Are the developers of XIV out of touch?

[MistakeNot]

I'm offering the benefit of the doubt because of what Yoshida managed to do to save XIV in the first place. Which is what makes all of this really confusing is exactly what you pointed out; Yoshi P stepped into this game and styled all over it, literally nuking Tanaka's XIV from orbit... Yoshida's XIV then became such a bland, milquetoast thing years later, and it makes me wonder what happened. I don't actually buy into the "All the revenue XIV generates is going into XV, KH3, and FF7R" as anything more than plausibility, but seeing such a drastic change in Yoshida, it really gets the noggin joggin' as they say.

What's so hard to understand? Yoshida nuked the old game and made it the way he wanted it to be. Now it is already the way he wanted it to be, so why would he want to do any drastic changes to the game?

[Asiragan]

Now it is already the way he wanted it to be, so why would he want to do any drastic changes to the game?

This mindset could be fine for a solo offline game. But for a MMO? A game that always needs to move, to be constantly evolving? It's pure suicide.

[Vhailor]

What's so hard to understand? Yoshida nuked the old game and made it the way he wanted it to be. Now it is already the way he wanted it to be, so why would he want to do any drastic changes to the game?

The same reason WoW has made a number of large-scale changes. By his own admission, Yoshi-P has drawn a lot of his inspiration from WoW, so he should be in a position to know what Blizzard discovered: you have to shake things up significantly every so often in order to keep things feeling fresh. MMOs that remain static are doomed to failure, at some point or another. Oh, sure, it's quite possible that FFXIV will remain a financial success - much as Diablo 3 has been a financial success for Blizzard - but SE is paying a significant price in terms of brand quality. I grew up with memories of Kefka and Sephiroth etched into my mind, and it turned me into a long-term customer who associated 'Square' and 'Quality' for years and years.

Does SE really want to see what happens when people growing up with FFXIV associate Final Fantasy with cheap product tie-ins, shameless cash store gimmicks, and server limitations?