Quote Originally Posted by MOZZYSTAR View Post
I'm not sure how to feel about the one dungeon per patch thing. On one hand, it means more content elsewhere. On the other hand, I don't think SE should have to sacrifice something in order to make something else. This is a giant company that makes bank even when it has major losses now and then. But after reading around, it seems like they mostly hire contractors with very few full-timers, so... That's my gues as to why we're even seeing sacrifices like this.
To be fair, hiring battle designers is not an easy task. MMOs aren't a popular market nor is console/PC gaming nearly as prominent in Japan as it is the west. Most developers with the skill set Yoshida wants go into the mobile game industry because it practically prints money. And it isn't as though they can hire outside Japan since they'd require someone who is fluent in Japanese. FFXIV's team is actually among the largest for any MMO on the market; surpassing even WoW. They just have decidedly few battle designers. In fact, the person who designed Chocobo racing was trained to eventually become a battle designer.

Now SE could probably throw huge amounts of money to attract the right people. But what incentive do they have when FFXIV has not only ran smoothly for years but has gained new players consistency ever since it's re-launch?