Subscription should be to improve FF, not just make other games.

[Kozh]

Why do other Japanese developers not appear to be having the same issue?

Are they trying to recruit from overseas though? Objectively language barrier is a thing, especially for country like Japan. Even if you want to do low labour job there, you are required to have at least jlpt lvl 3 (iirc).

[AvoSturmfaust]

Why do other Japanese developers not appear to be having the same issue?

Only because other Developers have no issues doesnt mean Square isnt allowed to have them, im not defending Square but do you now the requirements? Maybe they want experienced People? Need to speak flawless Japanese?
Maybe the other Studios are taking Newcomers, while Square expect Experience?

There are so many things which can have a impact

[Stasya]

This is actually my first FF game, I'm curious as to what the tell is and goofy about it ?

Unironically it's my first ff game and probably last. Also, because of ff14 devs i deeply hate every other ff games old or new or upcoming.

Such a silly concept to burn money on side projects and complain about additional cost.

[PercibelTheren]

Cost meant "development cost", not "financial cost". Which is another way of saying Yoshi-P didn't put it in the development roadmap and that it was a management/decision issue. Obviously SE has plenty of funds, they are even hiring.

Well, then they should be because the FFXIV team is constantly complaining about lack of manpower. Unless that's just an excuse.

[PercibelTheren]

Don't get them started on the difficulties of hiring again please... Nobody will make me believe that it's hard to recruit in video games, out of all things.

If they were willing to hire from overseas, they could easily nab tons of incredibly skilled talent considering the recent layoffs and closures in a ton of game studios. There's no way a lot of game devs and artists wouldn't jump at the chance to work for a studio as legendary as Square Enix. Hell, while we're at it, hire some community management staff that will actually interact with the playerbase. That alone would buy so much goodwill.

Sure, the language barrier is something to consider but it could be worked around and, I believe, ultimately worth it.

[0blivion]

As I said in another thread, I personally just think they're desperate to have the GP care about other Final Fantasy titles again, which they don't. Sorry, but remaking the same games 20 times won't suddenly bring you back to the glory days. Its like naughty dog with Last of Us all over again. They'll literally do anything-ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!! to relive the high from when their biggest hit came out the first time. Literally chasing the dragon at the cost of everything else. Yeah yeah, funnel xiv money into other final fantasy titles-fine. But at least put SOME of it back into xiv. SOME!! It should not be too much to ask for.

Because again, reality is guess what. If these other games of theirs were so good? They wouldnt need XIV's money, now would they.
None of the income from these other games appears to be going into XIV, so if XIV cant get XIVs money, and it cant get money from anything else either, then whats the plan!! I'm not getting it. and yes I'm still salty that they cancelled the little Kingdom Hearts mobile game-because what are we even doing at this point. I pay for FFXIV and they ignore it, and then I pay for KH and they ignore that too, and then show me Cloud brooding for the billionth time. Being a KH and FFXIV fan is just pure suffering lmfao.

I feel this on a spiritual level. Please be my friend. This is genuinely the issue. They killed 2 KH games to announce 2 FFVII games, one of which failed already, the other of which has one (1) benefit and it's young Sephiroth thirstbait. Then they made FFXVI which, sure, but it didn't do particularly well now, did it? I like FFVII as much as the next guy, but the way the funds get funneled away is kind of ridiculous. SE has made FF games that were good and had a dedicated following without any sort of budget before. FFX-2 with its godtier job system, FFXIII-2 with its "we only put budget into the OST lol". Meanwhile, FFVIIR has more budget than FFXV and FFXVI combined, but nothing is getting done.

e/: Regarding the hiring process, an anecdote from my European friend: To work for SE EU, you need to be willing to relocate to London. You can work remotely part of your week, but they want you in the office at least half the time. This silly restriction is a symptom of how antiquated they can be.

[Rinoa_353]

I agree, they should give the FFXIV dev team at least 30 percent more budget so they can hire more devs, they really need it. SE needs to stop creating junk no one wants as the majority of them fail.

[Fatch38]

I agree, they should give the FFXIV dev team at least 30 percent more budget so they can hire more devs, they really need it. SE needs to stop creating junk no one wants as the majority of them fail.

just FYI, CBU already has around 300 devs (and devs not writers etc) while whole SE is around 5000. it's not about manpower/money, it's only a matter of talent and good leader here. Yoshida is clearly the most overrated director in the video game industry, ppl always praise him for ARR but they never look at all the bad decisions in the last 10 years.

falcolm as a whole is something around 60 devs and yet they release games every years (not AAA but AA games with some really fresh idea and good gameplay, substance over fluff/visual).

heard of clair obscure ? 30 devs from france and 8 from korea to make a (really good) game.

we can bring many more example. you could double the devs of CBU3 and you will totally see the same sh*t over and over.

[hunter2]

I guarantee you that if they doubled the salary they offer, they would have no hiring issues; at the end of the day it's all about finances.

The simple reality is that Square Enix does not re-invest XIV profits in XIV. Their strategy is not to improve and grow the game - their strategy is to ride the game's popularity for as long as possible and milk you for subscription money while letting it slowly die.

[Kozh]

Cost meant "development cost", not "financial cost". Which is another way of saying Yoshi-P didn't put it in the development roadmap and that it was a management/decision issue. Obviously SE has plenty of funds, they are even hiring.

Not disagreeing with you, but in this case wouldn't it be more appropriate to call it mismanage?

Still, personally I think it's both when it comes to SE. FF14 isn't the first and only game that's treated like cash cow. It's probably just more noticeable since it's an ongoing game that's been running for 10 years. SE is notorious for pulling resources and devs from one project to help with the other more urgent project, or to assign multiple project to a director/team.
I suspect CBU3 was exempted from this at the beginning, and their first multi projects is ff16 (which was developed for a long time). Now they probably assign cbu3 more projects (FFT remake and potentially FF9 remake), which obviously impact ff14 as well.