New Letter from the Producer, XII

[Spellbinder]

so the way you see it is that casual gamers cant afford high end PC? Fathers and Mothers and students cant afford a 1000.00 PC? You sir are ignorant. I have maybe 5-6 people in my LS alone who are older and have a casual schedule and own a better PC than I do. They bought it specifically for this game.

Lets not also forget the PS3 which is surely a large chunk of the Japanese consumer base. If I'm not mistaken Japanese prefer consoles over PC's correct? PS3 sounds fairly casual after a hard day of overtime as a salary man.... if you get to come home that day.

[Richard]

Lets not also forget the PS3 which is surely a large chunk of the Japanese consumer base. If I'm not mistaken Japanese prefer consoles over PC's correct? PS3 sounds fairly casual after a hard day of overtime as a salary man.... if you get to come home that day.

You'd be surprised. Japanese Console gamers are pretty hardcore when it comes to their MMOs

[Spellbinder]

You'd be surprised. Japanese Console gamers are pretty hardcore when it comes to their MMOs

This is true. Just goes to show there's an untapped market there, and hopefully FFXIV is up to snuff to get a piece of that market.

[Elexia]

Where do they think their casual audience is supposed to come from?

According to their own poll most players are XI players or FF players. All FF games are 30-60hrs of gameplay, not that casual.

Eternal Sonata was 32 hours max and excluding the ending section of an OPTIONAL dungeon, it was as casual as it gets. I think a lot of people (including you) don't know what casual mean.

XIV requires absolutely state-of the art PC to run at reasonable frame rates. How do these aspects reach an average casual player again?

Poor Optimization. A lot of casual gamers have a pretty good setup for their PS3/360 including a decent HDTV and sound system.

[Richard]

This is true. Just goes to show there's an untapped market there, and hopefully FFXIV is up to snuff to get a piece of that market.

Yup. This quote really speaks volumes about their goals:

PS3版の発売こそが起死回生の"最終タイミング"だと思っている。
そこに向けて想像を超えるぐらいガラッと変えようと準備しているものがある。
They treat the relaunch of PS3 version as the "final chance".
They are prepaing to deliver huge changes over our expection.

[Anty]

From a purely marketing standpoint SQEX can't survive in that niche anymore. XI survived 7 years of it and then finally went the way of the casual gamer because that is where the money is.

i have to disagree, since the games who keep failing all over again, are exactly the same games, without unique ideas, the easy-mode wow clones (who are usually far worse then wow in the end).

A niche in this HUGE market doesn't have to be 300k players (even though ffxiv won't probably see the 300k ever) max.
It can have millions of players. There is a shit load of players out there.
If the same recipe about wow cloning would work out so well, there would be a lot of 1 mio+ subscription based mmos out now, A LOT. But there aren't.

FFXI has a niche but it was too limited and well its just old now. But it did damn well compared to most other mmos, and it was a niche game.

People are tired of the same old concepts. no matter if its the pure grind or the mindless solo quest- click- go there- click - reward system.
People won't stay with an mmo like this for long. F2P might work for these games but not a monthly subscription.

And SE is way too slow to roll out all these fast-paced content updates that are needed to please the easy-mode masses. But well, some people just keep thinking that a niche has to be small. In this big market it can mean millions of players.

A lot of very successeful games of the last years didnt try be all average. And it payed out very well. The market doesnt need more of the same games.

[Richard]

i have to disagree, since the games who keep failing all over again, are exactly the same games, without unique ideas, the easy-mode wow clones (who are usually far worse then wow in the end).

A niche in this HUGE market doesn't have to be 300k players (even though ffxiv won't probably see the 300k ever) max.
It can have millions of players. There is a shit load of players out there.
If the same recipe about wow cloning would work out so well, there would be a lot of 1 mio+ subscription based mmos out now, A LOT. But there aren't.

FFXI has a niche but it was too limited and well its just old now. But it did damn well compared to most other mmos, and it was a niche game.

People are tired of the same old concepts. no matter if its the pure grind or the mindless solo quest- click- go there- click - reward system.
People won't stay with an mmo like this for long. F2P might work for these games but not a monthly subscription.

And SE is way too slow to roll out all these fast-paced content updates that are needed to please the easy-mode masses. But well, some people just keep thinking that a niche has to be small. In this big market it can mean millions of players.

A lot of very successeful games of the last years didnt try be all average. And it payed out very well. The market doesnt need more of the same games.

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[Wolfie]

i have to disagree, since the games who keep failing all over again, are exactly the same games, without unique ideas, the easy-mode wow clones (who are usually far worse then wow in the end).

The games that keep failing are ones with little content, poor developer practices, unresponsive community reps, tons of bugs, boring or otherwise uninteresting world and lore, etc.

RIFT is a WOW clone through and through and it's doing VERY well. So there goes your whole argument.

[Seif]

so the way you see it is that casual gamers cant afford high end PC? Fathers and Mothers and students cant afford a 1000.00 PC? You sir are ignorant. I have maybe 5-6 people in my LS alone who are older and have a casual schedule and own a better PC than I do. They bought it specifically for this game.

lol, way to back up my example there...

[Anty]

...I think a lot of people (including you) don't know what casual mean.

to me it seems as causal = easy mode in mmos. the comment about having the mobile in one hand and a drink in the other and well.. have perhaps "a bot" playing?... well i dunno. that's not what i expect of an mmo or any other game.

No matter if you call it casual or not. I know a lot of "casual" gamers but the time they have they wanna have a challenge. Why can't we get that? i don't think people are gonna play to get bored or press one button while playing a free handy game which offers more challenge?...

Im all for hard content that doesnt mean grinding forever but... i don't wanna play a game that is so easy or mindless that i can play or even have to play (so i dont fall asleep) a mobile game in my other hand ...