Place to collect CONFIRMED Grand Company Information

[Amineri]

I'd like to use this place to collect what little information has been reliably given out. To that end, I think I'll have to insist on actual reference to the material.

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We were working to release patches 1.16a and 1.17 by the end of March, but now anticipate a delay of one to two weeks. [...]
[...] we will release information regarding the Grand Companies of Eorzea (what were referred to as “public companies” in previous posts) just before patch 1.17 goes live. [...]

Source: Letter from the Producer VI

To me this implies that the information about the Grand Companies will be released some time in April, but their actual release is still TBD.

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Introduction of public company leaders in each city-state

Source: Letter from the Producer III

To me this implies that the public companies (now Grand Companies will be run by NPCs), and so will not a player-run entities like guilds in other MMOs.

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Public company quests : Planning of public companies and related quests in Limsa Lominsa, Ul'dah, and Gridania

Source: Letter from the Producer III

To me this implies that the NPC-let Grand Companies will be supplying additional quests of a specific nature. At least one Grand Company will be in each city.

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Introduction of public companies in Limsa Lominsa, Ul'dah, and Gridania to combat the threat to Eorzea

Source: Letter from the Producer III

To me this implies that the Grand Company quests will be at least somewhat epic in nature, or perhaps of the conquest type, relating to the six hamlets.

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...the solo play response for farming/gathering is extremely valuable feedback for the dev team, and I’m thinking that this is something we can tie into the in-game companies we have planned

Source: Letter from the Producer V

Looks like Yoshi-P is going to include solo farming/gathering to the Grand Companies.

[Sonic_the_Hedgehog]

Yoshida: And while it's not in this patch, we've mentioned a little bit before about Companies. There will be quests tied in with them. These are going to be a big part of what's coming up. It's going to be a new and exciting feature in the game. I'm sure in future topics and letters we'll be explaining more about it. It's one of the things we're really excited about.

ZAM: Players have been excited about the Company system as well. Can you give us any more details on Companies and how they will affect the current Linkshell system?

Yoshida: In some aspect, the Company system will have aspects that are similar to and can link with that Linkshell community. But it's also going to be something larger. It's going to be more of a global type of community on a larger scale. I can't really say much more than that. I can tell you that toward the end of March there will be revealing stuff coming up on the Lodestone.
Before I became producer/director, in the old 1.2 patch notes it mentioned that we will be releasing player Companies. The thing is, we realized that we could bring out player Companies, but then if there's nothing for the Companies to do there wouldn't be any reason to bring it out. We decided to reverse that and first make sure that there's going to be content and stuff for the Companies to do before releasing the Companies. The whole coming danger that's approaching Eorzea is going to play a big part in something for the Companies to do.

Source:ZAM Yoshi-P interview

[Arcell]

Source:ZAM Yoshi-P interview

So judging by that information, we're going to be getting the Grand Companies of Eorzea (NPC companies) first and then if they can find a good reason to implement player companies they will.

[Coombah]

I liked the direction the Player ran Companies was going. Company owned ships and buildings! Thats what got me hyped about them in the first place.

[Jonno]

So judging by that information, we're going to be getting the Grand Companies of Eorzea (NPC companies) first and then if they can find a good reason to implement player companies they will.

I'm not sure that's what it says. Yoshi P has never really made a distinction between "public" companies and "player companies". He seems to use a lot of terms interchangeably that we try to read too much into...But I could be wrong.

[Psytic]

If its anything like conquest its going to suck because it seems on most servers everyone picked uldah

[REDace0]

If its anything like conquest its going to suck because it seems on most servers everyone picked uldah

To be fair, Ul'dah is the center of commerce and industry for good reasons. But due to this I really hope that they don't merely put one company per city or otherwise tie the bulk of the content only to specific cities (unless it's Ishgard. Hell, put all of the company stuff in Ishgard and open the gates if you want to, Square-Enix.) Unless they unify the markets and reduce the burden of teleporting between cities, LL and especially Gridania are going to remain empty, at least on Wutai, and the company content for those cities will be simply some something players will 'get around to' like the class quests tied to those cities.

[Winry_Rockbell]

I really look forward to what these companies will turn out to be. Keep going SE

[Takedakai]

I pretty much check daily for Company info on lodestone. We are really interested in this, please give us a peek.

[Teknoman]

I pretty much check daily for Company info on lodestone. We are really interested in this, please give us a peek.

Agreed. Really looking forward to Company content, and perhaps even a lowering of story mission levels, so everyone can get to the meat of the content (new more combat and story oriented missions) faster.