FFXIV: Do you think Square Enix will put more money and resources into it?

[Lauront]

*snip*

While I think you're perfectly right and worded this well, in the end the devs themselves already see the potential value in upgrading the engine and textures and so are mostly looking at ways to handle the costs and implementation. As such, anyone claiming it doesn't matter is fighting a losing battle and one I can't really say I sympathise with as a player of the game. Sure, I don't want the gameplay experience to degrade, but as we keep being reminded, the gameplay is designed by different teams to the graphics. And they keep saying it's not financial resources they lack for, but the labour to do it. So the tradeoff doesn't really seem to be at play here in the first place (they have mentioned in the past it would be in terms of graphical assets in any case), especially as the game grows increasingly popular.

The game is competing with ever more visually impressive competitors (not just MMOs as any other game can compete for player time and money as an alternative use of both, except for those who absolutely must play an MMO), and has graphics which were held down by the PS3 and legacy issues related to that and various design decisions (especially regarding the textures). They're not even talking about making this have graphics like a game like 7R or Ghost of Tsushima, but just a matter of improving on the grainy pixels and allowing more flexibility in character design given the severe limitations their engine poses. This was something Ayumi Namae also brought up during the art panel for the lead up to SHB at the EU fanfest, that they'd like a less restrictive engine. So I am fairly confident that, provided that they can justify the costs, given the lifespan they now aspire towards for the game, it will come at some point. Maybe 7.0.