The whale mount is up on Mogstation

[Bourne_Endeavor]

You don't have to look that far back. In this very game, before the cash shop existed, seasonal event items from previous years were available in-game. Then the cash shop came, and they took that away.

You mean things like the Dream Tunic that was originally a 1.x item and simply ported over? The Reindeer outfit from the first ARR Christmas Event was never released for free, for example.

[MomomiMomi]

You mean things like the Dream Tunic that was originally a 1.x item and simply ported over? The Reindeer outfit from the first ARR Christmas Event was never released for free, for example.

Cash Shop already existed by the time the second ARR Christmas Event came.

[CrystalWeapon]

You're also assuming the relaunch did not put SE in a financial hole. Just because it proved successful doesn't mean they weren't operating under the red line. Best Buy spent almost an entire decade losing money and surviving off debt. Considering the dire state of Square Enix at the time, it's not hard to imagine they weren't in good shape either and were looking to find other ways to profit. We already know the Mogstation paid for the Chaos datacenter. If you want to claim that a lie, by all means, but at this point we're arguing opinions and assumptions, not facts.

The relaunch didn't put them in a financial hole. Within months of ARR's launch it not only paid for itself but massively pushed Se's profit margin up.

Sauce

That's just one of the many articles about how well ARR was performing. This all happened way before the introduction of the cash shop. As someone who's been playing FFXIV since 1.0's beta it's funny to see the cash shop goalposts constantly shift.

"Eh whatever it's just server transfers and fantasia's."

"Who cares it's just old event cosmetics and dyes it's not like there's exclusive items in there"

"Omg you guys are so whiney. Who cares if the Odin whistle was in the game's code before the cash shop was even a thing. What were they supposed to do? Add it as a reward to the fight? They need to add something in there aside from old event items. Won't somebody think of SE. If they didn't do this they'd all starve, and the game would shut down in a year "

"Ok so they added exclusive armor sets in there that aren't old event items... W/e It's not like they're adding emotes."

"So what if they added emotes to the shop. I mean you still get some in game for free you freakin ingrates."

"Huh... So they added a shaved ice housing item in game... I mean it looks cool it's not like it's consumable... It is? Well I mean it's not that bad... Wait... It costs more than shaved ice does IRL?... Hrm... *raises finger*... Ah, well ... hrmmm... You guys just whine at everything. I mean they're a business you can't expect them to not sell consumable digital cosmetic housing items for 5 bucks a pop. You guys are monsters."

Before someone jumps me, I want to say that I'm just teasing. I'm not a huge fan of the cash shop, but It doesn't bug me enough to want to quit over it. I kind of wish they'd make it a point to tell us how they reinvest some of the money from it back into the game though. The new data center was the last thing I can think of that was credited to cash shop profits. I know they aren't obligated to do a damn thing, but it does make you feel better about it when you know it's actually helping the game instead of just lining pockets.

[DPZ2]

I'd just like to have the chance to obtain a 2-seats mount without either having to spend 21€ or having to go through the hell that is the 2000 mentor roulettes achievement.

Hint: Convince a friend who doesn't play to join the game and pay a subscription fee for 3 months, get a draught chocobo that seats 2. It's called 'Refer A Friend' ... check it out.

[Vahlnir]

Before someone jumps me, I want to say that I'm just teasing. I'm not a huge fan of the cash shop, but It doesn't bug me enough to want to quit over it. I kind of wish they'd make it a point to tell us how they reinvest some of the money from it back into the game though. The new data center was the last thing I can think of that was credited to cash shop profits. I know they aren't obligated to do a damn thing, but it does make you feel better about it when you know it's actually helping the game instead of just lining pockets.

We were told that the money would be going back into the game during Stormblood, and that Stormblood had a decent sized budget. Coulda fooled me on both accounts. We are getting arguably less than we were even in the worst times of HW. And certainly nothing truly new and interesting otherwise.

[Huntington]

I see some people beginning to broach the subject that as the years went by and games got more graphically and technically powerful, the costs to produce and fund them to ship to the market of course went up as well. Yet we're in an industry where SAG-AFTRA had to become a forefront for VAs rights and give them the compensation they're due because companies were shorting their actors benefits and pay for video game work. In addition to crunch time being prevalent in the industry with some companies having workers do 80 hour work weeks. Yes the games have gotten more complex, but the actual hierarchy and running of the companies themselves has regressed and only gotten more greedy and contemptible because of lootboxes and MTXs and season passes and deluxe gold standard super ultimate platinum editions and cash shops. If these gaming companies can't balance their books simply because games got more graphically and technically powerful, then do they need to be in the business?

Or have they already broken even on producing these titles and are just skimming more and more money because they know us as the consumers are so gullible and easily sold into buying more and more virtual content just because it's pretty? We didn't have stuff like this become such a nuisance a decade ago because it hadn't become so prevalent. Now it's become so commonplace to include cash shops or DLC/MTXs into everything so you're spending 90$+ on one game because of how willingly people will give into giving them more money because they know we'll pay. Games didn't become more expensive, the companies just got into the habit of giving us less and less actual content in the shipped product because we'll pay for stuff being cut and taken out from the game.

Look into a lot of what Jim Sterling Son has been saying about this if people are seriously concerned with the way the gaming industry is heading. He may be bombastic and over the top, but him and YongYea have been two of the only two people along with others like SkillUp in doing actually productive gaming journalism. It gets worse and worse every year because people are voting with their wallets and we're losing. CoD BO4 made 500$ Million dollars after it shipped in 3 days, and the investors and company still wasn't satisfied with how much money it was making. SE is making plenty of money to fund this game and give us better content longevity and time for our money. But we're spending so much on their cash shop and their app and retainers that they don't need to do more than repeat the formula. They're making plenty of money off us as is and more than easily breaking even, they're just directing all that money elsewhere instead of back into the game itself because they don't need to do more than take stuff from the F2P regions like China and bring it to the other 3 regions and watch the money flow in.

The movie industry and any other venue of entertainment has been able to adjust and grow larger and larger while the gaming industry has begun to stagnate and degrade because of companies like Blizzard/Activision, EA, Ubisoft, and SE is now dipping their toes into that wading pool more and more. It isn't about games being too costly or expensive to make. It's about them not needing to put the work in to ship a competent product anymore when you can fix it later down the line. I mean for christs sake, those few weeks of DDoS were obvious to anyone playing the game anywhere in the 3 regions, and yet SE didn't think to maybe hold back that whale from the Chinese servers for a little bit until things stabilized and it didn't look so blatantly obvious like they were ignorant to people literally losing money unable to play at the same time. But they added it anyways to the cash shop, right as we were coming out of weeks of laggy full service shutdown play. Not only is that daft and insincere, they knew people would still buy that and swallow that pill only hours after because we're so complacent and easy to fool now.

We might all complain about this game and all the corners they cut, because we all like some part of it somewhere. But eventually this game, and the industry itself, are going to burst like a blimp when we hit that apex. And it's going to crumble all over again like before Nintendo single-handedly saved it after ET and the Atari fiasco. And even Nintendo is too daft and clueless to provide consumers what they want anymore. The Nintendo Online farce is like a slap to the face with how broken and unhelpful it is as a service. Even if it's cheap for a yearly or monthly cost, people are still buying it. And telling the company in the process that it's okay to take away physical saves through HDs or charge for online simply to make a buck. Us sheep will still pay for it anyways.

That's how it's going to keep going, until people finally have enough and stop buying mounts and emotes from the cash shop. Tell them you've had enough. Tell them you want a better game without the need to nickle and dime us for every little miniscule addition they make to the $ Shop. Fantasias and such are bordering on fine because it does let people change their character or name for a moderately fair amount compared to other MMOs. But the line needs to be drawn on something we could be working for inside the game itself.

[Ilan]

I disagree. The more of you zero self control day1 buyers there are, the more they'll shove into the shop and the further it will spiral out of control.

That has nothing to do with self control, it has something to do with what people want and what people are willing to spend for their hobby. Not everyone has the oppinion that a cash shop is a no go in an p2p game because they know for what they are paying a sub, unlike most of these NAY screamers.

A simple fact is: if you don't like it you don't buy it, but if you buy it its none of anyones business to criticize you for buying it. The same goes the other way around.

[hynaku]

It should been a 4 person mount or had whale chest storage like chocobo saddle bags. Because how it is with no music or special ability I don't think its worth 29.99 for it.

[Duskane]

It should been a 4 person mount or had whale chest storage like chocobo saddle bags. Because how it is with no music or special ability I don't think its worth 29.99 for it.

Yeah no to the storage thing these are simply cosmetic
And Music and Litte animation get old really quick might aswell not be a thing on the moogle for me so evens out.q

[Dualgunner]

That has nothing to do with self control, it has something to do with what people want and what people are willing to spend for their hobby. Not everyone has the oppinion that a cash shop is a no go in an p2p game because they know for what they are paying a sub, unlike most of these NAY screamers.

Careful, this sounds dangerously close to a claim that compulsive buyers don't exist.