Money this game makes

[Hysterior]

Some of it but not all. And yes, your money spent on FF14 is used on other games.
But that's how company and products work...

Cash cows pays for new launch development.

[gotaname1]

Let me put it like this:
If they make so much money, how come they can't make no good games or have good customer service?

*insert Fresh Prince of Bell Air 4th wall break gif here*

[kaynide]

Come on now, that's not a valid analogy and you know it. Every video game at the time was a physical, stand-alone product that had no way of being updated, patched, or expanded. Final Fantasy wasn't even an established series at that point, just an experimental game they didn't know would be a success or not. Making Final Fantasy II at all was as much "making more Final Fantasy 1" as anyone could have expected, so it shows the original game was profitable enough that Square saw fit to invest in more of "that," whatever they thought "that" was at the time.

I don’t see how it isn’t. Even current gen MMOs don’t necessarily put all their money back into the game.

You think Hearthstone, Diablo 3 or the Warcraft movie weren’t paid for by WoW?
Even non-MMOs, like Ark Survival Evolved, pour their profits into other projects like a sequel and an animated series.

[Kranel_San]

Most of it gets put into different games iirc.

Which end up in failure.
How many negative rated games did they release in the recent years compared to positive rated games?

[Jin-]

I want to say that I've heard that whilst subscription and expansion profit is split amongst SE IPs as a whole, cash shop proceeds go directly back into XIV.

This is a myth people need to stop spreading out.

[Thaciscokidd]

I don’t see how it isn’t. Even current gen MMOs don’t necessarily money back into the game.

You think Hearthstone, Diablo 3 or the Warcraft movie weren’t paid for by WoW?

Its probably get disseminated more than people think. Even though XIV(the green bar which is basically XI + XIV + DQX) is making money(and catching up) HD games and mobile games still bring in more. Unless something has changed behind the scenes the only money that comes back to the game 100% is the Item shop profits.

[Yencat]

Realistically there's no way to know where your money is going but it's a safe bet to assume it's being pooled and used where they please, that includes FFXIV but not exclusively.

If you want to specifically support 14, the devs HAVE made it clear that ALL profits made in the MogShop go back into the game directly (it has paid for additional housing wards in the past, for example). Keep in mind they didn't need to do this and indeed most DLC shops don't fund the core game.

FFXIV doesn't do this either, they just said they want to use the money to improve the game (and it has in some cases, wards, data centers and such), but they never said that all profits from the Mogstation go back into the game directly.

[Gemina]

Is a significant amount of it going back into the game itself? I don't like supporting square-enix's other constant live service failures if that isn't the case.

Then you would have to stop playing FFXIV. If that was an actual consideration of yours, then I would invite you take into heart that the only way the money you put into any particular product on the market goes to that single item is if the company makes just that one product. Your arm deodorant, toothpaste, and brand of soap may very well come from the same company that also makes items that you don't use; and possibly might even disapprove of. This is actually quite common as most people fall victim to advertisements, and don't research into the companies they buy their stuff from.

I would even go as far to say that the more money FFXIV makes, the more that goes into square's other projects. It has been mentioned that the money the cash shop makes all goes directly into FFXIV. While I can't recall anything official about that, I would wager a good chunk of savings on it being the case as that is usually how cash shops work because they are not supported by their parent companies.

That said, hopefully you can come to terms with whichever direction you decide to go.

[hagare]

Which end up in failure.
How many negative rated games did they release in the recent years compared to positive rated games?

too lazy to google.
Why don't you list them out xD

[kaynide]

Its probably get disseminated more than people think. Even though XIV(the green bar which is basically XI + XIV + DQX) is making money(and catching up) HD games and mobile games still bring in more. Unless something has changed behind the scenes the only money that comes back to the game 100% is the Item shop profits.

That’s a big thing; I don’t think people understand how much of the money MMOs make gets eaten to keep the game running. It’s not like offline games where you just have to sell and recoup development/ad costs. Once a certain number of offline sales are made, every additional sale is pure profit.

MMOs however, the cost to maintain the game constantly increases as the content within the game increases, yet the monthly fee remains the same.