2.0 is promising too much!!

[Rutelor]

[...] Also that 3 years is what it made to build the vanila FFXIV with all its flaws [...]

I believe it was at least twice that much time, probably more. It was widely known that SE was working on project Rapture as far back as early 2006. The first nameless Technical Demo Video, with a city eerily reminiscent of all three current ones, Gridania (the stained glass), Uldah (the architectural shapes), and Limsa (the multi-leveled cat-walk-over-harbor plan), was presented in May, 2005 at E3. (I also hope the dragons hovering over the lake are a promise of things to come, once Ishgard becomes accessible.)

So, from first video to launch, it took almost 7 years.

Taking into account that this sort of a project usually has a bit over a year under its wings when it's first aired, some experts have calculated 8 years, by mid-2012 (wish I could find the quotation for the latter. Apologies about that).

R

[Elexia]

I believe it was at least twice that much time, probably more. It was widely known that SE was working on project Rapture as far back as early 2006.

Actually, XIV didn't go into actual production till around 2007, when they pulled the XI crew to focus on it. This is why WoTG expansion took over 3 years for them to finish it. Zilart, CoP and ToAU didn't take 3 years for them to finish, even the conclusion mission between Zilart and CoP (Apocalypse Neigh) came out fairly quickly.

The technical demo was just that, a technical demo or we'd have a PS3 version of FFVII if we're using tech demos as a basis on when something goes into production.