Male Viera as a playable character! show your support

[SturmChurro]

They also think that male viera will significantly boost SE's profit.

More like cost them profit.

[MoofiaBossVal]

They also think that male viera will significantly boost SE's profit.

More like cost them profit.

Maybe. For each race/gender, you're going to need a few artists working on them full time, adjusting armors/accessories to fit them, and making animations for those characters (new emotes, new job ability animations, animations for cutscenes, etc). I don't know how much the average AAA game animator in Tokyo makes, but here in Southern California, you're looking at annual salaries in the $100,000+ range. Work on Hrothgar and Viera began in 2018, so Square must've sunk at least 3 or 4 million USD into them over the past 3 years.

According to FFXIV census, there seems to be about 200,000 total Hrothgar and Viera characters combined. If half of those characters used a $10 Fantasia, then Square made at least 1 million USD. No way to tell how many fantasiaed to hroth and then fantasied back to something else. There are also people who boosted new Hrothgar/Viera characters to 70. And there is no telling how many more people got into FFXIV because of the inclusion of Hrothgar and Viera, as those people bought the box, subbed, and maybe bought other cash shop items. But I'm not expecting the profit to be higher than a few million.

Yoshida said that male Hrothgar and female Viera were chosen because they thought that those would be more popular (read: more profitable) than having just one whole race. Presumably, if female Hrothgar and male Viera are added, they would be less popular/profitable than male Hrothgar and female Viera were. Going by the above napkin math, Square might not have made much of a profit on Hrothgar and Viera. Yoshida has said in interviews after Shadowbringers that they are stretched thin and that they won't be adding more races, so it sounds like they don't think they will break even on the cost of adding more races. Even if they do make money, it could be that the opportunity cost of using artists for this project would be high and that Square would be better served having those artists work on other things. Maybe work on more FF14 stuff... or be moved over to the FF16 project. There is no way FF16 isn't hogging resources from FF14. Dunno if Square would do that. FF16 as a mainline release would be really hyped, but the MMO probably has more long term profit potential (FF11 was the most profitable FF game ever due to subscriptions over a long time, and Square credited the success of ARR for saving the company). I'd imagine that keeping players happy so that they keep paying their monthly subscriptions over the course of years would be more profitable than a one time $60 box release that will sell a few million, but who knows.

[WoW]

Considering that miqo'te, highlanders, and roegadyns were genderlocked in 1.0 and they added the missing genders for 2.0... and now male miqo'te PCs are everywhere...

False logic. Back then there weren't many races nor did the game had much equipment to adjust to these races. Now it's a much worse case. Even Yoshi P himself said how taxing it would to add new races now. Also, just because one of the three genders you mentioned is being played by a lot, doesn't prove your point. Male Hyur and female miqote are still the highest. Also, Viera and hrothgar numbers would like to have a word with you.

[Caurcas]

It might be selfish, but the catharsis from a hard no on male Viera would be worth it. Just to see the great community wail and reeee.

[Starshower]

I'm having hope until the end, and I don't care if I end up disappointed. I really want them to announce male viera and female hrothgar. I'm hyped for the fanfest and I can't wait!

[Zanarkand-Ronso]

I'm having hope until the end, and I don't care if I end up disappointed.

This Energy here.
Everyone should have

[SomeRandomHuman]

False logic. Back then there weren't many races nor did the game had much equipment to adjust to these races. Now it's a much worse case. Even Yoshi P himself said how taxing it would to add new races now. Also, just because one of the three genders you mentioned is being played by a lot, doesn't prove your point. Male Hyur and female miqote are still the highest. Also, Viera and hrothgar numbers would like to have a word with you.

So my logic is false yet you just admitted that male miqo'te are played a lot? I'm sorry but how can you make any kind of debate when you can't even stick to your own words?

I also wasn't making a point. I was just saying that there is a sizeable chunk of the player base that plays the the previously missing genders.

As far as viera and hrothgar numbers... well I think that their ultra limited hair and helmet options is a big factor. Give them access to all the hairs and a few more helmets and we'll see how much that changes things.

[Veritas-Ancora]

They also think that male viera will significantly boost SE's profit.

Considering how disappointed fans were, review sites were, and general feedback to Yoshi P directly, I'd say yes.

[HollyJollyPaca]

Just a bun's posting of support cause I want to make some cute bun boys, both small and pretty and tall and handsomeeeeee <3
(Let me give Adonis her brother please and thank)

[reivaxe]

Just wanted to remind people that you don't make a new race to simply push potions. Like, how popular do you think a "Human/ Elezen" would be where all they did was give Mids some pointy ears + maybe elezen hair and that's it? What about ... adding a new set of faces to c@s? There are FAR easier ways to push potions than making a whole new character model with unique proportions and animations that you now have to support and making ever glam/ gear/ emote harder in the future.

The reason to make a new race is to give players more ways to express themselves and make the game more appealing to people who are not yet players by giving them something that they may like more than the current roster. It's really more of a QoL expense and an advertisement tool.

Example- When ShB came out the game was more popular than ever, yet EVERY female's popularity took a drop in numbers whereas only Roe Males took a drop as every male's number's grew. This tells you that numerous female characters of every race converted to Viera to add to the Viera numbers and outside some Roe male converts Hrothgar numbers were largely from brand-new players. This is perfectly inline with YP's comments about the races, that Viera where made to please people who already play the game and Hrothgar were added for game health (aka, to make the game more appealing to Western MMO fans who didn't see an option that appealed to them such as furries/ WoW beast race players).

At the end of the day, bringing like 20k brand-new players who pay-2-play month to month for years is a boon for the game in every way that will out last just getting x-amount of people to use a $10 potion when you can just make an easy $25 fat-cat mount and get tons of profit.