Will FFXIV : AAR reach 1 million subscribers in less than One year?!!!?

[Saieno]

1 - It works on low end computers. I can almost promise that game will run on anything made within the last 2 years without any trouble. I have friends who cant play FFXIV simple because it requires such a powerful machine to play on.

If you've been following the Gamecom interviews then you know that A Realm Reborn runs with Onboard video. The system requirements will be drastically lower from FFXIV as they are moving to a new engine.

2 - No region servers. The game allows you to play with your friends from around the world without splitting you up. Believe it or not that will be a huge factor come 2.0.

You are able to play with your friends from around the world in A Realm Reborn, they just have regional data-centers. Once Square-Enix updates their servers and netcode latency will not be as big of a factor as it is in Final Fantasy XIV. Play on whatever server you want, but there is nothing wrong with letting the player know where the data-center is located. Believe it or not people are capable of making their own decisions, so if you're that worried just tell your friends what server to play on.

3 - Content. Right now FFXI has so much content in it you can do solo, duo, small party, big party, alliance. You can literally log in and pick what you want to do everyday and never do the same thing twice. You can play alone if you have an hour or stop in Jeuno and pick up a voidwatch party in 10 mins.

And EverQuest has 19 expansions with enough content to encompass Final Fantasy XI at least three times, not to mention its free to play. The point isn't the amount of content, Final Fantasy XI is just a good game with a great close-nit community. The friends I've made in FFXI are still my closest friends nearly a decade later; no other MMO has done that for me.

6 - Current playerbase. I can log into my server anytime of the day and see anywhere from 1.5-3k players online. I dont think FFXIV will reach that number within the first year, not on a consistent basis.

So with those numbers you're looking at between 50,000 to 150,000 subscribers, which isn't bad for a 10 year old game. However, Final Fantasy XIV is probably sitting around 40,000 to 80,000 which puts it in the realm of EvE Online numbers. That isn't bad for a 'shitty failed' MMO right? Based on the reactions to the latest A Realm Reborn details around the web, people are excited to play and can't wait.

Bottom line, FFXIV wont appeal to the large casual gaming market. Questing to exp? Sounds good until we are told each level requires a party of 4-8 to progress. Splitting us up regionally? Already a nightmare. They are too concerned with getting new players and making them happy (ex: Gil value change) instead of keeping the loyal people happy.

Your bottom line is so skewed, I haven't seen one argument support these claims but you're free to think whatever you want. I disagree with you and believe FFXIV will appeal to a VERY wide range of players, and has the potential to pull players from other MMOs very easily. Supporting a wider range of hardware specifications, and releasing on PlayStation 3 just by itself will grow the population tenfold. This regional database issue is getting blown out of proportion, and your final argument on gil reduction being done to cater to new players makes absolutely no sense.

I am trying to stay optimistic but honestly if they dont start really getting a buzz going about ARR outside of the already playing crowd its not going to take off.

You aren't optimistic at all, which is fine just don't say that you're trying to be when you're making baseless claims. People who aren't playing right now are excited for A Realm Reborn, I know tons of people who can't wait to get their hands on it.

FFXIV was/is a disappointment in that it still handles like FFXI and was made in 2010.

I am pretty sure that was the intention at the time, make it feel as FFXI like as possible so existing players don't feel alienated. That's also why they carried over the style of the races as well.

But the fact it's such a newer MMO and sucked worse than much older MMOs is just embarrassing, given the fact they have FFXI as a base reference.. total embarrassment.
Shouldnt have to compare a NEW MMO to an older one and saying "it'll be better"....

Newer MMOs are usually the biggest disappointments in this post-World of Warcraft world. You have to remember that Final Fantasy XI came out before World of Warcraft and really streamlined a lot of the systems we were used to in MMOs. For all intents and purposes, Final Fantasy XI was the World of Warcraft of its time. Now the problem is how do you make an MMO thats not like World of Warcraft but is successful like World of Warcraft? What made World of Warcraft successful was the smooth gameplay, tight controls, one of the best UI designs, and instant gratification.

Guild Wars 2 is the natural evolution of what World of Warcraft started, and for me personally its the most casual game I have ever experienced. Neiloch and I were talking about it one day, and he said "Guild Wars 2 is like the Little League of MMOs. Everyone's a winner, everyone gets a trophy! To participate all you need to do is show up!" And he's right. I like games with more depth than a kiddie pool, I still look back on classic Everquest 2, Dark Age of Camelot, Vanguard Saga of Heroes, and Final Fantasy XI remembering the depth that each contained.

Final Fantasy XIV has depth too, it's a little disjointed at the moment because the new design team haven't fully made it theirs yet. However, there is depth there that is subtle and unique in its own way, and hopefully A Realm Reborn will retain that.

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TL;DR - A Realm Reborn will do just fine....

[Delsus]

Youre just arguing definitions. Which is fun and all, i suppose...

But obviously there's some merit to people saying "WoW clone" when Yoshi explicitly stated they used WoW as a "Standard" upon which to clone all their features. So while it might not be a direct photocopy, it's still heavily inspired (and in fact soley inspired) by WoW.

Most MMOs today are moving a little bit away from that type of structure. Be it quest structure, quest structure, etc., (for example, TERA, Blade and Soul, or GW2), they all make a huge departure from the "standard" set by WoW. The reason for this is because players want more from a next-generation game. And besides slightly-downgraded version 1.0 graphics, FFXIV 2.0 does not appear to really provide anything ground-baking or innovative, or... interesting I guess.

The fact is a clone is something exactly the same as another, not something that vaguely resembles something else, Zelda has things seen in WoW, in fact a lot of things but it is not a MMO, does that make Zelda a WoW clone... Oh wait Zelda used these things before WoW. Yes some things that work well in WoW are coming over but that doesn't make it a WoW clone.

If you have been watching the forums for the past 2 years, you will know anything that gets added makes the game a xxx clone, adding auto attack FFXI clone, adding jump WoW clone, adding instanced raids WoW clone, it happens all the time. now 1 million+ subscribers would make it a WoW clone.

[Scardon]

Guild Wars 2 is the natural evolution of what World of Warcraft started, and for me personally its the most casual game I have ever experienced. Neiloch and I were talking about it one day, and he said "Guild Wars 2 is like the Little League of MMOs. Everyone's a winner, everyone gets a trophy! To participate all you need to do is show up!" And he's right. I like games with more depth than a kiddie pool, I still look back on classic Everquest 2, Dark Age of Camelot, Vanguard Saga of Heroes, and Final Fantasy XI remembering the depth that each contained.

If AAR doesn't appeal to this new ultra-casuals that seem to be spawning and loving GW2 you won't see me complaining. Matter of fact I would say it's one of it's top features if it ends up being true.

[Anakhu]

Nope, won't happen.. Has anyone looked at the stocks on SE over the last year.. it's not looking healthy.. many already gave up on this in 2010 as a failure.. it will be hard to bring it back from the ashes into a bright fiery pheonix it was supposed to be.

[Anakhu]

Saino says: However, Final Fantasy XIV is probably sitting around 40,000 to 80,000 which puts it in the realm of EvE Online numbers. That isn't bad for a 'shitty failed' MMO right? Based on the reactions to the latest A Realm Reborn details around the web, people are excited to play and can't wait.

sorry quote was just to darn big and I suck at editing out quotes and making them still quote lol... But as a long time eve player.. your numbers are wrong on a good day there is 50k+ people on the single server at one time.. Eve has over 400k subscriptions today. And it is a game that is far out of most peoples mind to ever want to play. SE can never be a CCP

[bobbygunz]

The fact is a clone is something exactly the same as another, not something that vaguely resembles something else, Zelda has things seen in WoW, in fact a lot of things but it is not a MMO, does that make Zelda a WoW clone... Oh wait Zelda used these things before WoW. Yes some things that work well in WoW are coming over but that doesn't make it a WoW clone.

If you have been watching the forums for the past 2 years, you will know anything that gets added makes the game a xxx clone, adding auto attack FFXI clone, adding jump WoW clone, adding instanced raids WoW clone, it happens all the time. now 1 million+ subscribers would make it a WoW clone.

Wow, it's metaphorical, get over it.

Everyone knows what "clone" actually means. "WoW Clone" is a metaphorical phrase that implies it's so-much-like-WoW-it's-almost-but-NOT-LITERALLY-a-clone.

Don't be so literal, jeesh.

[Saieno]

But as a long time eve player.. your numbers are wrong on a good day there is 50k+ people on the single server at one time.. Eve has over 400k subscriptions today. And it is a game that is far out of most peoples mind to ever want to play. SE can never be a CCP

I don't believe I was talking about subscriptions, I was literally talking about number of concurrent players who log in and are playing a month. I know lots of people who sub to EvE Online and don't play at all. One of my friends is still training for his Titan and hasn't logged in for 6 months.

[ChiefCurrahee]

Nope, won't happen.. Has anyone looked at the stocks on SE over the last year.. it's not looking healthy.. many already gave up on this in 2010 as a failure.. it will be hard to bring it back from the ashes into a bright fiery pheonix it was supposed to be.

what does SE stocks have anything to do with FFXIV? Is SE's flagship game FFXIV, is it a MMO? SE is a developer and a publisher. They are like the EA of Japan.

So again tell me SE's stock prices are any indication of how successful XIV will be?

[Anakhu]

I don't believe I was talking about subscriptions, I was literally talking about number of concurrent players who log in and are playing a month. I know lots of people who sub to EvE Online and don't play at all. One of my friends is still training for his Titan and hasn't logged in for 6 months.

ah, my bad for the misunderstanding.. your high end number is about right then I would say, 80k active players excluding their alts log in atleast once a week. Your friend with the titan skills training not playing but paying a sub sounds odd to me lol, is he training it to sell the character it and it's one of his alts or something? wait, wut.. i'm derailing the crap out of this topic hahaha.. nvm don't answer

[Anakhu]

what does SE stocks have anything to do with FFXIV? Is SE's flagship game FFXIV, is it a MMO? SE is a developer and a publisher. They are like the EA of Japan.

So again tell me SE's stock prices are any indication of how successful XIV will be?

lets see here then... upon initial release of ff14 stocks climbed with the excitement it was generating.. bringing it to a high of 1900 a share... in less then a month, it had so much hate on it that thier stocks dropped by almost 200... eventually they climbed back up, i'm guessing because it was free for awhile , they scrapped the old dev team..was working toward something grander blah blah blah so investor interest was back. Then SE begins charging and changing things around, making big announcements that investors really didnt feel friendly towards " yo big game selling stores, throw away all your old copies of ff14" we are making it all over again.. this is a make or break desicion, for reals.. so now thier stock is at a low of 1200 a share because of the fear of what this could do to them.. I know they work in 3 different fields and are not just final fantasy mmo only... But it is a HUGE HUGE part of them.. remember why final fantasy was created, hrmm?


So this would indicate to me that not many people will be willing to buy into this game again and get disapointed all over, hell I may be completely wrong and this blows up to be a huge hit.. but I really don't see it.. tbh I see maybe a peak of 125k, which really isnt that bad at all but it isnt a million people either