Face it, this game is in maintenance mode now, i.e. managed decline

[Mawlzy]

Managed decline seems pretty close to me. Like it's definitely going downwards.

[TeresaFortell]

If you think FF14 is in maintenance mode, you have no idea what that word even means.
Check out Rift if you want to see a game truely in maintenance mode.

Not that I think FF14 is in a good spot right now.

I would say there is a misdirection of where it is going. However, I do believe they can readjust the trajectory and bring it back into shape. Overall, it is far from being in maintenance mode.

[Carin-Eri]

Managed decline seems pretty close to me. Like it's definitely going downwards.

Not sure if it's, as you say, managed decline, or simply SE being insouciant regarding the game's current 'health'.

[Volgia]

I think the problem iis that Square Enix, see the game as a stagnant venture capital problem. Even if you could amass every single MMO player into FFXIV, it wouldn't be enough for the profiteering seeking executive and investor who needs just infinite growth and money, so instead of reinforcing the game to keep the people who like it inhabit it, they need to "innovate" and create mass appeal so the continue promise of neverending growth exists.

I've seen it time and time again, in an attempt to appeal to players outside the genre they dumb it down, they get a massive short-term income from new players who eventually grow bored and leave because this isn't the type of games they like to play, and the game enters a crisis mode.

It happened to WoW and GW2 and other MMOs who did not survive this cycle like Wildstar.

[Mawlzy]

Not sure if it's, as you say, managed decline, or simply SE being insouciant regarding the game's current 'health'.

I think the problem is that Square Enix, see the game as a stagnant venture capital problem.

Perhaps at the intersection of insouciance and corporate finance we have a wilting daffodil.

A game developed with the passion of Wordsworth...

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;

Decays into a tabloid summary...

I walked around a bit.
On my own.
There were some plants.

[NaoSen]

The thing is how do they actually pull the game up enough for people to care at this point?
We're looking at a 2027 launch as most likely for 8.0, MSQ was poor, OC and CE were both cool but don't have reason to do it for over a month, OC's bonus's only really matter for forked tower and CE is the relic (It's achievement mount being a recolor is ridiculous). Still over a year and a half for the next expansion and people be bored, raiding (when it comes) can also keep a person entertained only so long. A content drought worse than Endwalker's is coming except this time the good wills gone.

8.0 would have to be basically like a 1.0 -> 2.0 level change at this point.

[Naraku_Diabolos]

The thing is how do they actually pull the game up enough for people to care at this point?
We're looking at a 2027 launch as most likely for 8.0, MSQ was poor, OC and CE were both cool but don't have reason to do it for over a month, OC's bonus's only really matter for forked tower and CE is the relic (It's achievement mount being a recolor is ridiculous). Still over a year and a half for the next expansion and people be bored, raiding (when it comes) can also keep a person entertained only so long. A content drought worse than Endwalker's is coming except this time the good wills gone.

8.0 would have to be basically like a 1.0 -> 2.0 level change at this point.

8.0 comes out next summer. 7.3 is August 2025, 7.4 is December 2025, 7.5 is April 2026, 8.0 launches June/July/August 2026. Do the math and count the 4 month gap between content.

[NaoSen]

8.0 comes out next summer. 7.3 is August 2025, 7.4 is December 2025, 7.5 is April 2026, 8.0 launches June/July/August 2026. Do the math and count the 4 month gap between content.

5.5 -> 6.0 was 7 months, 6.5 -> 7.0 9 months, they have expressed being under strain. You're expecting 7.5 -> 8.0 to be 4 months ?
Expansions launch with far more content and changes than a simple incremental bump.

Dawntrail | 6.5 (Oct 3, 2023) → 7.0 (Jul 2, 2024) | 9 months
Endwalker | 5.5 (Apr 13, 2021) → 6.0 (Dec 7, 2021) | 7 months
Shadowbringers| 4.5 (Jan 8, 2019) → 5.0 (Jul 2, 2019) | 6 months
Stormblood | 3.5 (Jan 17, 2017) → 4.0 (Jun 20, 2017) | 5 months
Heavensward | 2.5 (Jan 20, 2015) → 3.0 (Jun 23, 2015) | 5 months

[Jeeqbit]

8.0 comes out next summer. 7.3 is August 2025, 7.4 is December 2025, 7.5 is April 2026, 8.0 launches June/July/August 2026. Do the math and count the 4 month gap between content.

You've misunderstood something. There is a 19 week gap between patches, but that is not the case between the 7.5 and 8.0. The gap between that is actually 8 months, because 7.5 is split into two halves so they have more time to work on the expansion. This has been the case prior to both Endwalker and Dawntrail, where the gap was increased from 5 months to 8 months.

• 7.4 23rd December 2025 (19 weeks)
• 7.5 5th May 2026 (19 weeks)
• 7.55 18th August 2026 (15 weeks)
• 8.0 2nd February 2027 (24 weeks)

Although there are normally 19-20 weeks between patches, it's a bit different for 7.55 and 8.0, but if you move the 4 over to the 15 weeks you get the same overall result.

Now, maybe they will try to put in a lot of effort and make it sooner than that. But how sooner? They might manage November 2026 again like they did with Endwalker. But to get it out in August 2026 would be some sort of big demonstration of how many more people they have employed to work on FFXIV.

[BigCheez]

Managed decline seems pretty close to me. Like it's definitely going downwards.

I don't think it's intention. I think corporate SE's point of view was that FFXIV is doing well, therefore CBU3 doesn't need a lot of resources, while the offline and mobile games divisions are underperforming, therefore they need a bunch of money pumped into them.

Hopefully the decline will help them realise that maybe the continued success of their flagship product is something worth investing in.