Whats the new Dev teams time limit?

[Zanfire]

I wanted to know what the stakes are for the dev teams:

1) How long are the big guys up stairs giving you to turn this game around before they want to start charging? When would you want to if there is none?

2) what kind of limits are holding you back (team size, budget restrictions)

3) Would they let this game get shut down if its not doing well soon?

After i saw the thing about another MMO coming and that they wanted to have "2-3" big MMOs running, it made me question how much the big guys are willing to spend (time/money) on this game.

id seriously like to hear what the devs thoughts are with some solid answers. Im sure other players would too, because right now, this MMO not doing well and other BIG games on the way, its hard to stay tuned to a game thats still barely on its feet after 8-9 moths of constant patches.

[syntaxlies]

by the time they have this game good the other mmos will be launching their first expansion packs.

[Sepix]

They wont shut it down ... never.
The reason for it is simple ... it has a main number. If FINAL FANTASY XIV dies you can be sure it is the end of the series. It just doesnt look good if a main numbered title dies.

[quantumsaint]

1. We're not thinking about charging at this time. Right now, we just want to make the game as good as possible.

2. Due to the server-side interface, many things that should be easy are proving more difficult than anticipated. After some restructuring, it should be a lot easier to implement many of the features that everyone is asking for now.

3. Because FFXIV is built off the profits of FFXI, and not backed by investors in the traditional game design sense, there is no danger of FFXIV going offline for the foreseeable future.

Super paraphrasing Yoshi-P here, but he pretty much has addressed all of those issues in interviews. S-E predicted most of their revenue moving toward being based online. They will throw money at this until it is profitable.

[Zanfire]

by the time they have this game good the other mmos will be launching their first expansion packs.

with the amount thats been done and the fact that they made it seem like they were putting everything they had into making this game work, i just dont get whats going on. would be nice to hear some straight up facts as to whats really going on.

[Zanfire]

They wont shut it down ... never.
The reason for it is simple ... it has a main number. If FINAL FANTASY XIV dies you can be sure it is the end of the series. It just doesnt look good if a main numbered title dies.

Are you really that sure? I dont think the # means they will loose money on the game for prides sake, they are a business first and foremost.

[Sepix]

Are you really that sure? I dont think the # means they will loose money on the game for prides sake, they are a business first and foremost.

Yeah i am sure. Because they want to keep the name FINAL FANTASY for future profit. They would loose more money in the future for scrapping it than holding it alive on the bare minimum. How many profitable games have they actually released that they made themselfes (not published) that did not have the name FINAL FANTASY on it in some way?

[Zanfire]

1. We're not thinking about charging at this time. Right now, we just want to make the game as good as possible.

2. Due to the server-side interface, many things that should be easy are proving more difficult than anticipated. After some restructuring, it should be a lot easier to implement many of the features that everyone is asking for now.

3. Because FFXIV is built off the profits of FFXI, and not backed by investors in the traditional game design sense, there is no danger of FFXIV going offline for the foreseeable future.

Super paraphrasing Yoshi-P here, but he pretty much has addressed all of those issues in interviews. S-E predicted most of their revenue moving toward being based online. They will throw money at this until it is profitable.

I know they said these things before, but they are all pretty blank statements.

1)They clearly need to charge sometime soon, their money is not infinite...and at some point they will realize its not going to make them money (if it comes to that, which it can)

2) that excuse is old, and if its still whats slowing them down, they are doing a poor job doing their jobs.

3)again same as #1, they are a business and wont want to throw all of FFXI's profits down the toilet, nor will FFXI be making buckets of money for too much longer, its getting old and with the lack of expansions/add-pack and PS2 limits, it will only be around for so long.

[Xatsh]

No one outside of Square can answer this and I highly doubt they will. Here are some recent statements from Wada who would probably be in control of making that call.

According to Wada most recent press releases and Financial Report. (all of these can be found at Square Enix investor relations)

- FFXIV will take some more time before it is ready but we believe it is on track. (Press Release before the financial statements)

- Repairing and restoring faith in the current released mmos. (Recent primary goal of the 2010 Financial Report for the next year)

- We will not put more money into mmos titles until the current ones become profitable (Press Release)


From Yoshida's Interview.

-PS3 release will be considered FFXIV's last chance.


So atm it seems they are going to continue to back it until PS3, if that fails the game will probably be scraped.


And despite what people want to hear, we demanded a drastic change in the game's fundamental elements and we got a new development team. IF tanka was still here we would of had more major content patchs... the whole company system, and co-op building thing they showed was scheduled for the march massive content update... which was scrapped with Yoshida.

So yes the game has been out about year, but atm it has only been in development for ~6 1/2 months with 1/2 a month involving the earthquake disaster. And they had to rewrite the core mechanics of the game and redesign the whole games focus.

So in the end it will take SE time to basically remake the game. Chances are GW2, Tera, TOR will be out before this game truly gets to the point it will shine. IN the end if you want to play a FF game play this, if not play one of the other games.

This game will never hit the million sub mark most likely, it will never be considered a Massive success, it will never be the "WoW killer" In the end play it if you like it, quit if you don't.

[Zanfire]

Yeah i am sure. Because they want to keep the name FINAL FANTASY for future profit. They would loose more money in the future for scrapping it than holding it alive on the bare minimum. How many profitable games have they actually released that they made themselfes (not published) that did not have the name FINAL FANTASY on it in some way?

Not many, but loosing 1 FF name will not suddenly get people to stop buying their games, especially if they make more that are still big hits...after this many games and years, they have a fanbase that will buy almost anything with the name in it.

Also FFXI wont be around forever, liek every MMO it will one day shut down, so that alone says your incorrect.