gamrTV Weekly - The Imminent Death of Final Fantasy XIV

[Nuru]

I haven't read the article yet, but are you high? The game is nowhere near dying? Sorry, but I thought the population was pretty damn low, at the moment. If you mean dying as in it can maybe make a recovery in 2.0, then I agree. If you mean the game is populated as of this moment, then you're lying to yourself.

Way to make a rational thought out to be irrational. Nobody is giving any numbers out, and nobody is backing themselves with proof. The game is neither dying or staying alive. The population will drop when billing starts, but that doesn't mean it is dying. 2.0 is the rebirth of the game, no matter if the servers were shut down prior to release, or if there are people still playing from now til then. I think that would be a better time to judge what will happen. Its pretty much irrelevant to judge if a game is going to die or not before it has even started.

[Xatsh]

I don't think this game is necessarily going to die, however it's on life-support. If there are any major problems between now and 2.0, I think SE will pull the plug or be forced into bankruptcy.

Those who are old enough probably remember SquareSoft's (now SquareEnix) last disaster "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" and the mess that created.

95% of squares income is from offline games. Square is a multi billion dollar a year company. Square has about as much chance of going backrupt as Blizzard does honestly.

And square and Wada explicitly stated, they are releasing 2.0 even if there are 0 subs left. The project is self funded, every penny spent on XIV's development is coming more or less from XI.

You are also forgetting squares upcomming titles and recent ones. Duex Ex was a huge hit, FFXIII-2 will probably sell 5million copys, tomb raider will sell 3-4 million.

I do not think square is even worried about money atm, they are better off them most devs are these days.

[Shipp]

Way to make a rational thought out to be irrational. Nobody is giving any numbers out, and nobody is backing themselves with proof. The game is neither dying or staying alive. The population will drop when billing starts, but that doesn't mean it is dying. 2.0 is the rebirth of the game, no matter if the servers were shut down prior to release, or if there are people still playing from now til then. I think that would be a better time to judge what will happen. Its pretty much irrelevant to judge if a game is going to die or not before it has even started.

So is the game still a beta or not? If it's not, then the game started last year. If it is, then why are they charging for a beta? You cannot simply say that this game can't be judged yet when it's been over a year from release. That would be as stupid as me saying, "But you can't judge the Cata expansion losing 1m subs, because it hasn't even been out a year and Blizzard hasn't released the numbers for the third quarter yet." Everyone knows Cata bombed and lost 900k subs in the first 2 quarters, so it's not a mystery as to why Blizzard hasn't put out numbers for the third quarter. Everyone knows it is bleeding subs. The same reason "nobody is giving any numbers out" for XIV. Wada even stated XIV is basically a stain on the FF IP.

I'm not saying 2.0 won't be great. I hope to hell it is, because I'm ready to move on from WoW and get back into an FF MMO. However, it's futile to ignore the facts that this game is currently on life support. What were the last numbers released, 18k, or around there? The game is largely sterile, right now. There aren't an influx of subs, and come Dec, there will be very few people joining with a sub. The current playerbase is divided about paying pre 2.0. No, this won't kill the game, but the more players that stay with the game pre 2.0, the better. The more they lose, the more they have to regain along with new players when 2.0 launches.

If 18k people are playing right now (I highly doubt it, though I'll be generous), you can bank on at least 30%-ish leaving, based on the polls. Again, this number is generous since nearly every poll outside of this site is much closer to 50/50. If 30% leave, that will leave the playerbase with around 12k people playing. Out of the 12k, you can bet other people are going to try other MMOs coming out that are completely polished upon release between now and 2.0. I know a few people in XIV who are waiting for SW, so that stupid argument of XIV players not being "that" other type of MMO player is stupid and naive.

Think about it logically. SE will be lucky if they retain 6k players by 2.0, and that's assuming they even have 18k players at the moment, which is highly unlikely.

[Nuru]

So is the game still a beta or not? If it's not, then the game started last year. If it is, then why are they charging for a beta? You cannot simply say that this game can't be judged yet when it's been over a year from release. That would be as stupid as me saying, "But you can't judge the Cata expansion losing 1m subs, because it hasn't even been out a year and Blizzard hasn't released the numbers for the third quarter yet." Everyone knows Cata bombed and lost 900k subs in the first 2 quarters, so it's not a mystery as to why Blizzard hasn't put out numbers for the third quarter. Everyone knows it is bleeding subs. The same reason "nobody is giving any numbers out" for XIV. Wada even stated XIV is basically a stain on the FF IP.

I'm not saying 2.0 won't be great. I hope to hell it is, because I'm ready to move on from WoW and get back into an FF MMO. However, it's futile to ignore the facts that this game is currently on life support. What were the last numbers released, 18k, or around there? The game is largely sterile, right now. There aren't an influx of subs, and come Dec, there will be very few people joining with a sub. The current playerbase is divided about paying pre 2.0. No, this won't kill the game, but the more players that stay with the game pre 2.0, the better. The more they lose, the more they have to regain along with new players when 2.0 launches.

If 18k people are playing right now (I highly doubt it, though I'll be generous), you can bank on at least 30%-ish leaving, based on the polls. Again, this number is generous since nearly every poll outside of this site is much closer to 50/50. If 30% leave, that will leave the playerbase with around 12k people playing. Out of the 12k, you can bet other people are going to try other MMOs coming out that are completely polished upon release between now and 2.0. I know a few people in XIV who are waiting for SW, so that stupid argument of XIV players not being "that" other type of MMO player is stupid and naive.

Think about it logically. SE will be lucky if they retain 6k players by 2.0, and that's assuming they even have 18k players at the moment, which is highly unlikely.

About it being a beta, you are right, and about charging for it, well, I guess you are at least half-right.

The way i see it, is that while it is still in beta phase, you are actually going to be able to carry over the character you have worked hard on, and you will be experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime event that will lead to the re-release, which will most likely give players the chance to acquire rare items that are only available during this period.

Some will see this as a good reason to pay the monthly fee, while others won't. However, even if there aren't many subscriptions that are active after billing starts, 2.0 will be launched regardless. With that said, FFXIV in its current state was never subscription-worthy. Still, you can't judge a game before it is released, and 2.0 is supposedly going to be the real deal. I'm not going to judge it until I've seen/played it. So to me, it is neither good or bad. Though, so far, I love what I see.

[Shinrasolider]

95% of squares income is from offline games. Square is a multi billion dollar a year company. Square has about as much chance of going backrupt as Blizzard does honestly.

And square and Wada explicitly stated, they are releasing 2.0 even if there are 0 subs left. The project is self funded, every penny spent on XIV's development is coming more or less from XI.

You are also forgetting squares upcomming titles and recent ones. Duex Ex was a huge hit, FFXIII-2 will probably sell 5million copys, tomb raider will sell 3-4 million.

I do not think square is even worried about money atm, they are better off them most devs are these days.

Seriously? Every company is worried about money. Since SE is a corporation, they have shareholders (I happen to be one of them) and for the most part they are pretty disappointed with this venture.

Any company can go bankrupt, Square already went bankrupt once so I'm guessing you are much to young to remember that. I'm betting they won't as I'm still willing to invest with them, but I won't expect much until they announce a Final Fantasy VII remake.

[Alerith]

Final Fantasy VII remake.

I really hope they don't. I'd be much happier if they remade one of the better ones like VIII or invested the resources in another Tactics game.

[Shikyo]

Evidence and hard facts please, or else you're an idiot for presenting your opinion as fact.

no your a freakin idiot if think what i said was anything but my opinion ass.

[whoopeeragon]

Shikyo, for the love and friendship I once had and shared with you, please, calm your language. You are entitled to your opinions, but not in a disparaging manner that hurts or unrightfully criticizes others.

This game is not dying, but bleeding slowly. However, the flow had now stopped, and the game can either recover, or lapse back into failure. It's still waiting for a chance to sand back up at the new version, but whether it stands up on sturdy legs or brittle twigs is up to the dev team.

[Dawiichan]

So yea, FFXIV is going to fail because it is, and yea. That's just how it's going to be...

Yes, I can see why you believe that.

[Mishakai]

Odd.. I'm actually at the point where I believe this game is worth paying for... My opinions are generally not held in high regard though, so much like my anticipation for the Warrior job, my willingness to support XIV with money is probably in the minority.