Unpopular Opinion: SE Is Not Obligated To Add New Jobs Every Expansion

[hydralus]

SE not being an indie company has no bearing on the fact that each new job added means more work for their team with each ongoing expansion. More balancing to do, more art needed for artifact armor and job specific weapons, more animations and spell effects to make etc. Those issues don't just go away because SE isn't an indie company.

Putting some of the huge profits they've earned from Shadowbringers into the following expansions could help, but we all know that's not gonna happen. And yes, 'throwing money' at development doesn't help in the short-term but that's why you start now rather than when the work becomes too overbearing. Hell ideally they shoulda started LAST expansion. But I think people are way too ready to defend whatever decisions they make so they'll just make whatever keeps them the most profit moving forward.

[Bright-Flower]

Putting some of the huge profits they've earned from Shadowbringers into the following expansions could help, but we all know that's not gonna happen. And yes, 'throwing money' at development doesn't help in the short-term but that's why you start now rather than when the work becomes too overbearing. Hell ideally they shoulda started LAST expansion. But I think people are way too ready to defend whatever decisions they make so they'll just make whatever keeps them the most profit moving forward.

It'd be nice if they increased the budget for the FFXIV team. But jobs and races are both things that continue to add overhead going forward.

Once a dungeon or a raid is done, it's done. WIth jobs and races though, each new one added means more and more has to go into them, and the game's budget and the game's playerbase are not going to grow without limit over time. Plus it'll be harder to make each job feel unique and distint over time as well as more and more are piled in. When you're adding a feature that has to keep being supported and worked on for years to come, there comes a time you have to start peeling back. Because those stacking ongoing costs aren't going to vanish if say, Endwalker doesn't do as well as SHB and the budget for the next expansion is reduced etc. They need to make sure that when they add new jobs and races, they can handle not only the short term but the long term.

I'm not saying that will necessarily be 7.0 but that day is going to come sooner or later. I think we're seeing this as is with role quests taking over job quests, at least for existing jobs hopefully the new jobs at least still get proper job storylines in 6.0.