On inventory and storage management. [DEVS please take notice.]

[LaurelinKementari]

The server situation that causes all these problems is what really makes me wonder about what's going on behind the scenes with this game between the development team and the higher ups at SE who decide the budget. One can't help but get the feeling Yoshida & co simply don't get the support (and the budget) they need to tackle all these problems. It's as if the higher ups at SE saw the success ARR was with its current budget and said: "You did it before with yoru current budget, you can do it again and keep doing it with that budget size, you don't need an increase." If that situation doesn't change (and soon) I can ultimately see it being the cause of the game's second downfall.

That, and PS3 limitations, of course.

[Colorful]

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I think it's quite clear why they're not willing to increase their budget, people are paying for retainers and in large numbers otherwise they wouldn't be charging for it. People keep claiming that it's going to be the downfall of the game, but is that really the truth? No, people aren't "voting with their wallets" and money is the only thing that talks, instead we come here to the forums and complain and nothing changes. If SE has to invest too much into FFXIV they'd likely drop it altogether, FFXIV made 6 approximately 6 billion yen in its first quarter, while Dragon Quest Monsters (a mobile game) made 16 billion yen in the same quarter. Looking at those numbers it's quite clear why SE isn't willing to invest much more into FFXIV.

I do hope they wise up, FFXIV has the potential to be the biggest MMO if Legion is a flop and could eventually be SE's gem, but they just don't seem to be looking for that. They're happy with it being a consistent source to fund their other major projects.

[Airget]

I think it's quite clear why they're not willing to increase their budget, people are paying for retainers and in large numbers otherwise they wouldn't be charging for it. People keep claiming that it's going to be the downfall of the game, but is that really the truth? No, people aren't "voting with their wallets" and money is the only thing that talks, instead we come here to the forums and complain and nothing changes. If SE has to invest too much into FFXIV they'd likely drop it altogether, FFXIV made 6 approximately 6 billion yen in its first quarter, while Dragon Quest Monsters (a mobile game) made 16 billion yen in the same quarter. Looking at those numbers it's quite clear why SE isn't willing to invest much more into FFXIV.


I do hope they wise up, FFXIV has the potential to be the biggest MMO if Legion is a flop and could eventually be SE's gem, but they just don't seem to be looking for that. They're happy with it being a consistent source to fund their other major projects.

It's true, as much as gamers who love Triple AAA games love to rail on Konami for focusing away from the Triple AAA market, it's just the simple truth that mobile games and the likes are a better profit margin compared to the ever increasing cost of Triple AAA titles to keep up with technology.

When a games goes from 2mil, 20mil, 40mil to 80mil to make while the cost of selling said game goes from 50-60/70 there is a huge rift in the profit margin earned from said game. Top it off they don't even get that full 50/60, taxes, store, shipping and handling of moving merchandise all that fun stuff that takes the cut from that pie and maybe honestly thought 40, but apparently for a 60 dollar a dev is lucky to get 27 per game. So whatever we think as the cost to break even is actually double because of that. 80mil cost game is like 3mil to break even, 1.5mil for 40 mil game, 750k for 20mil, and 75k for a 2mil game. Notice that huge increase in breaking even because of how much more it's cost to make games? It really isn't fair to blame gaming companies for shifting focus on a mobile market when the profit margin is way better than what Triple AAA offer now.

[MilesSaintboroguh]

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It's not just the rising costs with the tech. We have studios that are blowing so much money on fidelity and marketing and whatever else that we get cases like Tomb Raider 2013 where the game sold a heck ton of units, but it was also considered a failure. There needs to be better budgets all around rather than throwing more money at everything and praying it works.

[Gunspec]

It's not just the rising costs with the tech. We have studios that are blowing so much money on fidelity and marketing and whatever else that we get cases like Tomb Raider 2013 where the game sold a heck ton of units, but it was also considered a failure. There needs to be better budgets all around rather than throwing more money at everything and praying it works.

Tomb Raider 2013 was only considered a failure because someone at SE thought it would make Call of Duty sized profits, and were planning on using said profits to fund another dozen tech demos for games that will never be released. Same thing with XIV, they can't spend money improving the experience when they are busy blowing it on tech demos of photo realistic food in the never-to-be-released FFXV.