New Letter from the Producer, XII

[Richard]

Where do they think their casual audience is supposed to come from?

According to their own poll most players are XI players or FF players. All FF games are 30-60hrs of gameplay, not that casual.

XIV requires absolutely state-of the art PC to run at reasonable frame rates. How do these aspects reach an average casual player again?

If I hadn't followed the FF series very closely for the past few years I wouldn't even know XIV exists let alone what kind of game it is.

This is probably just me but I feel like they're trying to reach an audience that just isn't there to benefit from and while doing so they're turning against their old fans who given the state of the game are the only players they have left at this point.

Casual games are usually played on the web-browser or as apps while waiting for a bus. It's not deep enough to hold interest of players for years while paying a monthly fee for that kind of service.

Just like Wii, are people still playing Wii Sports resort after few tries?
What about Monster Hunter 3Tri? A game so hardcore the controls alone take almost 10 pages of the manual and most game features aren't even mentioned because there's so much of them. The European Servers alone are full of players especially considering how niche title that is usually thought to be.

so the way you see it is that casual gamers cant afford high end PC? Fathers and Mothers and students cant afford a 1000.00 PC? You sir are ignorant. I have maybe 5-6 people in my LS alone who are older and have a casual schedule and own a better PC than I do. They bought it specifically for this game.

From a purely marketing standpoint SQEX can't survive in that niche anymore. XI survived 7 years of it and then finally went the way of the casual gamer because that is where the money is.

[Spellbinder]

so the way you see it is that casual gamers cant afford high end PC? Fathers and Mothers and students cant afford a 1000.00 PC? You sir are ignorant. I have maybe 5-6 people in my LS alone who are older and have a casual schedule and own a better PC than I do. They bought it specifically for this game.

Lets not also forget the PS3 which is surely a large chunk of the Japanese consumer base. If I'm not mistaken Japanese prefer consoles over PC's correct? PS3 sounds fairly casual after a hard day of overtime as a salary man.... if you get to come home that day.

[Richard]

Lets not also forget the PS3 which is surely a large chunk of the Japanese consumer base. If I'm not mistaken Japanese prefer consoles over PC's correct? PS3 sounds fairly casual after a hard day of overtime as a salary man.... if you get to come home that day.

You'd be surprised. Japanese Console gamers are pretty hardcore when it comes to their MMOs

[Spellbinder]

You'd be surprised. Japanese Console gamers are pretty hardcore when it comes to their MMOs

This is true. Just goes to show there's an untapped market there, and hopefully FFXIV is up to snuff to get a piece of that market.

[Richard]

This is true. Just goes to show there's an untapped market there, and hopefully FFXIV is up to snuff to get a piece of that market.

Yup. This quote really speaks volumes about their goals:

PS3版の発売こそが起死回生の"最終タイミング"だと思っている。
そこに向けて想像を超えるぐらいガラッと変えようと準備しているものがある。
They treat the relaunch of PS3 version as the "final chance".
They are prepaing to deliver huge changes over our expection.

[Seif]

so the way you see it is that casual gamers cant afford high end PC? Fathers and Mothers and students cant afford a 1000.00 PC? You sir are ignorant. I have maybe 5-6 people in my LS alone who are older and have a casual schedule and own a better PC than I do. They bought it specifically for this game.

lol, way to back up my example there...

[Richard]

lol, way to back up my example there...

XIV requires absolutely state-of the art PC to run at reasonable frame rates. How do these aspects reach an average casual player again?

so the way you see it is that casual gamers cant afford high end PC? Fathers and Mothers and students cant afford a 1000.00 PC? You sir are ignorant. I have maybe 5-6 people in my LS alone who are older and have a casual schedule and own a better PC than I do. They bought it specifically for this game.

the average casual gamer has the resources to play this game. way to back up my example there...