Zepla: Endwalker is the Worst FFXIV Expansion I have played

[Lauront]

FFXIV's peak monthly active player counts are somewhere in the region of 20 million.

Plus as mentioned elsewhere, the likes of Everquest didn't have huge lines of Merchandise and cash shop 'DLC'.

FFXIV's turn over dwarfs anything Verant/SoE could have dreamed of with Everquest. The issue isn't the amount of money FFXIV brings, it's that it's not being invested back into the game. Instead it's being used to fund other titles.

His argument is fatuous but I don't believe XIV has ever reached 20 million peak active monthly players. SE use that number (thereabouts) but usually in connection with registered accounts ever made afaik, and that's a cumulative count. The last time they were drawn out in confirming an active player count it was in the 1m region (relevant section quoted below). Even if we were to account for the WoW 'refugee' exodus, I personally don't see it exceeding 2m. The LB census data put it at 1.7m at its peak and even that's got its own issues, as LittleImp pointed out (1) susceptibility to alts and 2) to FLC bloat.)

The amount of active players has surpassed a million and the number of subcribers has also reached a never before seen level.

Regardless, no matter how you look at it, there is no plausible way you could ever consider SE a smol indy.

I think the issue, besides funds, is the amount of staff they commit to the game - wasn't the job design team ultimately down to 4 people? And they have admitted to moving staff to work on XVI.

It sort of is, money is not just there and just because some big company earned a billion during the year, then you need to cut in all the expenses as well, I don't think you realize the business point of view as in having healthy business running as well, it is not like they can just take funds earned from other other projects, those funds need to be there for these other projects and further development of eg. seequals and new games down that line as well.

That's why you look at profit (income), and even looking at that, theirs is in the billions of dollars. SE is one of the larger gaming companies out there by market capitalisation. Sure, it's not EA, but by that logic, EA is not Microsoft either. You bring up Ubisoft as a big company - their market cap exceeds Ubisoft's. And of course they can take funds earned from other projects, they do this routinely, including with XIV itself. The goal of the product is to generate income for investors - some of that money will (hopefully) be invested back into the product or cross-subsidise other products. That is the business point of view. And if they can minimise how much they have to reinvest whilst still generating good income? So much the better from that perspective. They're just not constrained by their income in the way a smol indy is. How they deploy their resources is ultimately a choice.

I think people expect to get more than what they want to pay for, and long story short... it is cheaper much cheaper to play FFXIV than buying every AAA game that is released based alone on the time spendt playing each game, also uhm... AAA games today has been downgraded to HHH games due to Larion Set the Bar of games with Baldurs Gate 3 and big companies like EA and UBISOFT and more has been out complaining about that they made the game is too good.... ( it is an epic good game ) and they did not even add lootboxes and other kinds of stuff and forced on weird server things.

Is it? You have to pay for the expansion upfront and the sub cost adds up over a year, and could be argued to only be as low as it is because they're banking on mogstation sales, which IMO skews their priorities. Even if the sub cost is relatively 'low', it's a discretionary expenditure I don't have to make, so the game needs to be able to justify to its consumer spending any amount of money or time on it. But sure, I'll agree that Larian is upstaging some of these 'AAA' publishers/developers.

[Saraide]

Follow your own advice and we'll consider it.

[Themarvin]

That's why you look at profit (income), and even looking at that, theirs is in the billions of dollars. SE is one of the larger gaming companies out there by market capitalisation. Sure, it's not EA, but by that logic, EA is not Microsoft either. You bring up Ubisoft as a big company - their market cap exceeds Ubisoft's. And of course they can take funds earned from other projects, they do this routinely, including with XIV itself. The goal of the product is to generate income for investors - some of that money will (hopefully) be invested back into the product or cross-subsidise other products. That is the business point of view. And if they can minimise how much they have to reinvest whilst still generating good income? So much the better from that perspective. They're just not constrained by their income in the way a smol indy is. How they deploy their resources is ultimately a choice.

No company, not even a blind one would invest all the companies surplus funds just like that, that is how you would end filing for bankruptcy, no matter safe the plan seem like, it can still crash and come back at you.

You need to re-invest from what outcome you get from whichever game, FFXIV revenue and surplus would be put into FFXIV.

Also it takes time to develop things, they don't got the same freedom as Indie Developers do, and you need a bug free campaign to come.

You can't just invest in an army of developers because you will run into the problems later on, huge staff = huge costs, I am one of those people that would not mind if it cost me 30 dollars per month playing FFXIV, and then maybe some more freequest updates the game and yet you will still run out of content to do and complain about it being lackluster for whatever expansion, because it is not physically possible to keep the content constantly flowing, unless you want more massive grinds... that then would burn you out in other ways.

[Lauront]

If you want to argue against a bunch of things I never said, be my guest. All I am seeing at this point is excuses.

[IkaraGreydancer]

I thought YouTuber/Streamer opinions didn't matter here because "they're in SEs pocket" n such. Now when one comes out and is saying what some agree with its now worth listening to?
Some things don't change ig.

[Anonemoose]

I thought YouTuber/Streamer opinions didn't matter here because "they're in SEs pocket" n such. Now when one comes out and is saying what some agree with its now worth listening to?
Some things don't change ig.

It's because she didn't add anything new to the discussion. All she did was repackage things that everybody has already been discussing for months. For the most part, it's not that people don't agree with what she's saying, it's that they're critical of her motivations for coming out and doing this now.

[AlexiaD]

It's because she didn't add anything new to the discussion. All she did was repackage things that everybody has already been discussing for months. For the most part, it's not that people don't agree with what she's saying, it's that they're critical of her motivations for coming out and doing this now.

So she needs to apologize for having an opinion ?

gotcha

Does she also needs to take an appointment with you first just to be sure that she can post her video ? Since apparently you seem to be in charge

[IkaraGreydancer]

It's because she didn't add anything new to the discussion. All she did was repackage things that everybody has already been discussing for months. For the most part, it's not that people don't agree with what she's saying, it's that they're critical of her motivations for coming out and doing this now.

I'm not sure that's why. I take it you didnt quite get what I meant.
From what it seems people didn't think she was genuine when she did enjoy the game but now think she is because she's saying what some others are saying. It's a double standard. Personally I don't think she's entirely wrong but I also think her bad raid experience with that group soured her perception of the game.
That aside I just wish folks were more consistent with what they accept as "real" or not. Things don't suddenly become real/truthful when it's an opinion you share.

[Anonemoose]

So she needs to apologize for having an opinion ?

gotcha

Does she also needs to take an appointment with you first just to be sure that she can post her video ? Since apparently you seem to be in charge

Lol. Lmao even. Why are you taking this so personally? I never said she had to apologise. As for permission to post her video she should probably check with her husband.

[Swordsman]

It's because she didn't add anything new to the discussion. All she did was repackage things that everybody has already been discussing for months. For the most part, it's not that people don't agree with what she's saying, it's that they're critical of her motivations for coming out and doing this now.

So she needs to apologize for having an opinion ?

gotcha

Does she also needs to take an appointment with you first just to be sure that she can post her video ? Since apparently you seem to be in charge

I kind of understand what anonemoose is saying. It's pretty well known that obsessive FF fans will get extremely defensive over any kind of criticism of FFXIV, and creating a controversial youtube video about it will typically generate a lot of views and discussion which will push a streamer's popularity to greater heights. Just look at this thread. It was created a week ago and already has 1330 replies and 103,740 views.

I'm sure Zepla knows that, and she has an ulterior motive for creating a video like this which is streamers gotta do what they can to stay relevant and in the spotlight. Farming controversy for views is a business strategy for many streamers. I personally think it's fine for streamers to use such a tactic as long as the content is good, but there will always be people who throw shade at others for doing something for attention/views.

And creating a video with the partial motive of boosting her viewer count doesn't make her criticism of FFXIV wrong. It's a great video and great content. The video has many points that a lot of people and I agree with, it farms views, and it draws reactions from angry defensive FF fans all at the same time.