Game population by the numbers.

[wingiehai]

Have you been under a rock for the 6 months preceeding the release of FFXIV (or of the many games that were released in horrible/disappointing states in the past, like warhammer online, tabula rasa, age of conan and many others)? because they did pretty much the same.

There's no solid information about the quality and polish of the game, nor about the possibility that some mechanics will actually work as intended or even be fun (public quests in warhammer, from which GW2 is copying for their own, sounded awesome on paper, but didn't withstand the test of reality).

If you think you can predict the quality of a game just from PR, then I'm sorry, I see a big delusion here. And delusion normally pairs very fittingly with disappointment. And as I said, the track record of NCsoft is very far from being deserving of blind faith.

Dude every post you make you disagree with everything, let me tell you for starters ARENANET IS MAKING GUILDWARS 2! Not NCsoft, you clown, read before you actually comment on something. ArenaNet are ex blizzard designers with alot of new talent, and I just watched the pax east clips and the game looks amazing. If they can release it in the right window it will be extremely successful. FFXIV has very very little chance of being reborn, I still read these forums in the hope of some amazing news but I can't see it happening before the next waves of MMOs are out. SE didn't learn to adept mostly because they have silly people like you Aberial telling the designers not to have jump in a game, silly silly people. I wanted this game to blow me away, instead I blew away 50 bucks buying, and that even makes me sad to think that SE made a game I class a waste of money.

[Skeeter]

Publisher != Developer. ArenaNet is making Guild Wars 2 not NCsoft. I don't buy into the hype of MMOs anymore but if they actually deliver what they are saying, it will be a massive success. Big if though.

[NefarioCall]

1 billion? I hope that's a typo lol.

Yes. Yes it is. Make that 1 million. ¬_¬ ♫♪♪♫

I, and I'm sure, quite a few others, am quite happy that there is ONE MMO in the market that actually uses the power of the gaming PC I invested with

I think it's great too, but i point out that a large number of PC based players who cannot play it now, will be able to in the future. They will eventually make up some kind of statistically significant portion of the player base. They also need to decide to play the game though. xD

but not even XI was this bad at release.

Just a reminder that English speaking players got FFXI at the first expansion. FFXIV is still 6 months or more behind that time line.

I think the game will survive fine, but I would predict it capping at around 400-600k subs with a flawless PS3 launch.

If this game were released by a small company, it would already be dead. I don't write that in trolling though. I think it is a bit of a blessing to know SE has the resources to see this through. It also has the FF name.

GW2 biggest issue I have right now is it sounds like a 100% solo game with some form of Semi-auto group feature which is really just a bunch of people soloing on 1 mob which scales up depending on how many ppl are beating on it.

I think a lot of people like a Solo MMO, which was probably the intent of SE with this game to begin with. There is no doubt that this game is more solo friendly than FFXI, and that will attract some players. However, i also feel that party based play is one of FFXI's biggest assets which has not been utilized properly here yet. When party content becomes more abundant, the user base will grow. it is nice to solo, but it can make the world feel really empty at times...

Customers shouldn't have to wait for it to be good.

I agree. Though personally, i am happy that i can play it now rather than wait for it to reach the 'polished' level. To each their own. And it's kind of like crapping about a bad sports trade several years later. It's well.. already happened.

I've never seen an MMO released in really bad shape turn it around and be as big a success as that. Usually they kind of just dwindle with a small player base with slow updates and patches because dev resources get limited.

Well, that's ... quite clear. A very good point.

I personally don't care how high the subs go, as long as ppl play for 10+ years i'm good

Agreed, and i think it will, though i nervously look at the last bit i quoted.

But at least we know Guildwars 2 will have content

Just in case this was missed by anyone, the current lead battle programmer is the guy who designed FFXI's later battle content. That won't make everyone happy to hear of course, but for me personally, i am very excited to see what the content will be. if it's good, i'll play it.

the great thing is, when you see that a game is not what you thought, you can go back to your previous MMO or find a band new one all together. that's the beauty of MMOs, there is never a shortage of options

And SE's devotion to this game will ensure that plenty of people see FFXIV as an option in the future on those very grounds.