Thread: The Current Status of FFXIV Patch 3.1 and How to Address it Moving Forward

Originally Posted by Ibi

Given that it's only ever provided, at most, four challenging fights per six months, it's always been a "midcore" game.

We've had more than that a couple of times, if you consider Ifrit/Gardua/Titan EX to be challenging fights, and if you include both SCOB and SCOB (Savage). But those times have been comparably rare (and no longer seem to be part of the established formula), so yes, the truth is that FFXIV has largely always been a midcore game.

And that makes business sense. Hardcore players are always the smallest portion of the population, but their content requires some of the most investment in terms of development time and other resources to create. Focusing primarily on them would end up being pretty problematic.

The "common wisdom" that MMOs should cater to the hardcore players first doesn't seem to be rooted in anything concrete; it's more of an ideological preference than a demonstrably superior business model.