So we don't have enough devs

[addz3]

They get enough funds from subs and the cash shop. If they used all these funds exclusively for 14 instead of propping up their other games then they would not have any funding issues.

This 100%. Pretty much ends this conversation.

[Mysteltain]

This 100%. Pretty much ends this conversation.

Sadly, that's not how the world works. I think the only source of money that the FFXIV dev team doesn't need to share with the rest of SE is the cash shop's revenue. That's what bought us the EU servers, according to the devs.

[Alberel]

Sadly, that's not how the world works. I think the only source of money that the FFXIV dev team doesn't need to share with the rest of SE is the cash shop's revenue. That's what bought us the EU servers, according to the devs.

I would take what Yoshi said regarding the cash shop funding the EU servers with a grain of salt as that's not really how businesses manage money, especially not a big global one like SE. All money that the company makes, regardless of where it comes from, goes to the company as a whole. Every year companies usually work out a budget with a forecast for major projects that various departments/teams will be working on and associated expenses. These budgets are usually reviewed and adjusted as necessary at certain points throughout the year to account for changes in priorities and unexpected costs.

The important thing to note is that just because the game is making X amount of money that does not mean the devs behind that game suddenly have X amount of money to spend. It may take up to a year for that rise in profits to actually trickle back down into more funds for development.

If I were to hazard a guess about the EU servers: Yoshi negotiated a deal with the execs at SE to introduce a cash shop in exchange for funding for EU servers. I seriously doubt the money from that cash shop went straight into the EU servers.

With regards to the OP: no amount of increased sub fees or cash shop sales would guarantee more money for the FFXIV dev team. The only way they'll get more money is if the execs at SE allocate them a bigger budget. The only way THAT will happen is if they think it would be profitable to do so. It ultimately hinges on Yoshi's ability to negotiate and convince them that a bigger budget would lead to a rise in concurrent subscriptions.

[ExKage]

I believe some reports before said that FFXIV is the only game actually making profit for Square Enix and that most of the funds were being allocated to not FFXIV.

[silentwindfr]

I believe some reports before said that FFXIV is the only game actually making profit for Square Enix and that most of the funds were being allocated to not FFXIV.

they too have dragon quest online, but japanese only.

[thunderbreak]

Pay them more money to have the same quality content like before? So how is this a solution? That just encourages this kind of practice. Devs will lower content quality just to make you pay more.

How come the devs haven't lower the sub fee since their content quality has dropped?

[MomomiMomi]

Raise the price and I'd laugh. Then take my money elsewhere.

[Balipu]

Raise the price and I'd laugh. Then take my money elsewhere.

Where exactly? No, really. I'm not saying that you should pay more. This is more than enough. But most MMO's come with less frequent patches with less content. I mean SWTOR comes with expansions that barely qualify as content patches, TESO puts everything in the cash shop as DLC, WoW deveopers are only now learning how to put more than one type of content into a patch (and are notorious for long content droughts), and the list goes on and on.

Others are simply just boring.

[MomomiMomi]

Where exactly? No, really. I'm not saying that you should pay more. This is more than enough. But most MMO's come with less frequent patches with less content. I mean SWTOR comes with expansions that barely qualify as content patches, TESO puts everything in the cash shop as DLC, WoW deveopers are only now learning how to put more than one type of content into a patch (and are notorious for long content droughts), and the list goes on and on.

Others are simply just boring.

Plenty of single player games out there.

[Roth_Trailfinder]

If anything the fee should be lowered, we're still @ the same rate that WoW set a decade ago when a gazillion ppl were into mmos.

EQ was that same rate long before WoW came along, and I think the rate was standard for the industry before EQ came along.

But then again, if you look at the value of a dollar back in the late 1990's and compare it to today, the sub fee should probably be in the mid $20's, if not mid $30's, to retain the same value as it was back then. Inflation hurts and is the killer of bank/retirement account values (even if their numbers keep going up) and is the biggest thief of our money in the world. Be glad that the sub is only $15/mo.