Very Concerned for the Future of FFXIV and SE

[Sqwall]

Also just to be clear, Microsoft buying Acti-Blizz is not a situation we should be looking at as a point of comparison here.

Activision-Blizzard was being sued by the state of California. Microsoft was able to swoop in and buy them on the cheap AND they got a free audit out of it from the state that weeded out some of the most problematic people. It was an obvious choice for Microsoft.

Well...let's hope it pays off for them.

[Kranel_San]

How is any of that 'disrespectful'?

By not recognizing the PC playerbase and their potential.
Just two or three half a decade old games have made it to the PC recently and they're just promotions to the PS exclusive sequels. Not even PS2 and PS3 exclusives are here because they serve no promotional purpose.
If Sony acquired SE then I'll not be surprised if they stated that 7.0 will be exclusive content for a period of time to PS owners or price it somewhere around 60$-70$ for a standard upgrade.
Microsoft, on the other hand, released a lot of Xbox exclusives on PC on day one, and while I'm not an Xbox owner, that has gained my respect towards them. Despite that, I'd rather SE be acquired by a third party other than Microsoft (Who already owns WoW and ESO) and Sony (Who would not be surprising if they shunned the PC community of the game away) to balance things out.

[Sebazy]

And yet nothing that the Cash shop offers even remotely grant player meaningful advantage over others

Not strictly true. Don't overlook the SDS Fenrir and it's speed boost.

[Jaquan]

Not strictly true. Don't overlook the SDS Fenrir and it's speed boost.

Right. My bad forgot about that bike. Then again considering time investment to unlock flying isn't that much i kinda forgot it exists.

[RitsukoSonoda]

Right. My bad forgot about that bike. Then again considering time investment to unlock flying isn't that much i kinda forgot it exists.

I think basically all that "speed boost" is about is that the mount speed is treated as having the first riding map unlocked even if you don't for that area. It doesn't actually stack with obtained riding maps or make it fly faster from what I've observed.

[DPZ2]

snip

Pay no attention to "industry rumors" until they are based on something beyond the sale of the Western development companies for Square Enix.

Considering that Crystal Dynamics was involved in a $200 million dollar loss for SE, I believe that the company has soured on non-Japanese development. The $300 million sale was enough to recover from those losses.

[Sebazy]

I think basically all that "speed boost" is about is that the mount speed is treated as having the first riding map unlocked even if you don't for that area. It doesn't actually stack with obtained riding maps or make it fly faster from what I've observed.

Indeed, it's main use is during the leveling push at the release of a new expansion. It's a significant timesaver initially.

[Vav2021]

Starting this off, I want to say that this is based off of an industry rumor; however, there seems to be some pretty sound evidence this rumor could very well come to fruition soon.

I've been reading multiple articles detailing the rumor that Sony may be in the process of acquiring Square Enix. This has me on edge for many reasons, mainly what happened to WoW after Activision acquired it.

I stopped playing WoW at the end of WotLK, so please forgive my ignorance as to the full state of the game now, but from understanding it's a microtransaction mess with kill purchasing and an extensive p2w system in place for purchasing gold.

This is what I'm so afraid of happening in XIV. As many veteran and new players have noticed, XIV has been in an incredible special bubble that has preserved a way of gaming not seen in decades. Sure, there are cosmetics and we don't like that, but for the most part Yoshi has been able to keep XIV free from extensive microtransactions. What happens when / if Sony purchases SE?

Let's not all kid ourselves either in thinking this wouldn't happen. They've already sold Crystal Dynamics among other studios, had multiple poorly performing games, and the golden goose egg that is XIV has been very publicly praised within the past year.

My personal expression is this to the developers and Yoshi - I have played your games since I was a child. XIV represents a very special place in the market of games and MMO's. Please, do not allow corporate greed to taint this secret garden we're all enjoying. Please remember what happens to products that fall into the gutter of profits over quality. We have been with you since the launch, supported you through the failure, and cheered you all on during the success - please do not disregard or forget us for Sony's profits.

Just an additional thought I posted below but feel is very important to add to these concerns:

I'll be very frank here. I don't think that Sony would cut ties with devs and yoshi himself in the Square Enix studio, BUT, my extreme and primary concern is that Square games would become victimized by the Sony Ethics Department in California. And worst case scenario, Mari tanabe of the Square Enix Ethics Department combined with the sony Ethics department would sanitize dialogue, remove edge from the games, and affect clothing censorship for characters (I can easily see Garuda being a victim of that).

Here's to hoping it doesn't happen.

[RayneBoemir]

How does any developer has any say in whether the company gets sold? Considering that they are looking into making mtx and nft for the future I don’t think another company buying them would make them any worse.

The company has mismanaged a lot of things on several of their games current and past.

Anyways let’s not start claiming the sky is falling on rumors shall we?

[RitsukoSonoda]

I'll be very frank here. I don't think that Sony would cut ties with devs and yoshi himself in the Square Enix studio, BUT, my extreme and primary concern is that Square games would become victimized by the Sony Ethics Department in California. And worst case scenario, Mari tanabe of the Square Enix Ethics Department combined with the sony Ethics department would sanitize dialogue, remove edge from the games, and affect clothing censorship for characters (I can easily see Garuda being a victim of that).

Here's to hoping it doesn't happen.

Funny enough yeah. Sony for years has had excessive and unnecessary censorship in titles ported to their platform as has been pointed out on numerous titles that were available on all consoles though I wonder if its just for US/NA releases. One of the first examples I came across was the game BMX XXX where people were poking fun at the playstation version having more censorship than the gamecube version. It's been getting noticed more in recent gens cause of digital store platforms on consoles.