PSA Regarding Stormbloods Budget and content development

[Daranion]

Time and time again I see people quoting the "triple the budget" for stormblood and "cash shop boosting the games quality with more finances" I would just like to try and get as much clarity as possible as well as collect information for the less informed. This should hopefully prevent expectations getting too high and causing undue confusion.

First of all, the budget claim about Stormblood. This was a troll post that spread like wildfire and is now taken as gospel. There is no, nor has there ever been anything released regarding stormbloods budget. You can search all you want you will not find any official statement anywhere. Please, for the sake of good discussion, cease parroting this triple budget claim. It's blatantly untrue and just leads to people expecting more from the game than we're actually going to get.

Second, the cash shop. People have claimed the cash shop does or does not help fund extra features to the game. As far as we're aware, we don't have access to any sort of budgetary information regarding that except for a few comments of confirmation. What we DO know is as follows.

The game's budget is static, they don't suddenly have more money to develop content even if 3 million people suddenly buy the game. This was shown by the announcement of the server base upgrade where the claim was made that "for the first time, profits will be reinvested into the game" Also I have yet to verify this myself but apparently, an official claim was made regarding the EU database being funded by cash shop purchases? Official source would be appreciated. As far as has been officially released regarding the remainder of cash shop purchases, well we found out recently it just goes back into making more items for the cash shop, since there is someone higher above Yoshi that's actually in charge of it. The one that Yoshi calls "the Empress"

If anyone has any other comments or information to make, this would be the thread to do it, and I look forward to seeing information and facts pooled together so we can hopefully put lots of these rumors to rest.


Edit: Thanks to the posted source, we can finally confirm that the cash shop did in fact fund the EU data center if we're taking the comment at face value. Despite many half truths coming from the devs mouth, we can assume in this specific instance, that is what happened. Unfortunately, still seems the lions share does infact just cycle back into funds for more cash shop items until shown otherwise

[MomomiMomi]

Even if it was triple the budget, my expectations are way down there.

4.0 will be a repeat of HW which was a repeat of ARR.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

Actually, the budget was released on the SE investor relations page.

Even if it was triple the budget, my expectations are way down there.

4.0 will be a repeat of HW which was a repeat of ARR.

I'd be rather disappointed if it wasn't like 2.0 and 3.0 tbh.

[Hirskuwil]

Actually, the budget was released on the SE investor relations page.

I searched high and low for the budget on both their English and Japanese pages and found literally nothing about it! When the claim was originally made people were saying the reason no-one could find it on the English page was because it was only on the Japanese site, most likely assuming no-one would be able to navigate the Japanese site and read the reports XD

[Kosmos992k]

Actually, the budget was released on the SE investor relations page.

I'd be rather disappointed if it wasn't like 2.0 and 3.0 tbh.

Indeed. I often wonder when people say things like "If it's like 2.0 or 3.0 I'm outta here" or "If it's like what we have it will suck"; I wonder why they are in fact subscribing to and playing this game if in fact they really want a different game. I signed up for and have continued to subscribe to FFXIV because it is what it is. Significant changes to the game would completely break that for me. Honestly, for people who want significant change, perhaps the truth is they really don't want to play FFXIV and would be better seeking what they want elsewhere - where it might already be on offer.

[Pireco]

Nice thread, i think exactly like you, and havent seen any proof to any of the mentioned claims.

Even if it was triple the budget, my expectations are way down there.

4.0 will be a repeat of HW which was a repeat of ARR.

I dont mean to be rude, but this kind of coment makes me wonder, what would you expect? Honestly, im curious and not being salty.
This is one game with expansions, i mean, i dare say unless the devs screw up, as in 1.0, the exps will ALWAYS be "the same" , because it isnt a new game, its a new expansion, so you can expect new dgs, trials, raids and new content (palace, diadem, airships, new pvp modes in HWq...) and its important to say that "i dont like that content" is WAYYYY diferent than " there\\\\'s no new content".
That being said my expectations arent very high for the new jobs and for the combat changes, but definetly looking for the main story, the raids, underwater exploration and eureka.

[MomomiMomi]

I dont mean to be rude, but this kind of coment makes me wonder, what would you expect? Honestly, im curious and not being salty.

New types of content. It doesn't need to become a new game to introduce new things. The only new things we got were PotD and Diadem. PotD is divorced from the rest of the game, and Diadem took over a year of development time before it finally got an update. A bad one at that, but that's a different topic.

An example that a few people, including myself, bring up from time to time is FFXI's ToAU expansion. It didn't become a new game, but it did introduce completely new types of content. Here's a list off the top of my head:

Assault
Salvage
ZNM
Einherjar
Besieged

There's probably more. All of this was new types of content. It was fresh.

This is what I expect from an expansion. To introduce new things.

[Fawkes]

An example that a few people, including myself, bring up from time to time is FFXI's ToAU expansion. It didn't become a new game, but it did introduce completely new types of content. Here's a list off the top of my head:

Assault
Salvage
ZNM
Einherjar
Besieged

There's probably more. All of this was new types of content. It was fresh.

This is what I expect from an expansion. To introduce new things.

I don't know if I'd say it was all fresh.

Besieged was just garrison in town. They made it bigger in scale after it turned out to be popular.

ZNM was just another set of tiered NMs like sky and sea.

Einherjar was like a mini-dynamis.

[Hirskuwil]

First of all, the budget claim about Stormblood. This was a troll post that spread like wildfire and is now taken as gospel. There is no, nor has there ever been anything released regarding stormbloods budget. You can search all you want you will not find any official statement anywhere. Please, for the sake of good discussion, cease parroting this triple budget claim. It's blatantly untrue and just leads to people expecting more from the game than we're actually going to get.

THANK YOU! For quite a while whenever I saw this claim I would post replies saying that there was no evidence of this. I even made new accounts on some gaming sites to try and combat the spread. I ended up giving up though as noone seemed to listen. Eurgh.

[Kaethra]

So what is exactly the point?

Its simple. People will either like Stormblood, or not. How much is spent on it doesn't matter. Players will ultimately judge its worth on how much they themselves spent on it. Who cares how much SE spent?