I feel like 7.0 will be quite the milestone

[Saraide]

So far they have a different level of commitment for mainline numbered FF games. Still no end date for FF XI after 20 years of service. When Yoshida took over XIV he was like we cannot let this game be a failure at any cost, we have to rebuild customer trust.

They don't seem to think mobile spin-offs matter as much to their reputation, or maybe they acknowledge The First Soldier was a stupid idea that nobody asked for. I wish they'd stick with the genre they're good at. These brand extensions into other genres haven't been great.

They have a different commitment to mainline games because they make money. As far as i've heard the SE games branch would have been profitable if not for the greedy cashgrab attempts. That doesnt change however that this turn of events has made any and all SE promises worthless. The moment the mmos stop making the profit that is expected from them, they are in danger of getting torn to shreds by greed. They might still live, the FF15 team which is now working on forsaken seems to be left completely to their own devices regardless of loss. Yoship's position is only strong if FF14 brings in tons of money and matsuda has only proven to not give a single toss about customer trust.

[DezereDawn]

Thing is thats more on the fault of Platinum games making a bad product.....and the mobile games being part of a different department. Not saying its not something to take into account...but its a very different scenario to say FF14 which is under one of their main creative business units. Same applies to Avengers...that was a crystal dynamics problem to a degree...doesn't help S-E wanted that game to be a monetised grind.

Square is absolutely at fault for all of these too, you can't just divert fault to the developers solely when Square signed off and diverted funds to these games, giving them their blessing

I'd say FF14 is safe only because it's a mainline FF, any other series Square'd probably Squander it and throw it in the garbage like they're likely in the midst of doing with Forspoken

[hobostew]

I hope it's more than just visual upgrades.

[Ardeth]

Get to writting a better story is about the only thing I really want from 7.0 besides maybe cross data center queuing and fixing the Market board to where I can buy 1 item out of a stack of 99 like you can in games like Wow. And maybe unassigned skills glowing, but I've been asking about that one for years.

[CStrife912]

Square is absolutely at fault for all of these too, you can't just divert fault to the developers solely when Square signed off and diverted funds to these games, giving them their blessing

I'd say FF14 is safe only because it's a mainline FF, any other series Square'd probably Squander it and throw it in the garbage like they're likely in the midst of doing with Forspoken

Yet platinum games made Nier Automata...and they signed off Nier Replicant both received really well...platinum done screwed up somewhere and I think S-E viewed it as a loss and just tossed it to the wolves cause it wasn't worth investing the money in to fix it...that game was broken on a fundamental level and had been in dev for years. Unless we hear insider info I place it as a 70% blame on platinum in that regard. Forspoken I wanted to do well but this is giving me some weird deja vu to the Metal Gear Rising pitch where Kojima let his young blood make the game only to redesign it because they lacked focus and direction....this has a similar problem going on and sadly will result with staff being shifted over or luminous productions being dissolved which is a shame to see.

[Saraide]

Thing is thats more on the fault of Platinum games making a bad product.....and the mobile games being part of a different department. Not saying its not something to take into account...but its a very different scenario to say FF14 which is under one of their main creative business units. Same applies to Avengers...that was a crystal dynamics problem to a degree...doesn't help S-E wanted that game to be a monetised grind.

The responsibility falls 100% on SE, they promised long term commitment to these games but pulled the plug right away. Sometimes even before a full year was even over. Crystal dynamics even was a studio they owned themselves. The games being bad is one thing, another one is trying to sell microtransactions under the pretense that the game will run for a long time giving you potentially a lot of use of whatever you buy. Platinum has made mid games in the past (the legend of korra game says hello) but those were bad in a non-insidious way. I am aware the the current situation with FF14 is very different but that is not owed to artistic integrity. It's owed to profit.

Let's not forget Babylon's fall, another Squeenix Flop out the gate that was meant to be a live service

You are absolutely right, I forgot babylon's fall. That definitely belongs in that list.

[Liam_Harper]

The QoL changes have been great and the dev team seem to be working flat out, but I don't have much hope for 7.0.

They're pouring all their effort into the wrong things. Endwalker was their big chance really. They had a huge chunk of the WoW playerbase in the palm of their hand and a lot of attention from the gaming community. And all they did was rush and toss aside their main story plot and stubbornly stick to the same safe tired formulas or reinforce them. More tomes, roulettes, bland 3-boss-corridor dungeons, shared fates, 2 min burst meta, trimmed down jobs, 5 minute a day beast tribes, cheap crafted gear, same old treasure maps and so on. I'm all for "if it works, don't try to reinvent the wheel" and WoW was notorious for sledgehammering good systems, but there's a middle ground and only so many years you can do the same thing over and over.

Endwalker was "fine". It isn't a bad expansion, but at the same time I see no hype or excitement like I do in other games. I don't see people talking about how they just can't leave their Island Sanctuary or the PLD rework is so much fun or how they're going to craft non-stop with the new set. Criterion dungeons are barely mentioned. People still run CC but it seems to have died down after one season.

I can't see 7.0 being different.
Remember they have a tiny job design team that barely managed a rework to put PLD on the generic 2 min burst and had to delay AST an entire expansion. They'll have 2 new jobs to keep them busy, that big rework you're holding out hope for on your job/role? It's never happening.
We'll get another set of shared fates, the same old dungeons and tribes, the same old tomes to farm, the same jobs with maybe a new button or two and some complexity trimmed away and a few new pieces of niche content that most people don't run. Bots, housing issues, limited glamor dresser space, blacklist that enables stalking and all the other issues very likely aren't going anywhere either.
If that's what some players want and will enjoy then great. I'm not going to judge what people find fun. But personally I'm not excited.

[CStrife912]

The QoL changes have been great and the dev team seem to be working flat out, but I don't have much hope for 7.0.

They're pouring all their effort into the wrong things. Endwalker was their big chance really. They had a huge chunk of the WoW playerbase in the palm of their hand and a lot of attention from the gaming community. And all they did was rush and toss aside their main story plot and stubbornly stick to the same safe tired formulas or reinforce them. More tomes, roulettes, bland 3-boss-corridor dungeons, shared fates, 2 min burst meta, trimmed down jobs, 5 minute a day beast tribes, cheap crafted gear, same old treasure maps and so on. I'm all for "if it works, don't try to reinvent the wheel" and WoW was notorious for sledgehammering good systems, but there's a middle ground and only so many years you can do the same thing over and over.

I can't see 7.0 being different.
Remember they have a tiny job design team that barely managed a rework to put PLD on the generic 2 min burst and had to delay AST an entire expansion. They'll have 2 new jobs to keep them busy, that big rework you're holding out hope for on your job/role? It's never happening.
We'll get another set of shared fates, the same old dungeons and tribes, the same old tomes to farm, the same jobs with maybe a new button or two and some complexity trimmed away and a few new pieces of niche content that most people don't run. Bots, housing issues, limited glamor dresser space, blacklist that enables stalking and all the other issues very likely aren't going anywhere either.
If that's what some players want and will enjoy then great. I'm not going to judge what people find fun. But personally I'm not excited.

There are some valid points here however it doesn't matter if they did or didn't have the wow playerbase in their hands...Endwalker was already in polishing phase before the wow exodus...what content and roadmap was created was already there...having the exodus happen was an unintended bonus...no one could of predicted that. You say all these issues in the first paragraph but if they were such a big deal to the wider audience it would of been addressed in some capacity yet here we are with more and more people playing the game year on year. I will say 7.0 needs to push beyond the boundaries they've created in some capacity...its not to say they're not taking risks...criterion/varient and island sanctuary are risks whether or not its content we like the look or enjoy...the pvp revamp was a risk...they could of let it fester but chose to rework it.

Problem as well is the ones you see complaining are such a small sample...there are many people just playing the game and not coming to the forums or reddit to voice the issue. Also just seeing what ESO is doing for its content for the year....14 dwarfs it on content or styles of play. They just need to create longevity with systems now and not just making and ditching.

[Kranel_San]

I hope it's more than just visual upgrades.

I believe the goal of the visual upgrade is to provide an official Gshade/Reshade to the players (Especially console players who don't have access to mods, addons, plugins, and such) and also make the game look more beautiful for marketing purposes.

[hobostew]

I believe the goal of the visual upgrade is to provide an official Gshade/Reshade to the players (Especially console players who don't have access to mods, addons, plugins, and such) and also make the game look more beautiful for marketing purposes.

And thats nice and all but I want more video game in my video game. More than just pretty screenshots and raids.