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*

[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.

[Zaniel]

There is some astounding lack of business knowledge in this thread. Every company on the planet funnels some level of funds back into new projects. FF14 wouldn't exist unless it was subsidized by SE's other games' profits. Are you going to complain about giving returns to shareholders or perhaps pay to staff next?

Most entertainment media including movies and games relies on like a 70/20/10 ratio, 70% of what they make will get a lackluster response and probably lose money, 20% will be successful and turn a decent profit, 10% will be the blockbusters that fuel the company future. Because it's entertainment and not an exact science you can't be sure of where the dice will fall until they do. Failure in entertainment is high, like restaurants, most go out of business and anyone who thinks this sort of business is 70% success is deranged. Sony Entertainment or Warner Bros or 20th CF will make far more dud movies than blockbusters.

[hagare]

There is some astounding lack of business knowledge in this thread. Every company on the planet funnels some level of funds back into new projects. FF14 wouldn't exist unless it was subsidized by SE's other games' profits. Are you going to complain about giving returns to shareholders or perhaps pay to staff next?

Most entertainment media including movies and games relies on like a 70/20/10 ratio, 70% of what they make will get a lackluster response and probably lose money, 20% will be successful and turn a decent profit, 10% will be the blockbusters that fuel the company future. Because it's entertainment and not an exact science you can't be sure of where the dice will fall until they do. Failure in entertainment is high, like restaurants, most go out of business and anyone who thinks this sort of business is 70% success is deranged. Sony Entertainment or Warner Bros or 20th CF will make far more dud movies than blockbusters.

it's the conundrum of needing job experience to get an entry job xD
Wonder if they think a new project from scratch suddenly generates funds.
Except crowdfunding of course. Then again, that's basically preorders

[EnigmaticDodo]

There is some astounding lack of business knowledge in this thread. Every company on the planet funnels some level of funds back into new projects. FF14 wouldn't exist unless it was subsidized by SE's other games' profits. Are you going to complain about giving returns to shareholders or perhaps pay to staff next?

Most entertainment media including movies and games relies on like a 70/20/10 ratio, 70% of what they make will get a lackluster response and probably lose money, 20% will be successful and turn a decent profit, 10% will be the blockbusters that fuel the company future. Because it's entertainment and not an exact science you can't be sure of where the dice will fall until they do. Failure in entertainment is high, like restaurants, most go out of business and anyone who thinks this sort of business is 70% success is deranged. Sony Entertainment or Warner Bros or 20th CF will make far more dud movies than blockbusters.

I understand that profits from any product has to pay people and get used to create more games, etc. I'm just concerned, at this current time, about 14 getting to keep it's fair share to continue to drive ITS development. I would prefer they double down on something that has been a continued success over these objective failures they like to churn out. I guess my issue is with the current direction of Square more than anything.

[Risvertasashi]

I understand that profits from any product has to pay people and get used to create more games, etc. I'm just concerned, at this current time, about 14 getting to keep it's fair share to continue to drive ITS development. I would prefer they double down on something that has been a continued success over these objective failures they like to churn out. I guess my issue is with the current direction of Square more than anything.

So, yeah, Babylon's Fall or whatever it was called looks awful and I'm also not keen on SE's enthusiasm for NFTs and so on.

Further, SE tends to have a cycle of running themselves into near bankruptcy before they figure out they need to come down from their ivory tower and make the games people want. In fact, that goes all the way back to the story of how the very first final fantasy was made, and FF14 has that story contained entirely within its own original release and then ARR too.

My suggestion: Buy the games that are good, don't buy the ones that aren't. Any time they get their heads too far up their own bums I just stop buying until they get good again. They do get the message eventually, they're just a very forgetful company, alas.

[IckeDerTyp]

Obviously all the money goes into the Yoshi-P sammich fund!

Jokes aside tho, am certain atleast a fraction gets reinvested into 14! ^^

[Illmaeran]

I work in R&D; my department actually costs the company money on a day-to-day basis and requires funds generated by our sales team to function. It's only when we get a product to market that the company recoups the cost of our efforts. Game development works the exact same way; income from one project goes into the company pot to subsidize development of a follow-up product and/or an entirely new thing. Whether the new projects are profitable or not is irrelevant; the money's already been spent.

The fact that we're continuing to see new content releases in the game and expansion of hardware capabilities is clear proof that XIV's getting at least some of its money re-invested into it. I honestly hope that a fair portion of the profits eventually go into the development of a new FF MMO. Perhaps 10 years from now? I'm going to need a game to play during retirement.

[technole]

This should help some understand where MMO revenue stands in the larger picture, from the last SE investor earnings webcast. Sometimes people have a flawed picture, or seem to think FFXIV is their most profitable adventure or something. But that doesn't mean it's not consistently being invested in for the next 10 years. Mobile games always rake it in for SE.