Support Yoshi-P's efforts to bring XIV to as many platforms as possible. :)

[Ophie-Mio]

That all depends on how the game is designed, where the client ends up just being a presentation layer, thus not requiring as many resources as people assume.

Even if it required more resources, the sales would make up for it in the long run to have the resources hired.

Except that SE doesn't work like this. How the game is designed isn't great in the long run (let's face it, they cut corners) and "presentation layer" doesn't actually mean much to SE. Using XI as the only other example, they made the game exactly the same across the board, with only the presentation differing with lowering the resolution. And by differing, I mean, you could turn it up to full definition or not. The difference ended up being, "How pixaltastic do I want this to look?" All in all though, it was the same look. Everyone had the same thing with an option to lower the resolution until they stopped lagging. They made the game to play on the lowest platform and didn't do away with support on it until a decade later.

On top of that issue, bugs that were platform related and were on Xbox (their least loved console) were never truly addressed. There are crash bugs to this day that make it so that Xbox players cannot do Besieged (a big battle in one of the cities).

In short, more consoles means more bugs that they decide can never be addressed.

Also, the issue that even Yoshi-P himself has said is that they are lacking in developers. This game made profit (a lot of it, in fact) and yet still SE has no plans to hire more dev. So hiring resources? Unlikely. If they want even more platforms (especially ones they themselves treat like garbage), they will use the devs they already have and work them even harder. Our content quality will go down and our functionality quality will go down.

The platforms they have are fine. Talk of the Wii-U sounds gimicky at best.

[Delmontyb]

Except that SE doesn't work like this.

I understand where you are coming from, but you appear to be working with inside information. Otherwise the majority of your point is pure speculation.

Here are some facts:

1. FFXI was built on the PS2 framework, and later ported to PC. FFXIV was built for PC and because of that they have said it's much easier to port to other platforms. PS4 and XB1 are more PC then in any generation.

2. You are correct, SE might not hire anyone, but that is a business level decision. If there is a market, then their is an opportunity to make money, and in order to get a market it might cost money, the calculation is then, do we make enough money to justify any additional cost. I don't have those numbers or information.

3. You could be right, more consoles could mean more bugs, but your thought process after that isn't 100% all the time, and in all cases. Bugs like anything else get put into a backlog and assigned a sprint, so they might get pushed out for a while, but that is what it is.


Yoshi-P and the Dev team have stated that they use an agile development process which has allowed them to be successful and release really good content updates, all the while making an expansion to the game.

I don't know the answer to this, but what would be the different between the Windows version and the Xbox version in terms of development cost in your mind? Both are running windows, and while I have no idea if this is true, I'd bet that they have a working build internally.

All in all, this has always been an issue that Microsoft has blocked, and with them removing the Console to PC restriction I wonder if they are still pushing back on Yoshi-P and team. Who want to see this game brought to the platform.

[Ophie-Mio]

FFXIV was built for PC and because of that they have said it's much easier to port to other platforms. PS4 and XB1 are more PC then in any generation.

Yeah, it may be easier to port but these are still different consoles capable of differing levels of graphics and backend processing. All those differences means developers have to spend specific time on such consoles rather than the game as a whole. More consoles just means more man hours behind the scenes that can be spent elsewhere.

SE might not hire anyone, but that is a business level decision. If there is a market, then their is an opportunity to make money

This is a normal business model of operation, yeah, but as an example, SE had a huge demand for KH3 (actual console KH3) and sat on it for practically a decade. Knowing there is a market for it doesn't always mean SE will jump for it. Like most companies that don't actually produce a lot of games per year, they like to keep things tight, I imagine.

Bugs like anything else get put into a backlog and assigned a sprint, so they might get pushed out for a while, but that is what it is.

I've worked for a few different video game companies in the past and this is not how it worked at any of them. Testers test relevant content first and then go into standby (or become unemployed at the end of the project). On standby, they may or may not go into the forums for bugs. It all depends on what the enforced daily bug count requirement is and how desperate they are. The bigger the bug is, the more chance that it will be placed on their table and told to go fetch.

Yoshi-P and the Dev team have stated that they use an agile development process...

While I do not doubt that they must have a rigid schedule, this sounds more hype than anything else. It's probably safe to assume that they have a load of stuff to get done and they have to put in OT to do it. "Agile development process" is what you tell the press.

...what would be the different between the Windows version and the Xbox version in terms of development cost in your mind?

As a former tester at companies that did all platforms (including IOS), the development cost comes from how each console needs special attention. The QA testers have to be upped to be able to fully test each version on their console and the developers need to fix a bug that may not exist on any other version but one of them. This is extremely common btw. Once that bug is fixed, it has to go back into a build and then given to the testers who then have to redo the effort to see if the bug is present. If it is, then back to developers it goes. So the difference is that the more you add, the more that will be added.

All this being said, I would like this game on any console they want to put it on just that it may end up hurting the game's quality in the long run.

[Delmontyb]

All this being said, I would like this game on any console they want to put it on just that it may end up hurting the game's quality in the long run.

I think you and I are approaching this from two different real world perspectives. As someone who leads teams building multiple projects (Business application development, not game development) and you who has worked in the QA/Testing world (very important IMO) I can see and understand your point of view much better then before.

We both are making assumptions based off our real life experiences. I'm assuming that the amount of time to test an XB1 version wouldn't be so great as to delay content since like you said, QA/Testing is a whole team process. So, that is where cost would come in if that process had to be beefed up, and because it's not a revenue producing department, you could be very right that it might not be a area where they would put more people and make the overall testing process much slower.

I don't know how the office is run, so I also assume it's like my teams, where we have a backlog (bugs,user stories, tasks, etc...) that if a bug is found and reported and not break the world critical, it gets added and scheduled, sometimes scheduled months out before we can get to it. And that could continue to get pushed out as new things come into higher importance.

So assumptions aside, Yoshi-P wants to bring this game to more people via more systems, and locations, and I support him in that goal. I wish there was more I could do to help besides all the areas I'm trying. I don't think XB1 will have as big of a testing and development impact when compared to the PS3. And while we know Heavensward is coming to PS3, they have said that they would look at the player base to see if next expansion would go to that system. At that time, if not sooner, it would seem that having it on the XB1 would open up the game to even more players.

Personally I think it would make since to announce the game + expansion for the XB1 as one game, much like how XI launched on XB360 with Treasures (and other expansions packed in).

All the news we have had up to this point has been that Microsoft has been the issue with this game not coming to the platform, hopefully that is changing, or has changed.