I wish we had a shared subscription

[DBriggs304]

They are two different games, there is no chance at all of this happening.

If they EVER found it to be profitable...yeah, there is. Hopefully though, it wouldn't as I thought 11 was terrible.

[MicahZerrshia]

I also resub to xi now and then out of pure nostalgia, so this would be great to save me $15 now and then. But combining the two could also possibly be the final nail in the coffin for XI. We have so many fond memories of the game, but it is just not the same game it used to be. Between the mercs and the rmt, the still crazy high requirements to obtain weapons and gear, that are almost a requirement for new(er) content and the fact that you have to play 99% of the game solo and that 99% part is a really grindy drag would be a major turn off for most ppl who decide to give it a try. And without generating its own income there would be little reason for SE to put any resources toward it.

I gave it a real strong go about a year ago, rolled a new character and was just determined to play, but its just not good anymore imo.

[RitsukoSonoda]

FFXI is an entirely different game right down to game mechanics. It's a more traditional FF style game from that time right down to the menu based UI and classic RPG elements such as things with elemental resistances/weaknesses/absorbtion. Monsters being highly resistant or immune to physical damage or certain types of physical damage making things like blunt, piercing, slashing relevant. Jobs not being limited to 1 weapon. High amounts of horizontal progression where gear doesn't just inflate stat wise but provides other options for players to tailor their build preferences. The only thing that honestly keeps me from playing it now on a more regular basis is the dated PS2 era visuals. Specifically the visuals with player characters. FFXI offered like 8 heads per character with no other customization options. 4 of the 8 heads were just alternate hair colors basically of the first 4. Most of the gear etc feel extremely plain looking now. The visuals on the enviroment, enemies, spell/skill effects etc don't really hit me. It's specifically the player character visuals and to an extent NPC visuals that does it.

[Fyrebrand]

Neat idea, though I really don't think it's likely to happen. It would probably be a huge hassle for them to merge the two game accounts, and of course they only lose money by doing this.

It would get some people to try XI, but on the other hand that takes them away from XIV and I don't think that's the direction Square wants people to move.

[ItMe]

They have said they will never bundle 14 and 11 together again because 14 is so big it feels like 11 is being bundled with FF14, not that they're being bundled together.
They said this devalues FF11 and gives the impression that it's unable to stand on its own.

So for better or worse OP, we can expect they will never make a joint subscription like you're requesting.

[RitsukoSonoda]

They have said they will never bundle 14 and 11 together again because 14 is so big it feels like 11 is being bundled with FF14, not that they're being bundled together.
They said this devalues FF11 and gives the impression that it's unable to stand on its own.

So for better or worse OP, we can expect they will never make a joint subscription like you're requesting.

In terms of actual content I think FFXI actually dwarfs FFXIV. However FFXIV had better presentation to the mainstream gaming audience after its 2.0 launch that made it's playstyle more similar to other MMOs. Then again FFXI could just feel like it has more content because all the content isn't completed in a few hours so players spend more time actively doing things to complete them.

[Psytic]

Id love it. Used to play it on Xbox 360 yrs ago before they decommissioned that version. I was super casual though mostly fished up moat carp and leveled alts bit I enjoyed it.

[ItMe]

snip

I meant big in terms of playerbase.
Not big in terms of amount of content.

[MilkieTea]

I've never touched WoW, so maybe I'm missing something as to how they handle their combo pricing, but the above statement hit me a bit weird. In my mind, I'm assuming both games would keep their current pricing (I believe both are around $12/$13 for standard), and then they would offer a combo deal for like...$18 or something. Why would you feel the need to pay for the higher combo price when you have absolutely no interest in one of the games?

Again, maybe WoW does it totally different and that's the angle you're working with, but not sure :X

It's not bundled pricing - when you pay your sub, you're paying for access to both WoW Classic and Retail WoW. Full stop, you just pay $15/mo. So essentially regardless of whether you want to or not, you're paying for WoW Classic AND Retail. Which is what wishing we had a shared sub like WoW Retail/Classic would entail - whether you want to or not, you're paying for both FFXI and FFXIV if you went that route.

[wizisi2k]

what I would LOVE to see happen for the 20th anniversary next year is to have both producers come on and make a big announcment that FFXI is moving away from Playonline and will be standalone as well as being included like WOW classic is in the WOW sub like some have suggested. I could also see it being an add-on for FFXIV where you pay $5 more per month and get access to FFXI and XIV (how they handle extra FFXI characters I dunno-could also be flipped for XIV subscription as well where you pay for FFXI aand add $5 to sub to XIV). Would this get players to try out both? Yes-I would pickup my old main again from time to time and I imagine others would as well. I would LOVE to see it come out remastered on console but TBH I dunno how it could happen with all the manpower needed and more importantly, code migration for the engine from a 20 yr-old codebase.