A similar MMO undergoing a "FFXIV" phase?

[Bahn]

Something a friend (who's tried to play FFXIV in the first few months but got burned by it, as many people have) sent to me, that gave me a "hey, this looks familiar" vibe to it:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011...e-monthly-fee/

Anyone played this before? The article seems to show that this MMO is going through similar things as FFXIV, and now they're going free to play until the game meets up to their expectations. How did it start off? Where is it going?

"Jitters/stutters/poor performance" seems to properly describe FFXIV to a T at this point, which 2.0 claims to fix, so I'm wondering if what this article is saying is true for someone who personally experienced this game firsthand.

This company doesn't seem to have the same resources as SE does, but I imagine that also makes them a bit more nimble since there's fewer staff to have to manage. What do you think?

[grandm]

even while doing an awful job and being criticized from every game reviewer. SE managed to blaze a trail and show other games companies just because your product is broken, don't mean you have to give up. i think FF14 is being reborn from the ashes of what once was (like one of their iconic summons). if this inspires other to not give up when the going gets tough then that is even cooler

[Jinko]

Never heard of this game, there is a big difference here though that SE are a massive developer and should have never been in this situation to begin with.

[Betelgeuzah]

Never heard of this game, there is a big difference here though that SE are a massive developer and should have never been in this situation to begin with.

Every MMO dev NCSoft aside has been in this situation post-2005 with their released games. Only SE has the assets to pull themselves out of the mess.

When you fail there is no compromise.

[Jinko]

Every MMO dev NCSoft aside has been in this situation post-2005 with their released games. Only SE has the assets to pull themselves out of the mess.

When you fail there is no compromise.

Show me all those other MMO's that released unfinished and more importantly went F2P whilst they redesigned the game.

[KamikazeMan]

Show me all those other MMO's that released unfinished and more importantly went F2P whilst they redesigned the game.

I'd like to know this as well.

[Betelgeuzah]

Show me all those other MMO's that released unfinished and more importantly went F2P whilst they redesigned the game.

Huh? I can show you all the MMO's that failed. Whether they were unfinished or not is of no relevance. Failure is a failure.

The only difference that matters here is that SE has the assets to pull themselves out of this mess, while the other MMO's slowly or rapidly dwindled down to nothingness. It's hard to redesign anything when your corporation's future rests on the subscription revenue that is nonexistant.

[Antipika]

I am only half agree with this, about the SE part it is hard to say as we technicaly dont know the company income

Well the only income they had was from retail sales... So even without exact figures, if you consider the amount of people working on the XIV project (JP/NA/EU staff), the amount spend on marketing (all right not that much, but still there was some advert here and there), server upkeep, etc. I hardly doubt that what they earned did cover over 1 year of expenses.

And I'm not even gonna talk about pre-release dev costs...

[Geesus]

Well the only income they had was from retail sales... So even without exact figures, if you consider the amount of people working on the XIV project (JP/NA/EU staff), the amount spend on marketing (all right not that much, but still there was some advert here and there), server upkeep, etc. I hardly doubt that what they earned did cover over 1 year of expenses.

And I'm not even gonna talk about pre-release dev costs...

Last I read earlier this year was, SE was in the hole 7 billion with the failure thus far of XIV. I will attempt to find that article again.

Edit: Here you go