Void Ark... Players are getting sick of Palette Swap Gear.

[Jynx]

Making SE profitable? Not really. They were deep in the red due to 1.0's horrendous failure. XI was basically keeping them afloat. And actually still provides a decent source of income. Everything successful since then was recovery. XIV is still currently making up for the cost of 1.0 and 2.0's production.

Baseless speculation.

Neither you nor I know how much was spent on remaking XIV nor how much it has brought in for profits/expendatures. What we do know for a fact is that despite it's lower subscription base FFXI has been quoted by Square Enix to be one of it's most profitable games period.

Hell SE has posted PROFITS the last two years I'm unsure where your cooperate appolagist "We are in the red" is coming from.

[Raist]

It costs 200-300k a year for the electricity just to keep a single blade server running 24/7....and that is a conservative figure based on only 330watts. That doesn't account for added cost of cooling, man-hours for maintenance, licensing or other contracts (like renewable service contracts with a company like IBM or something).

There is a long laundry list of things that factor into the costs incurred to keep large scale server FARMS online 24/7. It is FAR from a trivial point to be made in the scope of our $13-15 a month. I pay 3 times that for my freaking 15meg internet connection FFS. My car wash club is $35 a month and that is considered a BARGAIN down here.

Just saying...such arguments about subs should more than cover new development are never put in the proper perspective.

[Tilgung]

It doesn't matter who's to blame. The fact of the matter is, it's money that needs to be made back. End of story.

Keeping them afloat doesn't mean it's making actual profit. That article mentions nothing about where that money is being directed. I doubt much, if any, is going into the companies reserve coffers.

Saying they're making profit is like saying the United States is making a profit while they're still billions of dollars in debt.

[Raist]

Baseless speculation.

Neither you nor I know how much was spent on remaking XIV nor how much it has brought in for profits/expendatures. What we do know for a fact is that despite it's lower subscription base FFXI has been quoted by Square Enix to be one of it's most profitable games period.

Hell SE has posted PROFITS the last two years I'm unsure where your cooperate appolagist "We are in the red" is coming from.

Last time this discussion came up SE was still down over the longer term though. As of close of FY 2014, they were still down something like 20% or so from close of FY 2010.

Haven't looked at their 2015 numbers yet....but statistically over a longer view there is an argument to be made for them being in the red from an investor's perspective

So until they fully recover in the long view of things, they will likely continue to try to run as lean as possible.

The data is out there through their holding site if you want to go digging for it. May be some mid-term slides and PDF's released soon with 2015 data if it isn't already up.

Edit:. Just glancing at the August data, they were showing gains and were projecting north of 30% gains by 03/16. But that is only based on 3 months of data into this FY...and they still haven't climbed out of the massive hole they dug in 2013 (they posted big losses that year...wonder why?). And who knows if or how accurately the EU server farm is factored into the operating cost projections either. But, based on the posted data, it does look like they are poised to finally offset 2013 this year though. But...even then they are still behind on the 5 year scale. So our monthly sub's don't appear to hold as much value as some like to assign to them.

[Selli]

Why is everyone getting mad about the gear now? They showed previews for several sets in their last live letter, it was pretty apparent the gear sets were all going to be very similar, but no one said anything.

Now it's far too late for anything to be done.

[Alahra]

They showed previews for several sets in their last live letter, it was pretty apparent the gear sets were all going to be very similar, but no one said anything.

I remember liking the sets they showed in the Live Letter (I believe it was caster, DRG or tank, and the apparent BRD/MCH one), and I still like those in particular. My issues are with the sets we didn't see. NIN and MNK are again palette-swaps of one another (and rather lackluster outside of that), and the healer set is a palette-swap of the caster set. Palette swaps are going to be inevitable in any MMO, but it would be nice for the swaps to get passed around a bit more often.

DRG has often gotten a unique or at least partially unique set (the Void Ark set looks like a modified version of the tank set, what without the skirt and all), while NIN almost always shares a set with either MNK or BRD/MCH (and sometimes both), and healer and caster are almost always shared. (DRG does seem to be sharing with tank more often in HW, admittedly, but they had a number of unique sets in ARR.)

[Khalithar]

While we're on the topic, though it's probably too late for it now, can we have pants on the tank set please? Do not want dresses on tank gear. They toned back on the buttcapes at least and went for long coats/robes this time, but I really am not fond of the dress. I will say I particularly enjoy the helmet though.

Why is everyone getting mad about the gear now? They showed previews for several sets in their last live letter, it was pretty apparent the gear sets were all going to be very similar, but no one said anything.

Now it's far too late for anything to be done.

To be fair not everyone saw the live letter, not every player watches those things. Also, the previews we got now showed all of the sets as opposed to the live letter that only showed some.

[Mature]

I'm not that bothered tbh.

[ServerCollaps]

if they give them all different designs the player will just complain that x looks better then y, y wants to quit because of that etc.

everytime the same nonsense, glamour it if you dont like the style =w=

[Devilbringer]

I want different looking gear for all Jobs , especially for MONK ! *write it down on your hand SE*