Yoshi P confirmed they CUT ultimate content from 6.0 not DELAY

[Sathona]

man this guy reminds me a dude from a discord server i modded..
'twitch views make the game' is the dumbest take ive ever head of..

[Laphicet]

'twitch views make the game' is the dumbest take ive ever head of..

It's a quote that's missing a step. Twitch views make for advertisement, which attracts new people, which means more subs and thus makes the game.

And it's a somewhat valid point, ultimate draws in heavy attention to the game on streaming sites like twitch and such. And without ultimate this burst in "free advertisement" is lost and thus any hype from such.

People are also reluctant to forget a broken promise, which is what this cancellation is being interpreted as in some groups. Some people are even thinking that they're moving to 1 ultimate from now on thanks to odd wording in a recent interview.

EDIT: such broken promise and other issues with the game, such as the healer issues and tank issues, are causing the game to lose the good word-of-mouth it has, too, which can spiral into even more damage to the property.

[Myon88]

Frankly the mood in my friend circles seems pretty glum in light of all this recent news. Be it world progression raiders or more casual savage clearers, there seems to be an overwhelming feeling that FFXIV is past its peak and winding down into a sort of maintenance mode. Whether this is the case or not I can't say, but I do know the factors that contribute to it.

• The 'delay' of SHB's 2nd ultimate that amounts to effectively the cancellation of one ultimate.
• The announcement that 6.0 would wrap up the overarching Hydaelyn and Zodiarc story arc.
• The gradual increase in the amount of 'life-sim' type additions to the game relative to battle content.
• Not directly related save for #1, but covid making a general mess of 2020 and dampening the mood everywhere.

#2 especially is ripe with implications, and certainly they have taken pains to stress that the game will keep going on. If this is indeed the case, I don't think their messaging has been as effective as hoped, and if it isn't, well what can I say except people are noticing. You know, personally I can buy it, it feels like FFXIV's 'Wrath of the Lich King' expansion wrapping up the major story beats - and we know there was plenty of WoW to be had on the other side of that.

But that's just me, the fact remains that I've never seen this little hype for an expansion in my entire time playing this game. I'm not sure what would assuage this short of a strong statement reaffirming their commitment to the combat side of the game, I just think it's a shame for this to happen at what's clearly intended to be a high point in the game's lifespan.

[Vahlnir]

Frankly the mood in my friend circles seems pretty glum in light of all this recent news. Be it world progression raiders or more casual savage clearers, there seems to be an overwhelming feeling that FFXIV is past its peak and winding down into a sort of maintenance mode.

Obviously plans can change, but people must have completely ignored the fact that they stated that they intend to keep it going for another 10 years at minimum. If their takeaway was "Well, it's over. gg." then that's on them, really. I get that people are upset about losing a 2nd Ultimate this expansion, as is their right, but this seems like an extreme overreaction for those involved.

[LaylaTsarra]

Obviously plans can change, but people must have completely ignored the fact that they stated that they intend to keep it going for another 10 years at minimum. If their takeaway was "Well, it's over. gg." then that's on them, really. I get that people are upset about losing a 2nd Ultimate this expansion, as is their right, but this seems like an extreme overreaction for those involved.

FFXIV has been dying for the last 8 years.

[Fawkes]

It's a quote that's missing a step. Twitch views make for advertisement, which attracts new people, which means more subs and thus makes the game.

And it's a somewhat valid point, ultimate draws in heavy attention to the game on streaming sites like twitch and such. And without ultimate this burst in "free advertisement" is lost and thus any hype from such.

I have a hard time believing that's the case, for FFXIV at least. I'm sure there's people that go out and buy Valheim after watching somebody stream it, but I can't imagine anyone who doesn't already play FFXIV watching an Ultimate fight and having any idea what they're looking at, or becoming at all enthused about experiencing it for themselves. I would assume it's mostly current and former players watching those streams.

A survival game or a shooter that's very "pick up and play" can definitely get a bump for blowing up on twitch, but an MMO is a big time investment before you get to the "real" game. I just don't think the genre lends itself to that same kind of impulse buy.

[Myon88]

Obviously plans can change, but people must have completely ignored the fact that they stated that they intend to keep it going for another 10 years at minimum.

They can say that, but they have been burning goodwill with PvE players for some time now, so I would not fault people for taking their PR statements with a grain of salt. There is a considerable amount of license in just what it means to 'keep a game going' too. 10 years of going from strength to strength pushing the boundaries on battle content? Awesome. 10 years of an increased housing and gpose focus? The same demographic would likely not be as enthused.

If their takeaway was "Well, it's over. gg." then that's on them, really.

Yes, it's on them, but if they leave the game as a result, that becomes SE's problem in turn. Player perceptions to changes in the game aren't always logical, and I'm just reporting what I see.

One memorable incident comes to mind back in Stormblood when they changed alliance raid loot rules to 'greed only' for a short time. It was borne out of good intentions - allowing people to queue on their geared mains to expedite runs, but still roll on loot they wanted - but it turns out that even though you had statistically similar odds to win what you wanted, it felt way worse in practice. Instead of being able to queue as a tank, or notice you were the only caster and know you had dibs on drops for your role, every run was a free-for-all that felt like 7 other people were always rolling against you.

It was one of the few times feedback was so unanimous as to make them walk back the change entirely. Subjective feelings shouldn't be taken lightly. They manifest real consequences even if they aren't proof of an actual problem.

[Shougun]

Obviously plans can change, but people must have completely ignored the fact that they stated that they intend to keep it going for another 10 years at minimum. If their takeaway was "Well, it's over. gg." then that's on them, really. I get that people are upset about losing a 2nd Ultimate this expansion, as is their right, but this seems like an extreme overreaction for those involved.

It's always possible they FFXI'd FFXIV (FFXI still gets new content, sometimes, and is still alive). I highly doubt that would be announced until at least the end of 6.XX though, with zero information at all I imagine that they're going to be pulling some big MSQ vibes for 6.0 (just seems like "the right thing to do" given that it's the finale). So I imagine a lot is going into making sure the saga ends with a bang. Although rather than another mmo they could also Cataclysm FFXIV (or "ARR" lol) at the 7.0 mark.



I think it's natural though to feel things are slow near new expansions, I know people talk about FFXVI as a split resource example (unproven), but.. literally they are split right now - they're handling current FFXIV and next FFXIV in likely what is close to a crunch (although hopefully not). May argue they should just hire more people or something, and maybe, I think once he said the issue isn't really just money but that literally they need the right talent. They could throw a lot of money at the wall and if the right person isn't there then it was just wasted money. Like the chocobo racing boco made that content and is now working on other stuff, if we want that updated we've got to pull them back or get someone to pick up the reins lol.

[Absurdity]

I think once he said the issue isn't really just money but that literally they need the right talent. They could throw a lot of money at the wall and if the right person isn't there then it was just wasted money.

I mean sure, but doing nothing is also not gonna solve anything. If they're behind on schedule due to having their manpower split between two games then that gap is only gonna become bigger and bigger.

[Rae88]

Square Enix aren't going to be putting FFXIV into maintenance mode when the game has grown every expansion. It makes zero financial sense. Yoshida has said his boss wants the game to continue to grow and will likely be supported for at least 5 more years. You don't grow a playerbase by wrapping up the game.

People indulging in doom and gloom conspiracies are doing so because they want to, not because there's any indication to support their theories.

Also FFXIV has never been endgame focused. It have never had a ton of content to do at endgame. Whenever new people play FFXIV I tell them to take their time because once you hit endgame you run out of things to do. This doesn't change suddenly because SE has cut out an ultimate, it's more of the same SE following their existing principles for the game. Basically people who want a vast endgame go to WoW and people who want a host of other content come to FFXIV, and some people who want both play both.