Another MMO?

[Ath192]

It's great for there to be a new game, but I am only interested in certain IPs such as Final Fantasy. So for example, why should I play New World? I don't care about it, its lore or its story. Why should I play Ashes of Creation? I don't care about it, its lore or its story either. Graphics aren't everything to me.

It will be useful should it ever become like XI, but it is nowhere near that point. It is actually a tactic to grow the game. Get people who "only play solo Final Fantasy games" to play FF14. In passing, they may have a conversation with someone and end up in a Free Company and get dragged into the social environment. It's smart, really, because a lot of people who play an MMORPG are initially quite anxious and don't want to interact with anyone, but fall into the social environment when they bump into someone.

It's possible. History says it happens to every MMORPG except WoW, after all. However, WoW is proof they can endure. In the age of AI, it's possible any tangled spaghetti can be undone efficiently so that a game can modernize. So we'll just have to see.

To you. People have been saying that since Heavensward and Stormblood. Because it was a formula even then. "Oh the next raid tier will be 4 alexander raids, 2 dungeons, 2 extremes and an alliance raid". Yes, so what?

Not true, but you know this.

Could be. I'll agree that the viral moment seemed like it could be a peak moment. But it remains to be seen. Neither of us are fortune tellers, and it could go viral again somehow or just continue to grow to have a persistent population that is higher than that viral moment.

The worst business tactic would be to throw away a game that is at the current height of its success statistically (a higher persistent population than in prior expansions), put it in maintenance mode and focus all efforts on a new MMORPG.

I hate to break it to you but unless we save the galaxy again everything else we do won't be as consequential, and saving the galaxy twice in the same game seems excessive. So the story going forward may be interesting but it won't be as big. As far as you not being interested in other games or MMOs it's your loss really. I mean just because you want to stay stuck and not pick any more interests that is not a good reason for SE or anyone to not invest in newer mmos or titles. You'll just be the person that never moved on.

In general doing the same thing you have always done and never trying new things is not the best way to live life, but if it makes you happy so be it. Usually when a game is at its height it has nowhere to go but down. So I agree this game shouldn't go into maintenance mode just yet, just like XI didn't when XIV was first announced, but it is time to start investing in the new generation.

The same way you don't have kids when you are 70, you do it in the prime of your life because thats when you have the energy and resources to do it. It's common sense. If they wait for this MMO to die then they'll be like, you know what its a dying genre, maybe we should take all our money and put into mobile gacha games and NFTs instead. This doesn't benefit you, or any of us.

[Jeeqbit]

I hate to break it to you but unless we save the galaxy again everything else we do won't be as consequential, and saving the galaxy twice in the same game seems excessive. So the story going forward may be interesting but it won't be as big.

I know it feels that way. But when you actually play it, I think it will be as if Dawntrail is a different game. I mean, you've saved the galaxy in this game, but if you play another game, you might just be taking care of a local corrupt politician. So if you just think of Dawntrail as a different game, then what's the difference?

I've mentioned this before, but no matter how strong and powerful you are, you can lose. There are many boxers and UFC fighters that were once unbeaten and eventually got beat. They were invincible, never-losing fighters just like the Warrior of Light and some person just beat them after winning for years or even decades.

As far as you not being interested in other games or MMOs it's your loss really. I mean just because you want to stay stuck and not pick any more interests that is not a good reason for SE or anyone to not invest in newer mmos or titles. You'll just be the person that never moved on.

I never said people shouldn't make other MMORPGs or games, but they need to be interesting. A very important thing with an MMORPG is to make people view the hubs as their home and to care about their home. You aren't going to care about something you know nothing about, so that's why an MSQ is useful to teach them the lore of the world and become invested in why they should stick around and why they should care about these bosses.

To me personally, I know Final Fantasy does this well so I didn't even need to think about if it would prior to playing.

In general doing the same thing you have always done and never trying new things is not the best way to live life

I do try new things. The new content.

Usually when a game is at its height it has nowhere to go but down.

True, but that is why I used the wording "current height" because it could go yet higher. We will have to see how it is throughout Dawntrail and then compare the averages to Endwalker. We can only know it has actually reached the height when we see it go down, or at the bare minimum remain the same as through Endwalker.

Typically the average grows about 200,000 or more on Lucky Bancho every expansion and this has been consistent so if we don't see a higher average it would be new.

The same way you don't have kids when you are 70, you do it in the prime of your life because thats when you have the energy and resources to do it. It's common sense. If they wait for this MMO to die then they'll be like, you know what its a dying genre, maybe we should take all our money and put into mobile gacha games and NFTs instead. This doesn't benefit you, or any of us.

I agree it would be smart to start early, but it needs early-sign statistics to back it up ie. the first expansion to not add 200,000+ to the average.

I feel like from Square Enix's perspective, they just recently added servers such as Oceania and Dynamis as well as 4 new EU servers. Something like that tells a company they are seeing explosive growth. Until they receive an early signal saying the opposite of that, it doesn't paint a picture of being even at the beginning of any kind of down slope.

[Rekh]

Those that demanded 1.0 to be better got us A realm reborn
Those who accept the status quo got us stuff like 1.0

We're stakeholders, demand better.

[NekoMataMata]

Yoshi P wants to make a new one at some point before he retires, and there's no way SE is going to let him go elsewhere to do so.

So it'll happen eventually. It's just all about timing. FFXIV is in a transition phase that should push it into it's second big story arc, and we already know that XVII has likely been in the making for a while now.

[RitsukoSonoda]

Yoshi P wants to make a new one at some point before he retires, and there's no way SE is going to let him go elsewhere to do so.

So it'll happen eventually. It's just all about timing. FFXIV is in a transition phase that should push it into it's second big story arc, and we already know that XVII has likely been in the making for a while now.

Part of me thinks we will see a new DQ MMO made before then since DQX came out in the Wii era. The question will be whether they keep it in Japan or not.

At the same time I feel like the Mana Series would be a lot easier to transition into a proper MMO Action RPG.

[Jojoya]

I've just been looking at the financial numbers that FFXI and FFXIV drew in, and they're both Squeenix's best earners of their eras. Do you think they'll make a FF18 Online or 20Online in the future?

Or do you think they fact they pour most the money we pay in this game into things like Kingdom Hearts Super Bad Rush Job Messy Narrative Dissonance the Gamplay 2.980 Prologue Chi Unchained Hearts Hearts Hearts Hearts and other Playstation Exclusives, means they've given up on the MMO market and see this as a dead end?

Opinions?

I for one would love to see what they could do, unshackled from the burdens of 1.0's sphaghetti code.

They might make another FF MMO in the future but probably only after both XI and XIV close shop for good (or are about to). MMOs are expensive to make and their popularity has died down quite a bit from their peak. Too many MMOs can spread out consumers still interested in them too much to support multiple games.

The game is not shackled by 1.0 spaghetti code and has not been since 2.0 was launched.

What's been holding the game back in many ways is the player clients. Having access to the most advanced gaming technology available to developers does no good if 80% of players don't own a system that can handle it. We saw a big jump in quality for some parts of the game when PS3 support was dropped in Stormblood and SE was able to address some limitations caused by that support. We'll be seeing another jump in quality for Dawntrail as PC system requirements get bumped up quite a bit. If PS4 support gets dropped in 8.0 as expected, there will probably be another jump then.

Those that demanded 1.0 to be better got us A realm reborn
Those who accept the status quo got us stuff like 1.0

We're stakeholders, demand better.

Paying $60 for the game plus another $15 month does not make anyone a stakeholder. It makes them a consumer paying for a service.

If you want to be a stakeholder, then you'll need to buy SE stock.

[Rekh]

They might make another FF MMO in the future but probably only after both XI and XIV close shop for good (or are about to). MMOs are expensive to make and their popularity has died down quite a bit from their peak. Too many MMOs can spread out consumers still interested in them too much to support multiple games.

The game is not shackled by 1.0 spaghetti code and has not been since 2.0 was launched.

What's been holding the game back in many ways is the player clients. Having access to the most advanced gaming technology available to developers does no good if 80% of players don't own a system that can handle it. We saw a big jump in quality for some parts of the game when PS3 support was dropped in Stormblood and SE was able to address some limitations caused by that support. We'll be seeing another jump in quality for Dawntrail as PC system requirements get bumped up quite a bit. If PS4 support gets dropped in 8.0 as expected, there will probably be another jump then.


Paying $60 for the game plus another $15 month does not make anyone a stakeholder. It makes them a consumer paying for a service.

If you want to be a stakeholder, then you'll need to buy SE stock.

A stakeholder is a party that has an interest in a company and can either affect or be affected by the business. The primary stakeholders in a typical corporation are its investors, employees, customers, and suppliers.
Source: simple google search

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[Ilyrian]

Right, but your 'stake' in this instance is wanting a product you deem good enough to pay for. Outside of that we have no power over the course of SE development or corporate direction. We can vote with our wallets, of course.

[Themarvin]

Updating the current one would be better, to modern machines and more to it.

[Striker44]

Digital Entertainment sector makes like 70-80% of their sales, next to smaller sectors like amusement, merchandise and publications.

Of that sector one part are MMO net sales, which are down, just btw - to the people here saying it was never more popular and is peaking right now. Financially it isn't really.

The people pointing out how FFXIV is doing "now" are comparing the active player population at similar points in each expansion, which has indeed shown steady growth from each expansion to the next throughout the game's life. And EW has likewise continued that trend, significantly surpassing ShB, and even following the same general growth line when you account for the "WoW exodus" anomaly.

It's also noteworthy that the data shown in your graph lumps all MMO's together. SE has multiple MMO's running, including ones like Dragon Quest that aren't even localized to be sold outside of Japan (but are still "active" games getting new expansions and such). Meaning - the overall "MMO" data isn't necessarily representative of FFXIV specifically, and shouldn't be assumed to be so.