BETA TEST ROADMAP IS UP!

[Xenor]

Those people are glued to the streams to hear about new and unannounced games, not about games of which they have already seen a crapton of stuff. The general response to just another trailer of a game that has been shown over and over is "meh!"

Waiting past E3 over an unspecified marketing benefit that would be basically inconsequential as the game does NOT fit E3's main target would be downright foolish and damaging. They have already started the hype train. Now they have to avoid missing it.

Rarely is anything new at E3. Most of what's going to be shown is leaked ahead of the show or expected, like the PS4 and XBox 720 announcements people are expecting. Are you suggesting they won't show the new PS4 because everyone is aware of it?

This isn't really going anywhere. If you fail to see the marketing potential of E3 then I am wasting my time.

Which is why they wrote the schedule considering a best case scenario and a worst case scenario.

Worst case scenario is the project gets cancelled. While that isn't going to happen here you can never, ever predict the worst case scenario.

This year's E3 will be more about the PS4 and Xbox 720 announcement then anything else I would suspect.

Didn't people say that last year too?

I don't think it will be in phase 1 and 2 because you are starting a new character which means you have to get to level 10 before you start the class quest (switch class quest) in the guild or how ever you unlock them and if Ul'dah and Limsa has no questlines until beta stage 3 (I am assuming just nameless npcs if you can access them at all) you can't get the class unlocked to proceed down the story to get to the job.

Speculation though no proof for or against

That doesn't mean much. Betas can be tailored to what suits the test, IE they could start everyone out with BLM already unlocked if they wanted.

[Abriael]

Rarely is anything new at E3. Most of what's going to be shown is leaked ahead of the show or expected, like the PS4 and XBox 720 announcements people are expecting. Are you suggesting they won't show the new PS4 because everyone is aware of it?

Everyone is "aware" of it. But people haven't *seen* it. There's quite a difference, you know?

This isn't really going anywhere. If you fail to see the marketing potential of E3 then I am wasting my time.

"if you don't agree with me, I'm wasting my time".

Dude. I'm a game writer. I go to E3 rather regularly. I know its "potential" probably quite a bit better than you do. And for a game like FFXIV, that has been shown over, and over and over, and that will have been in beta for quite a while, probably with its NDA already down and beta testers free to post whatever they want of it, that potential is negligible, if not zero.

It's not even nearly worth delaying a release of a game over, in fact no one does. But according to your logic all those game devs and publishers "fail to see the marketing potential". Lol.

[Starlord]

Everyone is "aware" of it. But people haven't *seen* it. There's quite a difference, you know?



"if you don't agree with me, I'm wasting my time".

Dude. I'm a game writer. I go to E3 rather regularly. I know its "potential" probably quite a bit better than you do. And for a game like FFXIV, that has been shown over, and over and over, and that will have been in beta for quite a while, probably with its NDA already down and beta testers free to post whatever they want of it, that potential is negligible, if not zero.

It's not even nearly worth delaying a release of a game over, in fact no one does. But according to your logic all those game devs and publishers "fail to see the marketing potential". Lol.

Well, if it's going to Launch between June~ Whenever, I would want them to make a Big Announcement on E3, Otherwise If it's May and Below I wouldn't.

[Abriael]

Well, if it's going to Launch between June~ Whenever, I would want them to make a Big Announcement on E3, Otherwise If it's May and Below I wouldn't.

Only, there'll be nothing to make a "big announcement" of by then.

[Starlord]

Only, there'll be nothing to make a "big announcement" of by then.

Well, aside from us and a Couple hundred thousand people ( which only so many people really went to that attraction :P) from Gamescom,How many people really truly know about FFXIV ARR? I still know a lot of people with the mindset of 2010 attitude :/. It "Wouldn't hurt" to make an E3 Announcement If and ONLY if the Release date is pushed back on or Past E3. Otherwise No.

[Abriael]

Well, aside from us and a Couple hundred thousand people ( which only so many people really went to that attraction :P) from Gamescom,How many people really truly know about FFXIV ARR? I still know a lot of people with the mindset of 2010 attitude :/. It "Wouldn't hurt" to make an E3 Announcement If and ONLY if the Release date is pushed back on or Past E3. Otherwise No.

With the NDA down? People will have seen a crapton of previews, livestreams and random footage of the game by then.

That's what happens with MMORPGs, especially big name ones. You can't "announce" A Realm Reborn. Even now, with the NDA up and all, it would not be a "big announcement". It would be just another trailer of just another game that people already saw plenty.

SE's marketing money will be MUCH better spent on commercials, ads, promotions and what not.

[Starlord]

With the NDA down? People will have seen a crapton of previews, livestreams and random footage of the game by then.

That's what happens with MMORPGs, especially big name ones.

Granted with NDA Down, How many really know and would typing into Google "FFXIV Blah Blah?" If people can't even type even FFXIV in the Search bar... I Highly doubt they will ever know about it. Word of Mouth is good.. but how far does it really get by Launch day? SE needs to do there part on the Marketing end to get the word out, and E3 would be a perfect place before Launch day to make that final big push!

That's what happens with MMORPGs, especially big name ones. You can't "announce" A Realm Reborn. Even now, with the NDA up and all, it would not be a "big announcement". It would be just another trailer of just another game that people already saw plenty.

And that's why I said, If it's Before the NDA is Lifted there would be no point, but if the NDA is Lifted and the game is not Launched by E3 then It wouldn't hurt to make the E3 Push. It's " Getting last Marketing push in before Launch".

[Babydoll]

SE's marketing money will be MUCH better spent on commercials, ads, promotions and what not.

I really hope they do this this time around. Part of the reason everyone knew about wow was because of their commercials lol everyone was talking about the mr t and chuck norris ones haha. Hope se will be smart this time and give ffxiv more commercials then they did for ffxi.

[Xenor]

Everyone is "aware" of it. But people haven't *seen* it. There's quite a difference, you know?



"if you don't agree with me, I'm wasting my time".

Dude. I'm a game writer. I go to E3 rather regularly. I know its "potential" probably quite a bit better than you do. And for a game like FFXIV, that has been shown over, and over and over, and that will have been in beta for quite a while, probably with its NDA already down and beta testers free to post whatever they want of it, that potential is negligible, if not zero.

It's not even nearly worth delaying a release of a game over, in fact no one does. But according to your logic all those game devs and publishers "fail to see the marketing potential". Lol.

So you're saying there is no marketing potential from exposing a product to hundreds of thousands of your intended audience? Companies wouldn't bother attending E3 if they did not think the exposure of their product would benefit its sales in some way. They aren't there just to drive visitors to your website.

It wouldn't be the first time a game has appeared at multiple E3s either, in fact FFXIII was at E3 2006, 2008 and 2009, a game people were already well aware of by 2009. So what exactly is wrong with SE revealing FFXIV at E3 2009 and then releasing a new trailer at E3 2013 as well as new info on upcoming exciting patches or even announcing the first expansion for 2014 along with a trailer? You can easily talk about a product people have seen while making new announcements.

And yes, I am wasting my time if you don't agree with me, just like you are with me. We're both trying to predict the future here and only time will tell who is right. Not constant "im rite ur rong" arguments on a bloody forum.

[Abriael]

So you're saying there is no marketing potential from exposing a product to hundreds of thousands of your intended audience? Companies wouldn't bother attending E3 if they did not think the exposure of their product would benefit its sales in some way. They aren't there just to drive visitors to your website.

We're not talking about *attending E3* here. We all know Square Enix is going to attend E3, as they do so every year. We're talking about delaying a game in order to launch it after E3 and missing the schedule they set on their own in the process, which is an extremely different pair of sleeves, and something that simply no one does, for a reason.

If they had the slightest intention of delaying the game past E3, they would have scheduled accordingly.

"exposing a product to hundreds of thousands of your intended audience" works only when those "hundreds of thousands" haven't already been exposed to it plenty, and with the NDA down and every gaming site writing previews, that kind of exposure will be already covered much better than E3 ever could.

Besides, they can show the game at E3 regardless of its launch, so delaying the game to fit E3 makes even less sense.

It wouldn't be the first time a game has appeared at multiple E3s either, in fact FFXIII was at E3 2006, 2008 and 2009, a game people were already well aware of by 2009. So what exactly is wrong with SE revealing FFXIV at E3 2009 and then releasing a new trailer at E3 2013 as well as new info on upcoming exciting patches or even announcing the first expansion for 2014 along with a trailer? You can easily talk about a product people have seen while making new announcements.

Final Fantasy XIII sure hasn't ever been delayed or didn't have its launch schedule adjusted to fit any event, E3 included.

You're comparing apples to escalators. One thing is bringing a game to E3, since you're going anyway and it doesn't have any added cost, one thing is *delaying* a game to wait for E3 or changing its schedule, disappointing your fans and launching after the hype train has already passed (and in the inconvenient summer window, by the way, which is much worse, marketing-wise, than spring).

Oh, and no. They aren't going to annnounce expansions a month or two after release. You're talking about science fiction.

And yes, I am wasting my time if you don't agree with me, just like you are with me. We're both trying to predict the future here and only time will tell who is right. Not constant "im rite ur rong" arguments on a bloody forum.

No. I'm not trying to predict the future. I know that it won't happen, because I know that your idea has no marketing utility, just as much as anyone at Square Enix knows, because they're professionals and know this market, and know exactly what fits E3 and what doesn't. Besides having worked around the industry for 15 years, a degree in brand management tells me that. There's no predicting the future needed to identify a bad idea based on lacking the necessary knowledge of the market and of marketing itself and on overestimating massively the influence of E3 on games that simply don't fit its target.

If the game is going to launch in june, it won't have anything to do with E3, but simply with the fact that they'll need that development time.