Are we destroying "our own" game?

[caffe_macchiato]

Final Fantasy XIV is no longer at its peak and Square Enix is taking the revenue to recoup their 70% loss in profits last year. It also "promoted" Naoki Yoshida and Natsuko Ishikawa to non-FFXIV projects to fix the company. So no, "we" aren't destroying FFXIV, Square Enix is. Just like so many other companies, it cut corners in its core product to save money and please shareholders. Fortunately, every other company is also in a race to the bottom and FFXIV is a tad slower than the others in its decline, so it's still worth playing. It'll soon become apparent though that the story will fail to draw new people and players won't stay excited about the new content due to floor-tanking and being clipped by lag. It's okay to enjoy the game as-is but people need realistic expectations and not to deify the devs.

[Nasigno]

Final Fantasy XIV is no longer at its peak and Square Enix is taking the revenue to recoup their 70% loss in profits last year. It also "promoted" Naoki Yoshida and Natsuko Ishikawa to non-FFXIV projects to fix the company. So no, "we" aren't destroying FFXIV, Square Enix is. Just like so many other companies, it cut corners in its core product to save money and please shareholders. Fortunately, every other company is also in a race to the bottom and FFXIV is a tad slower than the others in its decline, so it's still worth playing. It'll soon become apparent though that the story will fail to draw new people and players won't stay excited about the new content due to floor-tanking and being clipped by lag. It's okay to enjoy the game as-is but people need realistic expectations and not to deify the devs.

That is a bit of a hot take. Albiet has some rather truth to some of the matters. I'll not apologize for Square Enix as quite a many do. Yes. Square Enix did lose a good chunk of its stock value due to poor performances. FFXVI being one of them, of which I'd say Sony had a hand in as well. I do not think 16 did as well and it was apparent which has some long term impacts that SE is now facing. Which yes, they are looking to cut corners, we all know that or should. It is a business, and when you lose 30% of your value you risk the loss of capital from outside shareholders. So yes, they have to appease them as otherwise no money = no game. Same with players, it is a win-win as long they produce quality products. Granted I do see Cloud servers and other items they have been considering as cost savers as much as releasing the game with incremental graphics updates / new combat encounter system as the stop-gap solution to release product on time and actually keep revenue coming in. Do I agree with them? Not exactly, but you have to keep the lights on and another debacle of delay like Endwalker would of caused problems.

As for FFXIV not being at its peak. Statistical data says otherwise. Dawntrail is performing better than Endwalker did. Which both represent the larger concurrent amount of users that are actively playing the game and generating revenue. Dawntrail likewise as per any metric you can actually source has already held player retention well outside of what Endwalker did in same timeframe from release. Endwalker first month saw a noticeable drop in players within the first month, we are not seeing that with Dawntrail. How long will it remain as such? Not sure, but by pure numbers Dawntrail is doing better than previous expansion.

I will however not say it is the action packed, high stakes story that everyone was apparently hoping for? I do not see how anyone expects a Shadowbringer level story with only 7.0 MSQ only. Shadowbringers had 8 years of build up and story telling to reach the point. Dawntrail is the second ARR basically. Give it time and wait for the story to build.

[Daralii]

I will however not say it is the action packed, high stakes story that everyone was apparently hoping for? I do not see how anyone expects a Shadowbringer level story with only 7.0 MSQ only. Shadowbringers had 8 years of build up and story telling to reach the point. Dawntrail is the second ARR basically. Give it time and wait for the story to build.

Don't take this personally, but I'm so tired of seeing this argument. ARR set up the ongoing conflicts with the Ascians, Empire, beast tribes(as well as their internal issues), and ongoing political tension between the city-states as well as political tension within them. DT has nothing like that, and by the end of it everyone is completely unified behind Queen Wuk Lamat and peace and love for everyone. The hourglass/key resonating with Azem's crystal means we still haven't moved on from Amaurot and the slate hasn't been wiped clean.

[Nothv13]

As for FFXIV not being at its peak. Statistical data says otherwise. Dawntrail is performing better than Endwalker did. Which both represent the larger concurrent amount of users that are actively playing the game and generating revenue. Dawntrail likewise as per any metric you can actually source has already held player retention well outside of what Endwalker did in same timeframe from release. Endwalker first month saw a noticeable drop in players within the first month, we are not seeing that with Dawntrail. How long will it remain as such? Not sure, but by pure numbers Dawntrail is doing better than previous expansion.

Citation needed. Looking at Steamcharts, really the only place we can get numbers, Endwalker peaked higher than DT on release and DT has not been out long enough to compare to longevity. DT is in all likelihood riding on eth success of ShB and EW. Could the endgame be enough to keep more people? Potentially, but that does not mean that people don't think that the MSQ is utter crap, just means they want to get to the good part.

[Nasigno]

Don't take this personally, but I'm so tired of seeing this argument. ARR set up the ongoing conflicts with the Ascians, Empire, beast tribes(as well as their internal issues), and ongoing political tension between the city-states as well as political tension within them. DT has nothing like that, and by the end of it everyone is completely unified behind Queen Wuk Lamat and peace and love for everyone. The hourglass/key resonating with Azem's crystal means we still haven't moved on from Amaurot and the slate hasn't been wiped clean.

Of course, no offense taken.

It did, and don't get me wrong it did start a good storyline for them to start from here to now. It did not however mention threats they had no intent or otherwise imagine up in say Endwalker with talking with Metion. But as said, I did not like the introduction of Meteion being that late that we had no inkling or idea that set why it got from ARR to EW.

Could it of done better, of course. I'm not crazy enough to believe DT is peak story telling or did not have its faults cause it did. But I'll say its better than Endwalker for me.

Citation needed. Looking at Steamcharts, really the only place we can get numbers, Endwalker peaked higher than DT on release and DT has not been out long enough to compare to longevity. DT is in all likelihood riding on eth success of ShB and EW. Could the endgame be enough to keep more people? Potentially, but that does not mean that people don't think that the MSQ is utter crap, just means they want to get to the good part.

“Hello everyone, this is Naoki Yoshida, Producer and Director of FINAL FANTASY XIV,” started the developer. “I would like to thank you all for your patience and cooperation in dealing with server congestion during the early access for Dawntrail. With your support, we were able to reach a record number of concurrent users we’ve not seen since the release of A Realm Reborn in 2013.”

But beyond the official statement from Square Enix, the only reliable numbers we can go off is Steam Data, least of all unless you have a metric that is something we can base performance off? I guess we could wait for 2025 Financial performance to compare the operational revenue, but for right now that is the only metric we have that is open to the public so I will cite it as such.

Endwalker
January 2022 65,565
December 2021 95,102

Dawntrail
June 2024 91,883
July 2024 91,883

[Voidmage]

“Hello everyone, this is Naoki Yoshida, Producer and Director of FINAL FANTASY XIV,” started the developer. “I would like to thank you all for your patience and cooperation in dealing with server congestion during the early access for Dawntrail. With your support, we were able to reach a record number of concurrent users we’ve not seen since the release of A Realm Reborn in 2013.”

But beyond the official statement from Square Enix, the only reliable numbers we can go off is Steam Data, least of all unless you have a metric that is something we can base performance off? I guess we could wait for 2025 Financial performance to compare the operational revenue, but for right now that is the only metric we have that is open to the public so I will cite it as such.

Endwalker
January 2022 65,565
December 2021 95,102

Dawntrail
June 2024 91,883
July 2024 91,883

To be fair. The great DT numbers could also mean that EW gave some kind of hype push.
If I had to interpret them I would say:

EW had a good start and got additional players a month later.
DT has round about the same initial players as EW had at its "peak" (is it the peak?).
To me it seems mroe people preordered for DT, roughly the amount of EW players.
The "stagnating number" also doesn't have to do with unhappy players neccesarily but could also just mean that most players did early access. The servers were really stable this time.

You sure thats not an error? The numbers are the same for both month for DT.

I'm not denying DT's intial great success mind you. I just find it interesting.

[Nothv13]

I'm not denying DT's intial great success mind you. I just find it interesting.

His July DT number is just the June DT number. SteamDB has not release peak July numbers. July first, DT was already down to 77k players, so that will be July's peak since it has only gotten lower since.

[Nasigno]

His July DT number is just the June DT number. SteamDB has not release peak July numbers. July first, DT was already down to 77k players, so that will be July's peak since it has only gotten lower since.

Apologies, will have to retract back, you are right it is hovering around 75,000 - 76,000 as the peak as of right now. Reviewing the peaks it goes up and down between 26-77K as per your statement. The statement stands, the peak drop is still smaller in Dawntrail than Endwalker. The metric is proven.

As for doubting the official statement from Square Enix? If an official stance from the company that owns the server system says it has done better than prior instances, then what statistic will you believe? So I must ask what would you consider a metric that is valid when you cannot even trust the operator of the server?

[Nothv13]

“Hello everyone, this is Naoki Yoshida, Producer and Director of FINAL FANTASY XIV,” started the developer. “I would like to thank you all for your patience and cooperation in dealing with server congestion during the early access for Dawntrail. With your support, we were able to reach a record number of concurrent users we’ve not seen since the release of A Realm Reborn in 2013.”

But beyond the official statement from Square Enix, the only reliable numbers we can go off is Steam Data, least of all unless you have a metric that is something we can base performance off? I guess we could wait for 2025 Financial performance to compare the operational revenue, but for right now that is the only metric we have that is open to the public so I will cite it as such.

Endwalker
January 2022 65,565
December 2021 95,102

Dawntrail
June 2024 91,883
July 2024 91,883

I find his statement hard to believe, because there is no way ARR had as many concurrent users as ShB or EW as it simply did not have the market penetration back then

Steam DB doesn't have Peak numbers for July yet since July is not over. The number you give is for early access which was in June. On July 1st (only two days after early access) it was 77,305, and that will likely be the peak for July as it didn't even spike up at all for release. As of yesterday, not even a month since early access, peak player count per day is down to 49,639. It took until mid January, a month and a half for EW to fall to those numbers. So no, with the numbers we have access to, DT is not out performing EW. That said, if the post expansion content is good, the DT could hold on to more longer since post expansion EW content was quite bad. However, the expansion itself is not out out performing EW.

[Oku-1]

Final Fantasy XIV is no longer at its peak and Square Enix is taking the revenue to recoup their 70% loss in profits last year. It also "promoted" Naoki Yoshida and Natsuko Ishikawa to non-FFXIV projects to fix the company. So no, "we" aren't destroying FFXIV, Square Enix is. Just like so many other companies, it cut corners in its core product to save money and please shareholders. Fortunately, every other company is also in a race to the bottom and FFXIV is a tad slower than the others in its decline, so it's still worth playing. It'll soon become apparent though that the story will fail to draw new people and players won't stay excited about the new content due to floor-tanking and being clipped by lag. It's okay to enjoy the game as-is but people need realistic expectations and not to deify the devs.

The game is some of the most fun it's ever been and is matching it's Endwalker numbers in terms of players meaning its tying for most players it's ever had, and from the looks of things it's actually losing Expansion launch-day numbers at a slower rate than Endwalker did, which means the game is, objectively speaking, the healthiest it has ever been player-wise in the history of its existence.

People can whine about their WoL being on a beach vacation and letting Wuk Lamat do her thing for the first half of Dawntrail and claim that makes the story the worst thing ever made and a bunch of culture warriors can go give Dawntrail a negative steam review filled with transphobic slurs directed at Wuk Lamat's VA all they want, in terms of actual player retention and engagement FF14 is the best it's ever been right now.

I'd say YoshiP and the team are doing just fine, and if this is the quality of content they're going to continue putting out, then I'm very excited for the future of the game.

Y'all just need to stop with this doom-prophesying. Every expansion there's another round of "IS FF14 DYING????????" threads and the game continues to thrive.