The FFXIV Cash Shop is greedy

[Goji1639]

I don't think you necessarily need to have WoW amount of subscribers to make a WoW quality game. I'm pretty sure WoW is making much less money right now compared to when it was in its prime (2008) yet it doesn't seem like the game is decreasing in quality.

I think there's a limit to how many (quality) developers you can throw at a game and how much budget it will require cause it seems to me you can get in a too many cooks in the kitchen situation and become a mess organization wise.

Just look at ESO, I'm not sure on the exact numbers but it seems to me that ESO required much larger budget than WoW, considering for example how literally every single (side) quest is voice acted, yet they still probably make (or have made) much less money than WoW. (Correct me if I'm wrong, this is purely an assumption).

Not all profit goes into increasing the game's quality since there's a limit to how much you can realistically increase it. It's also clear Blizzard and SE use money from their MMOs to fund other projects (as they should, only makes sense) and it's true you can argue that for SE, FFXIV may need a certain amount of profit to justify its live updates, and perhaps that amount isn't enough for them with subscription alone right now.

However I still believe that more profit could have ensued long term if they had decided to limit the Cash Shop and attract more players.

World of Warcraft leans more heavily on it's cash shop now, and still has the largest subscriber base by a good margin.

It's not really about how much money it takes to create a game the quality World of Warcraft, though, it's how much the game earns. Like you mentioned, companies structure a lot of their projects and finances around consistent revenue streams like MMO's. World of Warcraft has big expectations attached to it, so it sees more investment.

At the end of the day Square has a completely different set of circumstances to consider when determining what's part of the subscription fee and what belongs in the cash shop. All I'm saying is that an item for item comparison to World of Warcraft isn't really fair.

[SamRF]

No, it's not greedy at all. It's called business.

1.) People are "Mad" at the "Cash Shop" because they pay a monthly sub and can't get everything for free.
2.) Retainer's for more storage space cost $. (Understandable. Storage space should be free but having to pay $ should be towards unlocking the ventures feature. If not, 4 retainers should be free, not 2.)
3.) Everyone thinks they add more "Content" to the cash shop then they do the actual game. As it was stated multiple times, Dev's don't control the mogstation. A Separate team at SE does. Also, no.
4.) Old seasonal items being added. This is a given. If you weren't playing the game back in 2017, you're most likely not going to get it other then the mogstation. Every year they have different seasonal items for the events.

I'm probably missing some but i'm sure these are the main points. But ultimately, everything in the mogstation is optional. You don't need it. Just because you feel the urge to buy stuff on the mogstation that is completely cosmetic/optional but yet you don't want to pay for it doesn't give you the right to complain about it. If were gonna complain about something, why not the actual game/content itself instead of "Optional Items".

Explain to me then. Why doesn't WoW offer such an expansive Cash Shop as FFXIV? You're telling me blizzard/Activision won't jump at any opportunity to milk their fans?

They don't do it because they don't want to drive players away from their heavily critical playerbase that is know to complain over the slightest issues. It's business.

[EaMett]

At the end of the day Square has a completely different set of circumstances to consider when determining what's part of the subscription fee and what belongs in the cash shop. All I'm saying is that an item for item comparison to World of Warcraft isn't really fair.

This. It's tempting to do is as a consumer, but not a good exercise.

[Halivel]

"WoW this WoW that" guy again, I see.

They don't do it because they don't want to drive players away from their heavily critical playerbase that is know to complain over the slightest issues. It's business.

Can you please list prices from their shop, at least?

[SamRF]

At the end of the day Square has a completely different set of circumstances to consider when determining what's part of the subscription fee and what belongs in the cash shop. All I'm saying is that an item for item comparison to World of Warcraft isn't really fair.

What these threads and forum complaints would hope to achieve then is to add a circumstance for SE to consider for determining what does or doesn't belong in the Cash Shop.

[Dawn_FF14]

It's interesting to see a comparison of cash shops of FF14 and WoW, without mentioning the WoW Game Token, which allows people to buy in-game gold with real money. Until FF14 starts selling gils for real money, it is really unfair to call FF14 shop "greedy". This is from someone who'd played WoW for more than 10 years, who had bought a few cash shop items from them (not those ugly transmog helms though).

And, as for the cash shop retainer, it doesn't bother me. If we compare FF14 to WoW again, I had 10 alts on the same server in WoW to hoard things I collected over the years. I could do the same in FF14 if I want to. But then, I never view the extra retainer as an "advantage". Without the inventory add-ons that WoW has, it is really a pain to keep things in this game.

Actually, at first, I was a little disappointed by the FF14 cash shop, because I'd want more glamour/mount/pet items in there, and what is in the shop felt mostly irrelevant to the game, in my view. But now I think it is because the developers want players to obtain those in game, rather than pay cash. For that reason, I would not call the shop "greedy" at all.

[MsMisato]

Meanwhile in Black Desert Online... Cash shop prices and the variety of "For Convenience" sales are on the rise, they made over 1 billion dollars in profit back in 2019 xD.

That may be, but I also expect a cash shop like BDO to thrive as it's not sub based and it does give you a lot of things for no money to boot with its attendance check-in and such.

SE/FFXIV on the other hand, while I have no mind paying for fluff like emotes, dances, glamours, and mounts from mog station, it still burns me I got to pay extra for inventory, and if I want a bigger Chocobo bag, I have to sub to an app on top of the regular sub with extra retainers for inventory.

[SamRF]

"WoW this WoW that" guy again, I see.



Can you please list prices from their shop, at least?

Imo the prices don't even matter, it's about the amount of content that is being locked behind an additional payment. Most people complaining about Cash Shop won't buy those items anyway. The WoW prices are more expensive (at least double for many).

I'll state it in the OP.

[Goji1639]

What these threads and forum complaints would hope to achieve then is to add a circumstance for SE to consider for determining what does or doesn't belong in the Cash Shop.

I'm sure SE considers and observes World of Warcraft in nearly every decision it makes, same as every other paid MMO on the planet. It's the standard they're all judged against, and they know it.

I think they also understand the futility of trying to BE World of Warcraft with only a fraction of it's subscriber base and resources, though. It's fine if you have issues with the Cash Shop you want to express, but I feel like a direct comparison to World of Warcraft is the wrong approach.

[SamRF]

It's interesting to see a comparison of cash shops of FF14 and WoW, without mentioning the WoW Game Token, which allows people to buy in-game gold with real money. Until FF14 starts selling gils for real money, it is really unfair to call FF14 shop "greedy". This is from someone who'd played WoW for more than 10 years, who had bought a few cash shop items from them (not those ugly transmog helms though).

And, as for the cash shop retainer, it doesn't bother me. If we compare FF14 to WoW again, I had 10 alts on the same server in WoW to hoard things I collected over the years. I could do the same in FF14 if I want to. But then, I never view the extra retainer as an "advantage". Without the inventory add-ons that WoW has, it is really a pain to keep things in this game.

Actually, at first, I was a little disappointed by the FF14 cash shop, because I'd want more glamour/mount/pet items in there, and what is in the shop felt mostly irrelevant to the game, in my view. But now I think it is because the developers want players to obtain those in game, rather than pay cash. For that reason, I would not call the shop "greedy" at all.

I've spent almost a whole paragraph talking about WoW token in the Original Post of this tread. You should read it and instead respond to what's stated there.