LuckyBancho data shows that FF14 is in decline

[Supersnow845]

Yeah. Make no mistake, even if the endwalker trend line falls in line with non shb expansions, the argument that veteran players need more content remains.

Even if EW falls in line with ShB it still say a lot that 14 completely failed to hold the WOW refugees

No other game would see a massive injection of players, do nothing to retain them have the collective playerbase fall back to long term trends then argue that’s a good thing because they are still on long term trends, we could have had a new long term trend hundreds of thousands of people higher than the old one

[IkaraGreydancer]

Even if EW falls in line with ShB it still say a lot that 14 completely failed to hold the WOW refugees

No other game would see a massive injection of players, do nothing to retain them have the collective playerbase fall back to long term trends then argue that’s a good thing because they are still on long term trends, we could have had a new long term trend hundreds of thousands of people higher than the old one

WoW players were never going to stay anyways. XIV isn't and never will scratch that WoW itch for most people

[Rolder50]

WoW and XIV are the polar opposite in many regards, so no surprise there really.

[Bonoki]

WoW players were never going to stay anyways. XIV isn't and never will scratch that WoW itch for most people

WoW and XIV are the polar opposite in many regards, so no surprise there really.

I would expect the same from a FFXIV refugee over in WoW as well. One is a main game, the other is a side game.

[Ivtrix]

WoW players were never going to stay anyways. XIV isn't and never will scratch that WoW itch for most people

Idk I stayed LOL
But I did come a little early

[Turtledeluxe]

I would point out that the numbers obscure an extremely important statistic: paying subscribers who contribute to SE's actual bottom line.

Fiscal Year 2020/2021 about 80 billion yen in net sales (ShadowBringers)
Fiscal Year 2021/2022 about 115 billion yen in net sales (Endwalker)

Year 2021 net sales of 39 billion yen (year 2 ShB)
Year 2023 net sales of 53 billion yen (year 2 EW)

There is no possible interpretation of the 14 billion yen difference in revenue over the second year of each expansion that would lead to "the game is less healthy, financially, in EW".

There is "noise" in these values, as the MMORPG group has Final Fantasy XI and Dragon Quest X included in those numbers.

You sound like the devs. SE's bottom line is a useless metric as it does nothing to represent paying subscribers (like myself, like many people in the forum) who are simply not enjoying the direction the game is going in. The game doesn't have to be in a doom state to be missing potential. I would not say it's a good thing either that it's drawing in people who enjoy the braindead jobs, boring patch cycles and instanced solo content. New players, more revenue, don't correlate to a "healthy" game state outside the bare minimum consideration of how it lines corporate pockets.

[Supersnow845]

WoW players were never going to stay anyways. XIV isn't and never will scratch that WoW itch for most people

That’s not the point

The point is the WOW refugees had enough of an impact it was worth editing parts of 14’s design in an effort to keep them

Not go “lol too bad so sad”

[IkaraGreydancer]

That’s not the point

The point is the WOW refugees had enough of an impact it was worth editing parts of 14’s design in an effort to keep them

Not go “lol too bad so sad”

I don't think it was worth editing at all. They were only here because WoW was having issues. People play xiv for what xiv offers. People play WoW for what WoW offers. Neither needs to "edit" anything to capture each other's playerbases.

[Supersnow845]

I don't think it was worth editing at all. They were only here because WoW was having issues. People play xiv for what xiv offers. People play WoW for what WoW offers. Neither needs to "edit" anything to capture each other's playerbases.

Yes but if 14 wasn’t so allergic to releasing content they could have captured even 20% of that market

Let’s say they kicked it into high gear and vomited out and extra zone for Bozja in 7.0 and maybe a second deep dungeon, not much work in the grand scheme of things but something that might have encouraged even 20% of the WOW refugees to stay with zero negative effects on the current playerbase

If you are in an industry and a competitor dumps their customers into your lap you don’t ignore them because they have slightly different tastes, you attempt to permanently onboard them without affecting your core market, 14 didn’t even try, it basically just sat there and said “we are changing nothing if you aren’t interested you can go away”

[IkaraGreydancer]

Yes but if 14 wasn’t so allergic to releasing content they could have captured even 20% of that market

Let’s say they kicked it into high gear and vomited out and extra zone for Bozja in 7.0 and maybe a second deep dungeon, not much work in the grand scheme of things but something that might have encouraged even 20% of the WOW refugees to stay with zero negative effects on the current playerbase

If you are in an industry and a competitor dumps their customers into your lap you don’t ignore them because they have slightly different tastes, you attempt to permanently onboard them without affecting your core market, 14 didn’t even try, it basically just sat there and said “we are changing nothing if you aren’t interested you can go away”

You CANT onboard them while retaining your current core when the game operates differently fundamentally. When the playerbases are looking for entirely different things. Why waste time trying and risking your core when you already know what they look for in a game? They don't have to change shizz for WoW folks. I guarantee you WoW ain't changing a damn thing if XIV players went over there.

Also you talk as if CBU3 is this massive team on xiv. News Flash it's not, and is why or patch cycle is the length it is rn. They have a whole 7.0 to focus on. I'd rather they make sure that is good than stretch themselves out for a CHANCE to appease the WoW crowd.