The REAL reason for housing shortage.

[Tibryn]

First of all; let me be clear; there will NEVER be enough houses available to support all players and this IS intentional. It's actually genius if you think about it.

Housing availability and demolition are one of many rotating tools Square uses to keep players subbed without lapsing subs over in game "lulls"...

If there were a surplus of houses available, players with houses would no longer fear demolition, and would feel free to unsub when they got bored with the game or were waiting for new dungeon/raid/savage/story whatever content... demolition is one of the tools they use to keep you subbed for that month or two when you really have nothing to do (like, right now) and they don't have any new content to give you... that tool would be useless if you knew you could always come back and buy a new house.

Why do they ever turn off the demolition timer? They do it to gain player trust, and they do it in times when they know they are least likely to lose subs, and they turn it back on when they know they are most likely to lose subs.

Why do you think Kugane Housing wasn't available with the launch of stormblood? Because the new expansion is their strongest tool to use to renew / reactivate / gain new subs and keep people subbed for at least the beginning of the expansion... they didn't want people racing through the fresh content just to get to the housing area, so they made you wait until the freshness of the new content was getting stale before releasing their next sub sustaining tool; fresh housing plots... but they also wanted any NEW players to get to that point in the game and get into the housing market... this allowed new subbers without houses to get them and locked them into the "don't unsub or you'll lose your house" group, but kept the housing availability low enough that people with houses MUST stay subbed or fear losing access to that content indefinitely if they ever decided to return.

Basically, if the houses are available equal 60% of the playerbase, they will only release new plots when the active player base has grown enough so that the new plots available combined with the old will still only equal 60% of the active playerbase. When they predict that even with the threat of demolition they will lose a few subs due to lack of new content, like after the first few weeks of a new patch when quick players have already geared their mains and beat most content, they deactivate the demolition timer and let those unsubbers take a break confident they may return with new content. But when they predict many players will unsub during extreme lulls, like at the end of an expansion or patch, they activate the demolition timer to keep them for an extra month or two... but it would be stupid of square to provide enough houses for everyone because then demolition would never be a reason against unsubbing; you can just buy another one easily if you chose to return....

[MorbolvampireQueen6]

i doubt that they eaited on Kugan housing 2 focus on giving dps things pretty much.

They probably just over use resources for lame crossovers and refuse 2 create a auto add ward system every so many months

[ERMITANYO]

If I were SE and I wanted to use housing as well as the demolition timer as a mechanic to keep players subscribed, I would offer players the suuuper best with all the bells and whistles, form of instanced housing, any player can get a house, strictly 1 house per world, and all alts can share housing, 1st time purchase through Gil, gives a player a house, once the house/s goes through an unfortunate event and is/are auto demolished, the succeding purchase is done through mog station.

As it is, i believe the number of available houses does not even make up for a modest fraction of the FFXIV player base, so if SE truly wants to use the housing/demolition timer mechanic to keep subs they should really still come up with a multitude of wards and houses.

[Caitlinzulu]

Wow and i bet you also believe that those condensation trails airplanes leave behind are a secret government plot to poison the people, the moonlanding is a hoax and a whole lot of other conspiracy theories?

just wow

[Besame]

Tibryn has it about right.

[Alyanna_Elingval]

This doesn't make any sense. If SE were worried about subscription fees they would just offer a subscription for housing. The number of people they would be retaining by what you're saying would be dwarfed by the number of people signing up. Moreso, if they let you choose what size house you got, people who currently own homes that may have been grandfathered in for free would leave their free smalls and mediums to get mansions.

I figure they don't add housing for a few reasons.

It's the only leverage they have to make people switch servers. If they added housing to the overpopulated servers people would never leave them.

Adding to my first point, I figure the way SE does housing all the wards on all the servers have to be the same. So if they add wards to overpopulated servers, they'd have to add to low populated ones as well, just increasing the number of empty lots for no reason.

SE has a finite number of resources to put towards development, and if you took a poll of players and asked them whether they want new endgame/story content or more housing, housing is not going to win.

[ERMITANYO]

There are only 4320 housing plots per world multiplied by 66 worlds in all data centers thats only 285,120 housing plots for a player base of more than 10million, or if we bring it down to a super hardcore player base of 1M its not even half. Hence the number of housing plots or owners of housing plots for that matter is not a significant figure for SE to rely on for a source of secured income.

There is a clear shortage for housing plots, and I also believe that due to some financial as well as technical constraints they cannot just implement additional housing but I'm sure they're aware and working on a way to implement it.

[kidalutz]

First of all; let me be clear; there will NEVER be enough houses available to support all players and this IS intentional. It's actually genius if you think about it.

Housing availability and demolition are one of many rotating tools Square uses to keep players subbed without lapsing subs over in game "lulls"...



Basically, if the houses are available equal 60% of the playerbase, they will only release new plots when the active player base has grown enough so that the new plots available combined with the old will still only equal 60% of the active playerbase. When they predict that even with the threat of demolition they will lose a few subs due to lack of new content, like after the first few weeks of a new patch when quick players have already geared their mains and beat most content, they deactivate the demolition timer and let those unsubbers take a break confident they may return with new content. But when they predict many players will unsub during extreme lulls, like at the end of an expansion or patch, they activate the demolition timer to keep them for an extra month or two... but it would be stupid of square to provide enough houses for everyone because then demolition would never be a reason against unsubbing; you can just buy another one easily if you chose to return....

I think the tinfoil hat may have been made too tight.

[Tibryn]

..player base of more than 10million, or if we bring it down to a super hardcore player base of 1M its not even half.

the active player base is only 605,000 according to ffxivcensus, where'd pu5 get your numbers?

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they cannot just implement additional housing but I'm sure they're aware and working on a way to implement it.[/QUOTE]
No they arent...

According to Yoshida, instead of opening new housing areas, the dev team has been focusing on making existing housing areas like Shirogane better. “Currently, there are no plans for new areas.”

[ERMITANYO]

Well just an estimate from google, i believe this is where you get the 605,525 active members:

https://ffxivcensus.com

Still with 605,525 active members, the number of plots 285,120 (60 plots x 18 wards x 4 city states x 66 worlds), its still not close to "50% or 60%" of the proposed active poppulation, to make it a source of income through the use of housing as well as its demolition timer.

Maybe if they increase the number of plots to 544,972, 90% of 605,525 active members, its possible to make housing/demolition timer as a means to secure profit, but as it is right now its not quite at that level.

=Tibryn;4964894]the active player base is only 605,000 according to ffxivcensus, where'd pu5 get your numbers?

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they cannot just implement additional housing but I'm sure they're aware and working on a way to implement it.

No they arent...

According to Yoshida, instead of opening new housing areas, the dev team has been focusing on making existing housing areas like Shirogane better. “Currently, there are no plans for new areas.”[/QUOTE]