BETA TEST ROADMAP IS UP!

[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.

[Exn]

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.

Careful there.. unless your ready to show your SE employee ID card.. (Brand managment degree LOL.. come on.. be serious... and 'game writer'? yeah, you and half the gaming population.. neither lend any creditability to your argument).

That being said, I agree with the jist of your agruement. I don't think it makes alot of sense to effectively delay launch of XIV solely because you want a marketing push during E3. Though, SE would be crazy to not market XIV at E3, but you weren't claiming that. They can launch whenever the game is ready, and still do an effective marketing push at E3.

I think the hype will be pretty large for XIV during E3, as it will be SE's chance to show what thier MMO can do versus the upcoming next-gen MMOs titles. Currently XIV has been compared to what's out now and what's been out for the past decade, but if XIV is going to succeed it needs to compete with future titles only being previewed/demo'd at E3 as well.

Especially with launch being so close to E3, and the fact that we are dealing with a MMO (specifically the time investment as compared to offline titles), alot of players who are not already on the XIV bandwagon may see another MMO on the horizon they like alot more at E3. They'd be alot less inclined to pickup ARR if it doesn't shine in comparison, and just hold out for some months for whatever game actually did stand out.