Very Concerned for the Future of FFXIV and SE

[Payadopa]

Don't get me wrong pushing the shop further isn't good but keep in mind. Square Enix was going that route for much longer than just last few months and despite that the impact of Cash shop on the game itself isn't as profound as many other examples. For whatever reason SE still gives a lot of leeway to FFXIV dev team and It doesn't seem they intend to change that in the near future.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it's not as bad. The trend is there, though. Maybe it's not gotten as egregious because Y to the P is on the board of directors or something. Who knows. The inn shop really left a bad taste in my mouth, though.

[Absurdity]

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it's not as bad. The trend is there, though. Maybe it's not gotten as egregious because Y to the P is on the board of directors or something. Who knows. The inn shop really left a bad taste in my mouth, though.

I do kind of get the idea behind the "inn shop". I have more than once bought a mogstation item only to discover that it actually looks terrible on my character or dyes in such a weird way that I can't even make it work.

Being able to extensively preview items that you're going to spend real money on is a useful and much needed feature... but having it in the game still leaves a sour taste in your mouth.

[Themarvin]

Sony Online Entertainment totally wrecked some of the MMO games they hadin their fold... Star Wars Galaxies for one, it went through 2-3 combat upgrades that really ended pushing people away as well as the game was released before it was more mature for it.

[JanVanding]

As zany as SE's direction has been at times, it'll still be a huge loss to the industry if they get taken over by Sony IMHO.

Even if you hand wave away any bias for/against Sony, it'll be a shame as much of SE's best work over the last few years has been it's smaller scale titles focused more on the Switch. Their in-house hit rate in the AAA league really isn't that great lately.

Not really.

Sony are actually one of the few companies that could probably be good for XIV if SE sells to Sony.

Case in point, the numerous studios that signed with them and still maintain a great deal of autonomy and independence from Sony, the only expectations Sony place on them is new IP exclusivity and optimisation/patching is done for their consoles as a priority for multi platform titles.

EA, Ubisoft, Activision, AGS or NCSoft are the ones you want to avoid like the plague.

[JanVanding]

Sony Online Entertainment totally wrecked some of the MMO games they hadin their fold... Star Wars Galaxies for one, it went through 2-3 combat upgrades that really ended pushing people away as well as the game was released before it was more mature for it.

SoE are a different company from Sony Entertainment of Japan/America/Europe

SoE was a development studio that developed Everquest that lost all their talent to other developers and tried to carry on living off their name.

They are now known as Daybreak Studios and they still produce jank.

[Raoabolic]

Sony Online Entertainment totally wrecked some of the MMO games they hadin their fold... Star Wars Galaxies for one, it went through 2-3 combat upgrades that really ended pushing people away as well as the game was released before it was more mature for it.

Oh cool, I never get to rant about EQ2.
Ahem...

WHY DID YOU ALLOW MOUNTS WITH STAT BONUSES SOE?! WHY DID YOU ALLOW EXP AND GOLD BOOSTS IN YOUR CASH SHOP SOE? WHY DID YOU SUDDENLY DECIDE TO GO F2P AND TELL YOUR EXISTING PLAYERBASE THAT THEY DON'T HAVE TO PAY YET HIDE THE FACT THAT YOU CAN'T EQUIP EPIC GEAR (essentially, the blue gear in XIV) UNLESS THEY KEEP PAYING MONTLY OR SPEND CASH TO RESTORE YOUR GEAR?! JOHN "SHARKJUMPER" SMEDLEY, I STILL REMEMBER!

[Sebazy]

Sony are actually one of the few companies that could probably be good for XIV if SE sells to Sony.

Case in point, the numerous studios that signed with them and still maintain a great deal of autonomy and independence from Sony, the only expectations Sony place on them is new IP exclusivity and optimisation/patching is done for their consoles as a priority for multi platform titles.

EA, Ubisoft, Activision, AGS or NCSoft are the ones you want to avoid like the plague.

Whilst I agree that Sony would be a better takeover than the horror story that the likes of EA and NCSoft, it's Sony's expectations of exclusives along with their historic expectations and demands of what a game should be that concerns me there. Would Octopath, Triangle Strategy and Live Live have turned out the way they did if they were designed with the PS4 rather than the limitations of the Switch in mind? SE seem to be at their best when they are keep things to a smaller scale and whilst it's fair to critise their more recent releases as a whole, they've generally been pretty good when it comes to their Nintendo centric releases. There's almost no chance that would be allowed to continue as is if Sony took over them.

[MonsutaMan]

Sony is even more notorious than Square in that they refuse to even acknowledge PCs as a gaming platform.

To have a company which is threated by PC, due to their competitor being like, the king of PC is a weird spot for a MMO.......

[Johners]

Sony is even more notorious than Square in that they refuse to even acknowledge PCs as a gaming platform.

That has changed though, Sony now see PC releases as part of their business model alongside 10 new live service titles that'll launch between now and 2026. Single player games will release on console first before PC releases afterwards and live service titles will be PlayStation + PC on the initial release date. Sony acquiring Square Enix, if it were to happen, would give them Final Fantasy XIV as one of those live service titles and it wouldn't change anything of the game only being PlayStation + PC.

[RobynDaBank]

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it's not as bad. The trend is there, though. Maybe it's not gotten as egregious because Y to the P is on the board of directors or something. Who knows. The inn shop really left a bad taste in my mouth, though.

I like how people repeatedly demanded Dreamfitting be a thing and when the devs finally cave it was their devious plan all along...