FFXIV is not a failure, never was.

[Zanfire]

Not a failure?

• Grindy
• Copy-pasted terrain
• Game lacked/lacks many normal features of many MMOs
• Monthly fee removed, because they know they would lose a lot of subscribers
• Entire development team fired
• Average metacritic review on this game is something horrible, average 49/100 on 28 major critics

Okay, write it again. Not a failure? This is a huge failure in today's market. You can try and say it's not a failure in a different perspective (post above eg.), because I honestly know people are having fun with this game, that doesn't mean it's not fail.

For the record I played a ton of FFXI, and I wasn't hoping for a FFXI 2.0, was hoping for something different. We just got crap instead.

pretty much nailed it. The game is considered a failure in the way of "will it end up making its money back?" is the better question. Its hugely dependent on the ps3 release and the #s it can keep after a solid year of people paying to play. If it ends up having 100k subs, the cost of development for 2 systems, constant updates and keeping the servers up, if the game does not last well over 5 years its likely to barely break even, which would mean its a failure.

right now the games a giant money pit and chances are it may never really take off, just too many huge mistakes right off the bat. Things have changed in the MMO market since FFXI, there are 10x as many games going, lots of big games coming and first impressions are HUGE. IMO the PS3 release and after a few months of charging will be the big clue as to if this game will be a true failure.

Right now though the games looking to be the shit stain on the #nd FF series (im not counting side games or the -2's)

[Antipika]

Question here is : what are people considering a failure?

A failure for me is when I do not succeed in achieving an objective/a goal.

In that very case, I am pretty certain that SE expected a better start for this title, therefore we can say that the launch of Final Fantasy XIV was a failure. Almost no income at all beside retail sales, how isn't that a failure?

It doesn't mean that the game is trash / should be terminated / will never become better in the future etc.

Launch : Failure
First 6 months : Failure

I am confident that the game will improve, but right now, the game isn't a success. (lack of success is the definition of failure)

[Zanfire]

^ i think what you said is what most people are thinking, the launch and its first 6 months have not been positive, especially on the financial side.

the real answer will come a short time after they release the ps3 version and start charging, the sub #s will pretty show if the game will be a financial success (and ratings by reviewers) while the rest is all opinion really.

[Abriael]

FFXIV was and is a failure .The project was huge and didnt live to the expectations based on many factors .

Failure and success aren't measured on your expectations.

The game went from Pay to play to free to play in the first month , so not calling that a failure wouldnt be realistic.

Actually the game didn't become free to play. They are just temporarily waiving the monthly fees, which is an entirely different situation than going free to play.

The situation can be fixed

Which contradicts the very definition of "failure".

In that very case, I am pretty certain that SE expected a better start for this title, therefore we can say that the launch of Final Fantasy XIV was a failure. Almost no income at all beside retail sales, how isn't that a failure?

You forget the little detail that this game had several branding deals in Japan in place even before release, which means that it made SE money (and not small money) even before the first box reached the shelves.
Fact is that we don't know the numbers. For what we know the whole operation can easily still be on the green. Again, branding deals aren't small money, and SE had them in place with basically every major PC manufacturer in Japan.

[TonyMontana]

Losing 90% of your customer base in the first 3 months is pretty close to failure based on just about anyones guidelines. Having to come out and admit your product is not good and was not ready to be released to the public for purchase is pretty close to failure. Having to completely restructure your team because the team that worked on the project for 5+ years failed is a pretty good indication of failure. Having a pay to play game not charging customers a subscription fee after 6 months of release because of all the previous reasons listed is very likely considered a failure by SE stockholders.

[Antipika]

You forget the little detail that this game had several branding deals in Japan in place even before release, which means that it made SE money (and not small money) even before the first box reached the shelves.
Fact is that we don't know the numbers. For what we know the whole operation can easily still be on the green. Again, branding deals aren't small money, and SE had them in place with basically every major PC manufacturer in Japan.

I hope you are joking right? Branding deals comes up with goals to achieve on their contract. SE gets money if... the game is a success.

If I am a manufacturer, I pay you to put your name on my product, but then the reputation of your product is one of the worst + your product doesn't sell (which doesn't boost my sales as well), then I won't pay you much and even worse, I will not sign any new contract with you ever again. If SE made money with branding, they didn't make much and one sure thing, they lost rep on the way as well.

And branding outside Japan was a failure as well. If you check the official XIV controller released in EU, MSRP is 40 euros and the controller quality is poor. (as good as any third party controller you can get off on eBay for 10 euros). No one is buying it. Are you wondering why they had no partnership with decent brand such as Logitech for hardware? SE cannot afford it.

Anyway, even if branding was successful, global income results would still be far away from SE's expectations. There is no discussion about that, it is a {fact}. When your goal is to make money of subscriptions + branding. You remove subscriptions. What remains? Less income. Not enough to reach goals that were set initially.

[Verecund]

Yawn


http://www.strategyinformer.com/news...1-less-revenue

[Zkieve]

Failure and success aren't measured on your expectations.
Is not my expectations, is that 90% of people who bought the game and stooped playing expectations.perhaps the one with super-mega low expectations is you.


Actually the game didn't become free to play. They are just temporarily waiving the monthly fees, which is an entirely different situation than going free to play.
The game was supposed to be P2P at launch , 6 months after is still F2P and probably wont start charging until ps3 release.Know when ps3 release is ? Probably wont even happen.Whatever you want to word it it does not change the fact the game is currently F2P, at least until the end of the year, or more.The small amount of people who would pay without major changes is not worth mentioning ( please take note i would pay , at least until i got bored again)


Which contradicts the very definition of "failure".

A failure now can be a success tomorrow , sometimes( very few).That DOES NOT change the fact the game sucks now , even the developers said it . Do you know better than them ?

Please take the pink glasses off.I love the game , but its current state is deplorable.Not admitting that is not healthy for the game.

[ARoy]

FFXIV is not a failure, never was.

I donno bro... sure it's in 'development' now but when it was released I'm pretty sure they thought that was worthy of being past beta testing... from what I can gather, it wasn't... and actually hardly is now - a big Final Fantasy buff I know said it's just barely past Alpha stage after he played it with my free pass. Considering a new development team has completely taken over, and is taking the game in a much better direction, yeah, there's actually a lot of truth to this.

But the truth is, if you turn in a report that gets an F but your teacher gives you a second chance and you hand it over to a better student... yeah it was a failure at some point, bro. And you talk about time and money like it's something people can just throw around... lmao how old are you thirteen? Who do you think SE is, Goldman & Sachs?

[istover9000]

the game is not a failure i think because we're all still playing it...