With all of the limitations holding FFXIV back, why not make a new FF MMORPG?

[Makeda]

The MMO genre isn't what it used to be, and making one is a massive undertaking

Every failed MMO since about 2008 has been saying this. Yet in that same time we have had many successful MMOs; including a certain one from Japan that features catgirls and potato people...

It is basically the 'not our fault our game failed' excuse of every development house that reads the market completely wrongly...

Starting with Warhammer - which was way too PvP centric but without, from what I was told, even delivering it's full suite of PvP promises - not their fault, the MMO genre died in 2008.

Wildstar - way too hardcore on raids that were silly overtuned and 'casual dungeons' that were harder than WoW mythic raids... not their fault: the MMO genre died in 2013.

City of Heroes - old engine, still making money, fans that were nearly-religious in devotion. Developer cancels it. Not their fault, the MMO genre died in 2010.

The old Conan MMO, The Star Wars MMO, maybe a half dozen Star Trek MMOs, assorted fantasy MMOs, and so on - all of which people pointed out major missing features, failure to balance critical flaws, lack of endgame, lack of 'game' before the endgame, too much monetization, not enough monetization, and so on... not the publisher / developer's fault: the MMO genre died in [inset year of fail here]...

FFXIV could have gone that route... in 2013... SE could have just said... 1.0 was not our fault, the MMO genre died in 2012... BUT... they didn't.
- Unlike the entire rest of the industry, including now even Blizzard (ya'll got phones right?), only SE and ESO's Zenimax have said "oops, that was our fault, we're going to fix it".

There's a reason the 3 top MMOs are basically WoW, FFXIV, and ESO - and people are now debating which one is actually #1... One of them is coasting on inertia (only reason anybody still has a WoW sub these days is memories), and the other two admitted mistakes and fixed stuff... instead of claiming the MMO genre isn't what it used to be.

(And I'll give Zenimax some 'dev-cred' despite everyone currently tossing shade at their partner Bethesda...)

Which brings up another point... right now we're seeing all the other game houses, the non-MMO ones... come back with "not our fault, the game industry isn't what it used to be..." despite fans saying "um hey... no... this new release you guys have... it's junk... it is your fault it didn't sell..."

- The industry has basically been using the 'the dog ate my game quality' excuse for the last decade now... the gamers haven't gone anywhere... nothing is 'no longer viable'... we're just getting fed excuses.

That said... I personally don't see a need for a FFX-something just yet. Still enjoying this game and ESO.