix also runs arcades, publishes manga and handles other merchandising, music and mobile services in addition to digital gaming. Many of those maintain employees who are not paid at developer rates.

Aside from video games, Sony Group also has a lot of high-margin sectors such as toys and electronics, as well as a vast media presence, as does Bandai Namco.