Stop Making Should-Be Achievement Gear.."Optional Gear"

[Belhi]

Yes, but did they triple the budget for Stormblood because FFXIV was making triple the profit, or simply because they stopped taking 2/3 of the profit away from XIV's development?

I seriously doubt that the budget boost was suddenly because they decided to give FF14 'what it earned'. There are a lot of conspiracy theories but it wouldn't make financial sense to strip 2/3ds of a successful IP's budget away to invest in other areas. Certainly a portion but not 2/3rds. SE works a lot on looking at metrics and stats and setting up prediction models on how things are going to go. Its partially how the prioritise what content they develop. Content has a value based on how much people are actually going to play it. Things like budget allocation aren't done randomly. They are done based of earnings forecasts and predicted returns on investment.

When asking for a bigger budget, the primary consideration for the corporate side of things would be wether the net earnings justified additional investment. In that regard you can be sure that the additional revenue from the cash shop would have factored into the decision.

Saying the Cash Shop funded the new server moves and upgrades would be wrong. However they very much played a substancial role in justifying the authorisation of funds to make those investments.

[JunseiKei]

~snip~

To tack onto your statement, people are so tunnel visioned. They see the game and think funds go only into the game, or they "should only go into the game." They don't consider the cost of doing business, like advertisement. PAX, E3, Tokyo Game Show, Fan Fest- all these take quite a substantial amount of funds to make happen that many people appreciate what the outcome is from those endeavors (how many MMOs actually show at those places, let alone a subscription based one?). Then when you take into account for expansions, what amounts to another game, I'm highly doubtful subscription costs alone could fund it. While they might, the amount of time needed to develop these things would certainly be longer.

[Naunet]

They don't consider the cost of doing business, like advertisement

That's not even where funds are going, though. SE uses FFXIV to fund other games entirely, which honestly is a pretty cruddy deal for those of us who play no other SE games.

[JunseiKei]

That's not even where funds are going, though. SE uses FFXIV to fund other games entirely, which honestly is a pretty cruddy deal for those of us who play no other SE games.

It's really silly to think that all the funds go back into the game and hinted as much in my other post.

You know, the line about FFXIV didn't fund itself from scratch. I think that went over your head just a little. However, you're making quite the bold statements; care to present the data to SE's financial record?

Don't misunderstand, which I think you will, I'm not saying all of FFXIV's funds go back into the game nor am I denying that their funds don't go into other SE titles. I'm very sure they do. However, by your logic, we'd never see another new IP by SE again.

[DaikiKiyoshi]

That's not even where funds are going, though. SE uses FFXIV to fund other games entirely, which honestly is a pretty cruddy deal for those of us who play no other SE games.

I'd love to see where you found out that the funds don't go towards advertising at all. Got any links?

[Naunet]

I'd love to see where you found out that the funds don't go towards advertising at all. Got any links?

Not what I meant.

[Nicodemus_Mercy]

That's not even where funds are going, though. SE uses FFXIV to fund other games entirely, which honestly is a pretty cruddy deal for those of us who play no other SE games.

Except when profits from those other games come back to FFXIV for more development.

This is how a game company works. The portfolio MUST be diverse. One game cannot carry a company.

[Belhi]

That's not even where funds are going, though. SE uses FFXIV to fund other games entirely, which honestly is a pretty cruddy deal for those of us who play no other SE games.

Your thinking of it wrong. All profits and losses from all their games will go into the same pool but individual IPs will have their profit and loss tracked separately as well as historical cost and projected income in the future. Based on that the corporate executive will allocate fund from the total pool based on the needs of the individual IPs and the projected long term returns. Simply put they will look at any IP and say 'this will give us more money at a certain time if we invest in it know'. That's how businesses run.

So you can argue a portion of FF14's earnings have helped cover other games but the reverse would be true too. Regardless though, FF14's budget would be decided based on its projected earnings and the expected profit and that includes revenue from the cash shop. Those earnings are what justify further major investment.