Soooooooo npc party?

[Mikki]

Is probably an test measure for the probable future of the playerbase numbers during Shadowbringers, as Shadowbringer is probably the last big expansion this game will receive in its life cycle (8 years old already, yes, i count since its LAUNCH, not since its RE-LAUNCH).

In fact, i dare say, and i hope i'm wrong, that Shadowbringers will have very few server issues during launch since players coming to the game are each time less and the retention value of this game is low, thus, Shadowbringers will probably be the last high time we will see in this game playerbase. They need to implement this system earlier for when the game begins its long downward decline. And tbh, XIV already helped SE financially enough (not enough to save XV it seems... But hey, it got it launched and recovered 1.0 blunder), XIV already served its purpose well, Shadowbringers signals, probably, the gentle entry into that good night for XIV.

I think you're completely wrong. Yoshida mentioned in an interview that the reason he's doing all of this crazy stuff he didn't think he'd do, like adding blue mage, is because numbers haven't been stagnating during Stormblood but have in fact INCREASED. So he feels like he can stop feeling caged by the word "MMO" and try new things and add a lot of various stuff that doesn't necessarily have to fit into that MMO mold. I think the popularity of FFXIV is only in its infancy. After all, if you want an MMO with great story, beautiful graphics (although not necessarily HQ) and with a lot of stuff to do, then FFXIV is one of the best on the market.

I'm thinking with its continued success, we're going to see more and more new and interesting things that will continue to draw fans. And with all of the fan service they're doing for Shadow Bringers, I'm guessing 5.0 is going to be a success too. Viera, Blue Mage, a flip on the WoL script and potentially even getting to be the "bad guy", Gunblade and dancer (???) classes and hopefully a rework of the combat system that makes them even more intuitive and fun to play........? AND whispers of Ishgard housing, to boot! Yeah. I think the game still has quite a lot of life in it.

Besides, Yoshida mentioned he at least wanted the game to last 10 years (from ARR relaunch) with an expansion every 2 years. So, we should get at least one more expansion after Shadow Bringers imo. After that, it's up in the air. Depends on how well 5.0 is received, ultimately.


THAT SAID, I do think it's to help with older content because we're going to get to a tipping point where they can't incentivize people enough to do all of the content that needs doing and people are going to need some way to get through old content.

[Alexandre_Noireau]

I think you're completely wrong. Yoshida mentioned in an interview that the reason he's doing all of this crazy stuff he didn't think he'd do, like adding blue mage, is because numbers haven't been stagnating during Stormblood but have in fact INCREASED. So he feels like he can stop feeling caged by the word "MMO" and try new things and add a lot of various stuff that doesn't necessarily have to fit into that MMO mold. I think the popularity of FFXIV is only in its infancy. After all, if you want an MMO with great story, beautiful graphics (although not necessarily HQ) and with a lot of stuff to do, then FFXIV is one of the best on the market.

I'm thinking with its continued success, we're going to see more and more new and interesting things that will continue to draw fans. And with all of the fan service they're doing for Shadow Bringers, I'm guessing 5.0 is going to be a success too. Viera, Blue Mage, a flip on the WoL script and potentially even getting to be the "bad guy", Gunblade and dancer (???) classes and hopefully a rework of the combat system that makes them even more intuitive and fun to play........? AND whispers of Ishgard housing, to boot! Yeah. I think the game still has quite a lot of life in it.

Besides, Yoshida mentioned he at least wanted the game to last 10 years (from ARR relaunch) with an expansion every 2 years. So, we should get at least one more expansion after Shadow Bringers imo. After that, it's up in the air. Depends on how well 5.0 is received, ultimately.


THAT SAID, I do think it's to help with older content because we're going to get to a tipping point where they can't incentivize people enough to do all of the content that needs doing and people are going to need some way to get through old content.

What yoshida says holds no value to me, he has failed on his word way too many times at this point, and as producer or director, i don't hold any candle for him anymore since the housing fiasco.
During stormblood the player base has not increased at all. In fact, the highest peak of player activity was during HW lunch, at above 1.2 million players, and that marks the highest concurrent player base in a month of this game EVER.

As of october 2018, approximately 650k players worldwide are still enjoying this game, while it has around 14 million accounts created and near the same amount of characters created. The player base is stabilized at best, declining at worse.

Adding new things to the game would be nice though. I haven't seen a single piece of original content added since 2.2. It would be nice to have something new for 5.0.

[Marxam]

All they need to do is import the "Gambit System" from FFXII, which in reality is just macros with conditions. It honestly doesn't need to be harder than that. They could even make it so that you need books to learn specific conditions like " heal when HP below 20%", etc. I also would like to see the "Guest" npc incorporated more. They seem to be going full out with the last dungeon in 4.5 and that's what I like to see. You and your NPC friends fighting together instead of them just miraculously reaching the next boss arena unscathed before you do.

[Auryan]

What yoshida says holds no value to me, he has failed on his word way too many times at this point, and as producer or director, i don't hold any candle for him anymore since the housing fiasco.
During stormblood the player base has not increased at all. In fact, the highest peak of player activity was during HW lunch, at above 1.2 million players, and that marks the highest concurrent player base in a month of this game EVER.

As of october 2018, approximately 650k players worldwide are still enjoying this game, while it has around 14 million accounts created and near the same amount of characters created. The player base is stabilized at best, declining at worse.

Adding new things to the game would be nice though. I haven't seen a single piece of original content added since 2.2. It would be nice to have something new for 5.0.

Hmm...some random guy on the forums pretending to have the accurate numbers of a big MMO vs. the guy who actually works for said MMO and actually has the numbers for said MMO. Who to believe?

[mooferz]

Is probably an test measure for the probable future of the playerbase numbers during Shadowbringers, as Shadowbringer is probably the last big expansion this game will receive in its life cycle (8 years old already, yes, i count since its LAUNCH, not since its RE-LAUNCH).

In fact, i dare say, and i hope i'm wrong, that Shadowbringers will have very few server issues during launch since players coming to the game are each time less and the retention value of this game is low, thus, Shadowbringers will probably be the last high time we will see in this game playerbase. They need to implement this system earlier for when the game begins its long downward decline. And tbh, XIV already helped SE financially enough (not enough to save XV it seems... But hey, it got it launched and recovered 1.0 blunder), XIV already served its purpose well, Shadowbringers signals, probably, the gentle entry into that good night for XIV.

Yoshida stated before they have the story written up to 6.0+ already so we're likely to get at least another expansion after Shadowbringers.

[Mikki]

Hmm...some random guy on the forums pretending to have the accurate numbers of a big MMO vs. the guy who actually works for said MMO and actually has the numbers for said MMO. Who to believe?

Exactly my thoughts, lol.

Oh well, he can believe what he wants but as mooferz said the story for 6.0 has already been written and so at the very least we'll be getting one expansion after 5.0 unless 5.0 totally crashes and burns. Which I find unlikely.
FFXIV is pretty much the second biggest MMO on the market, right up there with WoW. I don't think it'll be dying any time soon.