Now that the game is officially on its deathbed, what are your thoughts?

[TeresaFortell]

I think that the SE team is blatently not wanting to make this game keep on running and an insane neglect of the actual player base.

You get really bad content for majority of the player base and what little that could had been good is reserved for the 1 to 5%.

Look entirely AWAY FROM MSQ... because that content is basically a one time thing ( if you like or not is not relevant to the over all problem(s) ) anyway as it is, I am speaking about the actual content to this game and it is the 100% pf the the player base being ignored, with the Savaga/ultimate mainly people getting a few additional scraps.

The MSQ may look like a one-time thing, but it has a tremendous impact on player retention. A good story would have kept the players' interest and would have made them more inclined to engage with the other content on patch releases. If they were unable to capture players during the expansion release, then they would not be able to attract any players on post-MSQ patches.

[DynnDiablos]

There really isn't much left to say at this point. The game will continue on, a shambling corpse of what it once was. I think we will see Yoshi P. and the dev team double down on the harder content, focusing on the players who are still left and continuing to engage while the casual playerbase continues to fall by the wayside.

I have ZERO expectations this game lasts until 10.0 (at least not in its current form). I personally, think 8.0 will be the final true expansion if the trajectory continues as it is. I think we then see a shift to FFXI-type content- smaller story updates/patch cycles, as it goes into maintenance mode. The game will truly never die, but the cost/reward is dwindling.

I play for the story/world. So, if 8.0 is as much of a disappointment as Dawntrail was, I think for me it will be time to hang up my Warrior of Light mantle for good.

[All_Nonsense]

I have ZERO expectations this game lasts until 10.0 (at least not in its current form). I personally, think 8.0 will be the final true expansion if the trajectory continues as it is. I think we then see a shift to FFXI-type content- smaller story updates/patch cycles, as it goes into maintenance mode. The game will truly never die, but the cost/reward is dwindling.

A year ago I could never humor that idea, but something about the way they've been developing everything and handling feedback tells me that it's quite possible they've already made a decision to begin a modified release schedule after the 8.0 drop. All I know is whatever major changes come in 8.0, it's going to likely be their last chance to get the game back on the rails. I don't think players will have the patience for another expac like this

[Kaurhz]

I wouldn't say it's on its deathbed, even if I think things are not good at all right now, that being said...

I don't really expect the the game to be successful for the full 10 year plan... If numbers keep dropping, they will only end up investing less I think, which will just cascade, and even if they do invest more, I don't think it will amount to much, seeing as they seem to have a severe communication and logistical issue where 1 team doesn't know what the other is doing, either by incompetence or lack of communication, and neither I don't think are resolved with more investment, but rather just exacerbated.

[CidHeiral]

We're dying again? Update the thread!

[Altina_Orion]

"On its deathbed" is a bit disingenuous, but I'm definitely not happy with the state of the game. FFXI is far smaller and still not "on its deathbed"

[LaylaTsarra]

We're dying again? Update the thread!

A real forum died a long time ago. Carry On!

[Mawlzy]

A year ago I could never humor that idea, but something about the way they've been developing everything and handling feedback tells me that it's quite possible they've already made a decision to begin a modified release schedule after the 8.0 drop. All I know is whatever major changes come in 8.0, it's going to likely be their last chance to get the game back on the rails. I don't think players will have the patience for another expac like this

I'd suggest there's a lot of evidence that SE is essentially moving on from FFXIV. A director/producer with multiple responsibilities, devs moved to other projects, and content hamstrung because "resources" are being used elsewhere.

I imagine there will be a 9.0, but I doubt many here will still be subscribed to see it.

[Jeeqbit]

The iron bell is tolling as the cash shop is inundated with mid-tier or old outfits for $40

All I can say about that is some very questionable decisions are being made somewhere with the mog station. Maybe their thought process is "we can sell gil vendor gear for $40 and someone will still buy it haha" but that's just not good business and an easy way to tank reputation. If you're going to sell something for $40 it should actually be worth the price. It would be like selling a small bar of chocolate for $40. It wouldn't look good for that brand now would it?

Hardcore raiders have been shafted with the cancellation of Ultimate and no new raid content until January.

The one set of players that has not been shafted at all in Dawntrail is "hardcore raiders". I'm sorry, but if this isn't enough then they'll just need to actually try a different game for once: 12 savages, 7 extremes, 2 ultimates, 3 criterions, 1 chaotic, 2 large-scale field op raids, 1 raid boss at the end of the new deep dungeon, who knows what else at this point since 4 of these were not strictly announced at fanfest.

Mid-core players have been shafted with the "Chaotic" raid that body-checks (SE doesn't know how to make content "hard" aside from punishing a lack of perfection), and now with the Field Operation raid that body checks with 48 players (they forgot what made Baldesion Arsenal and Bozja good). They're re-releasing Palace of the Dead for the 4th time, and Variant/Criterion dungeons - which they promised more of, are nowhere to be found. Everyone already knows the new Blu content is going to be "beat Pandemonium raids lol" and only 500 people will ever do it. The Beast Master content is going to be a bad copy-paste of Blu since that's what everything else in the game is.

Not wrong about any of that though.

The devs got mad at us during the last live letter

They didn't actually and have apologized for various things. They've agreed there were lots of issues with the development process and QA.

ignoring a quarter century of QoL improvements and content preference changes that have occurred in the gaming industry since they made their last generational hit (it was Dragon Quest 3 or something like that).

Yes, what is clear is they don't put any development focus on anything except the upcoming patch/expansion, with rare and specific exceptions such as the graphics update or side dungeon revamp.

[MoofiaBossVal]

My hope is that like with the Heavensward through Endwalker expansions, Yoshida waited for Dawntrail's release and saw what the reception was before doing his usual thing of going into a hotel conference room with the writers and creating the next expansion. Clearly the English localization lead Kate is damming the English players' thoughts from reaching him, but almost all of those complaints are being spoken on the Japanese side, and from what I have read on bbs.nga.cn, on the Chinese side too. By this point he can't play dumb anymore. By the time of 8.0's reveal, it will have been 6 years since ShB's release and the fallout from that. Either he does what the customers want, or he won't and will continue playing dumb as to how the customers have been feeling and giving us empty promises. Giving how Yoshida has behaved for the past six years (also: observe FF16, a game that was able to make from scratch, and yet was plagued by the same damning philosophies that plague FF14), it will more than likely continue to be business as usual. Both the story and the gameplay will not get better, the time between patches will grow even longer, you will get less bang for your buck, the milking will escalate, and Yoshida will pretend to be baffled by player criticisms or pretend that the story is great or pretend that he is listening to people. "Please look forward to it".

The game will likely continue for at least another decade. Square's leaders continue to be disastrously incompetent, with no new flagship numbered Final Fantasy game in the works, KH4 is still years out, the higherups lamenting that they didn't make Genshin when they have done all they can to stifle the possibility of such a hit game happening, etc. FF14 will be the one project they keep running as Square carnivorously gobbles up more and more studios to liquidate them. And Jeeqbait will still be here to reply to every post and tell us how everything is fine and that we are just burned out haters and should unsub.