XIV on Switch and Xbox

[Aronys]

I play all of my singleplayer games on my PS4 without PS+. O.o

[Mature]

Make it happen yoship push them tight Xbox bastards. I'm sure Nintendo won't bother tbh

[NovaLevossida]

I have a Switch. This game does not need to be on that platform. It's not a PS4 or Xbox One, and it never was meant to be. It's a really high powered handheld that happens to dock really well to a TV. But that's the extent of it. We don't need the thing holding back this game like the PS3 was doing.

[Paladinleeds]

The Switch is really a Wii U made portable. So while it blows the 3DS out of the water, it doesn't hold a candle to home consoles like the Xbox One and PS4. I'm not even sure it is as powerful as the 360/PS3 (but I'll let someone with a better grasp of tech confirm or deny that for me).

As a result, heck to the no to a Switch version. But an Xbox One version would definitely tantalise me (since planning to move the Xbox One downstairs, be nice to be able to play it on a console, since right now I play it cooped up in my bedroom)

[Natsuno]

The Switch is really a Wii U made portable.

Eh. It is more powerful than that, but I agree that bringing XIV to the Switch is a bad idea and will only hold the game back. At best it'll get a few years (maybe 5.0 or 6.0, depending on how much the Devs want to improve the game) before needing to be dropped by like the PS3.

[era1Ne]

One final point. It's up to the developers to choose what they want/need from Sony. If they want to provide their own servers then PS Plus is not required, and Sony is quite cool with that. If they want Sony's infrastructure to help them then PS Plus will be needed and Sony is cool with that too. Sony really doesn't care because either way they get royalties from game sales and from console/accessory sales, and the more games on the console, the more players buy them.

No, it is not up to the developer. F2P games and monthly sub based mmo don't need to use PS+, but all others do.

Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida said, "As far as free-to-play games are concerned, it's the publisher's decision whether they put it inside or outside of PS Plus."

https://www.engadget.com/2013/06/12/...s-dont-requir/

Second source:

Is PlayStation Plus necessary for multiplayer gameplay on PS4?
Yes, PlayStation Plus membership is needed for PS4 online multiplayer gaming. PS4 features a significantly enhanced online feature set that will deliver innovative new online gaming experiences.
Will non PS Plus members be able to play free to play online games on PS4?
Certain titles built on a free-to-play model will not require PlayStation Plus for multiplayer functionality in North America.

https://blog.us.playstation.com/2013...america/#sect8

[Maero]

Nah like i said earlier Switch has the Power like that of the 360, it is a handheld tablet i compare it to.

[ReplicaX]

Switch would be a step back for this game, especially with PS3 support dropping for SB and SE finally making it public the old NA datacenters were bottlenecked. Also SE would have to code in and throttle down to make the mobile mode of the switch meet standards of playability. A waste of development imo.

Sony and SE came to an agreement, with Sony making a special case to their policy allowing XIV to not require PS+. The exact opposite is going on with Microsoft, they have not agreed to make a special case to their policy for XIV.

What is sad is SE pioneered the console MMO early in the genre and Cross-platform MMO play. Were the first MMO to have 2 console competitors play together. Yet for some reason MS doesn't want to make that exception again.

[Felis]

RIght! I'm over here trying to figure out what singleplayer requires ps+.

Singleplayer games, that have online features without the devs running an own network for it, require PS+ for the online features.
Of course you can still play those games without PS+ if you ignore those online features.

[Kosmos992k]

No, it is not up to the developer. F2P games and monthly sub based mmo don't need to use PS+, but all others do. https://www.engadget.com/2013/06/12/...s-dont-requir/

Second source: https://blog.us.playstation.com/2013...america/#sect8

::sigh::

Cherry picking quotes from Shuhei Yoshida in 2013, and from a FAQ on the PlayStation Blog doesn't help you.

In the very same series of interviews Shuhei Yoshida mentioned that PS Plus was required for 'realtime' multi-player online play, but this wasn't clarified, and many reports dropped that quote all together because of the lack of clarity.

However, as you can see from this information updated in Feb 2017, it's not as you say, nor has it ever been. Let me see if I can break this down for you;

PS Plus required?

You need to be a member of PlayStation Plus or have a local user account on the subscriber’s ‘Primary PS4’ to play many games online.

So, you have to be a PS plus member to play many games online, but not all?

Online play without a subscription
You don’t need to be a PlayStation Plus member to play online on your PlayStation 3 or PS Vita, but we recommend subscribing as it allows you to take advantage of all the extra features you receive when you join.

So PS3 and PS VIta don't need Plus at all....not that it matters too much for PS4.

You also do not need to be a member of PlayStation Plus to play non-synchronous games on the PlayStation 4.

Hmmm..... what does that mean I wonder?

Synchronous games are games where two consoles need to be synched up to communicate with each other in real time - for example if you are playing co-op or competition mode on a shooting or racing game. Non-synchronous games mean that the two consoles do not need to be communicating in real time

So, if two PS4 consoles are synchronized, communicating peer to peer for playing online, they do so over Sony's network using services exclusive to PS Plus. This will affect games such as Tekken 7, Call of Duty and any other 'real time action' games that fire data packets back and forth between consoles.

However non-synchronous is any game where the PS4 consoles are not communicating with each other directly in real time (peer to peer). So *any* server based game such as an MMO, where the client (PS4 console) communicates with a server, and that server then communicates with other clients (could be PS4s, PCs or anything else) is non-synchronous. Games such as this may not require PS Plus.

If a game needs to make use of Sony's proprietary network beyond simple authentication and license checking to facilitate online play, it needs PS Plus. If a game uses Peer to Peer communication between PS4s, that communication is mediated via PS Plus service. Of course with real time action games, one of the reasons for this is to prevent cheating. There has to be some level of verification and trust pretty much all the time to ensure that no one cheats. This is just one aspect of using PS Plus since your console has to be continually checked and verified to keep your peer to peer session open. The PS networking services used are provided as part of the PS Plus package by Sony and cost money, so they charge.

On the other hand, if a game uses the client server model and doesn't do direct PS4 to PS4 real time communication, then it doesn't have to use PS Plus. The key thing here though is that if the developer/publisher doesn't want to create their own server infrastructure, they will have to engage with Sony to do it within Sony's services - and PS Plus will be needed. If on the other hand the developer is happy to create it's own service infrastructure and servers, then PS Plus isn't needed.

You're always trying to frame this in terms of everything has to go through PS Plus, and that's simply not true. Nor is it true to imply that developers are not free to choose whether they use PS Plus or not.

As I said, at the start "It's up to the developers to choose what they want/need from Sony.". Yes, there are some kinds of game that need to make use of services that are only available through PS Plus, meaning PS Plus will be a requirement in those cases. But, for online multi-player games that do not have to use such services, it's the developer's choice of how to proceed. Sony will help any way they are asked to.

Free to play games have been mentioned as not needing PS Plus. That's true, on the surface, but Free to Play games on PS4 use a micro transaction model that pushes transactions through the PS Store and it's services. The old saying that there is no such thing as a free lunch comes to mind, Sony still gets it's cut via their portion of the micro-transaction fees, they don't charge the players by requiring PS Plus since that would mean the game is not 'free to play'. However, players ultimately pay Sony and the developer through the transactions - it's an alternate revenue model that supplements the operating costs for Sony.

FFXIV is an interesting case because other than purchasing the games themselves on, everything else is done via SE's subscriptions and the Mogstation, and none of that revenue goes to Sony at all. Sony is not into giving things away free, but since FFXIV's servers and online services are hosted entirely by SE and there is no need for PS4 to PS4 communication in real time with all the safeguards and other services Sony provides, Sony has no reason to charge additional fees. FFXIV is in effect the model case for MMO games on PS4 that do not need PS Plus. FFXIV isn't a 'special' case, it's simply how it works if your game doesn't do peer to peer PS4 communication or Sony provided infrastructure.

Which goes back to PSN is 100% Free. PSN provides user authentication and license checking. PS Plus is not required for games like FFXIV because they do not use anything beyond basic user authentication and license checking.