Q: I can’t buy a house! Yoshida, please do something!
A: I’d like to address this first since there are people saying plots are unavailable and prices are just too high. First off, I owe you an apology for my subpar explanation of why personal and Free Company housing cost the same amount. The prices were determined after extensively reviewing the game’s economy, and they won’t go higher than they are now.
Basically, the reason both personal and Free Company housing plots aren’t segregated is that because it’s been a year since our official launch, the rate at which Free Companies are established will gradually decrease. If the land for personal and Free Company housing was separate, we’d have to keep supplementing both in spite of declining demand for Free Company plots. Plus, when a Free Company is dissolved, its property is relinquished. On the other hand, individual players will continue to earn gil, so the demand for personal housing plots will only increase from now on. Separating the two would result in a situation where a player can’t purchase land in crowded personal housing areas or buy an empty plot in the Free Company areas. So, while I do understand that people want to buy a house right away, we have decided to proceed with a system that won’t keep players from building houses in the long run.
We’re planning on doubling the number of plots in Patch 2.4, and we’re aiming to add even more land in later updates. At the moment, though, we don’t have a good handle on how many players are trying to buy personal plots worldwide, so just sit tight─more is on the way.
Finally, I’ve seen a few posts on the forums saying housing would be better if it was instanced like inn rooms are, so I want to point out that instances aren’t saved. Nothing in an inn room needs to be saved; player housing, on the other hand, necessitates personal save data for things like furniture placement and character location. So, it would really amount to adding more land anyway. During a previous Letter from the Producer LIVE, I mentioned that we would make it possible for players who don’t belong to a Free Company to have a house with a yard so they can garden and raise chocobos, and the current system is designed to do this. We will be doing our best to provide more land as soon as possible, so please bear with us a little longer.