Another MMO?

[BarghastTimes]

I've just been looking at the financial numbers that FFXI and FFXIV drew in, and they're both Squeenix's best earners of their eras. Do you think they'll make a FF18 Online or 20Online in the future?

Or do you think they fact they pour most the money we pay in this game into things like Kingdom Hearts Super Bad Rush Job Messy Narrative Dissonance the Gamplay 2.980 Prologue Chi Unchained Hearts Hearts Hearts Hearts and other Playstation Exclusives, means they've given up on the MMO market and see this as a dead end?

Opinions?

I for one would love to see what they could do, unshackled from the burdens of 1.0's sphaghetti code.

[Enkidoh]

Doubtful, as MMOs are considered old-hat and far too finanically demanding to bother with, when mobile games are the big money earners nowadays (FFXIV ARR only came about because it started as 1.0 whose development began way back around 2006ish, in otherwords, the heyday of the MMORPG).

A new FF MMORPG simply just doesn't seem likely I'm afraid - especially when FFXIV is still earning enormous amounts of money to the company.

[BarghastTimes]

But it's earning ENORMOUS amounts of money, you don't take your best cattle out back and put them to rest. And you don't just funnel all the money into medical services for everyone else, lol.

[Bonoki]

But it's earning ENORMOUS amounts of money, you don't take your best cattle out back and put them to rest. And you don't just funnel all the money into medical services for everyone else, lol.

FFXIV will probably go the same fate that FF11 took. Operating under maintenance mode for years to come with minimal updates while remaining a paid subscription. MMOs are heavily debated as being a dying genre these days, especially with the ethical battle of grinds vs casualization taking center stage towards the next generation of gamers. To whom of which SE seems to be entirely prioritizing these days. When FFXIV was first created it nearly sank the company and there's a good chance that SE still has war trauma to those events. FFXIV was created in the likeness of FF11 and flopped. Chances are, the next would be FF MMO would be created in the likeness of FFXIV. Considering this game's current successes. That said, while this game is generating cash, there simply is no reason for them to make another MMO because they would be competing with themselves. In all likelihood, there won't be another FF MMO until 2030ish if even that. SE seems to be transitioning to the mobile market and even has explored FF11 being re-released for the Andriod. Mobile games are probably the future until something shifts the tide. Additionally, I think the next FF MMO won't be a numbered title at all. Yoshi-P has gone on record wishing he had settled the name of the game as Final Fantasy Online instead of Final Fantasy XIV and believes that it may be time to drop the numbers altogether.

[BarghastTimes]

I think he's onto something, often when I try to get people into the games they're like "But that's the tenth game." And I have to be like, "Each game is a contained story, the only similarities are the combat mechanics and spell names."

[Ath192]

But it's earning ENORMOUS amounts of money, you don't take your best cattle out back and put them to rest. And you don't just funnel all the money into medical services for everyone else, lol.

Of course they are going to make a new one. The issue is they are huge gambles, so yes, they can be huge money earners but also sink a company with them. However, They have a history of MMOs tuning into successes and as much as this game has been refined... There are still more issues than they can probably fix here. I would be surprised if the new one isn't already in the works. From what I've read it may take 6 years or so to get something decent going so I doubt they're going to wait for XIV to be 16 years old to announce its replacement.

The game right now is exactly at the point where XI was when its replacement got announced, breaking revenue records, peaking essentially, and this would be the moment to get something else going because if you wait too long you run the risk of the game fizzling out and then people get apprehensive about investing in things like this because maybe the market for MMOs has evaporated or so they think.

It's hard to get people to invest in you when the project is no longer bringing in the revenue it used to, but really easy when people can clearly see its extremely successful atm. I have a ton of achievements in XIV but the MMO has taken a direction that TBH I don't think it will crawl back out of and I can see myself retiring for a new MMO. It's just a matter of the right one or a successor to this one coming along. I've said this many times before but the graphics update and heavy investment the game is seeing right now is enough to keep me for Dawntrail but honestly when looking at the game from a macro perspective it's beginning to have so many issues I don't think they can fix them all. It's just becoming outdated. Like an old car, at some point it becomes more expensive to keep it running than getting a new one. Some issues I can think of easily are netcode issues/Inventory issues/glamour dresser issues/no time passage/zone loading/little multicore support/still DX11.

[BarghastTimes]

Of course they are going to make a new one. The issue is they are huge gambles, so yes, they can be huge money earners but also sink a company with them. However, They have a history of MMOs tuning into successes and as much as this game has been refined... There are still more issues than they can probably fix here. I would be surprised if the new one isn't already in the works. From what I've read it may take 6 years or so to get something decent going so I doubt they're going to wait for XIV to be 16 years old to announce its replacement.

The game right now is exactly at the point where XI was when its replacement got announced, breaking revenue records, peaking essentially, and this would be the moment to get something else going because if you wait too long you run the risk of the game fizzling out and then people get apprehensive about investing in things like this because maybe the market for MMOs has evaporated or so they think.

It's hard to get people to invest in you when the project is no longer bringing in the revenue it used to, but really easy when people can clearly see its extremely successful atm. I have a ton of achievements in XIV but the MMO has taken a direction that TBH I don't think it will crawl back out of and I can see myself retiring for a new MMO. It's just a matter of the right one or a successor to this one coming along. I've said this many times before but the graphics update and heavy investment the game is seeing right now is enough to keep me for Dawntrail but honestly when looking at the game from a macro perspective it's beginning to have so many issues I don't think they can fix them all. It's just becoming outdated. Like an old car, at some point it becomes more expensive to keep it running than getting a new one. Some issues I can think of easily are netcode issues/Inventory issues/glamour dresser issues/no time passage/zone loading/little multicore support/still DX11.

This is how I feel. And I constantly am reminded of all the 1.0 limitations, like the amoury and the inventory. And my original account that migrated from 1.0 to 2.0 had all kinds of issues. I had to delete characters and stuff and they were on MogStation but not in my game, it was bad. And the websites look dated.

[NekoMataMata]

Yoshi P wants to make a new one at some point before he retires, and there's no way SE is going to let him go elsewhere to do so.

So it'll happen eventually. It's just all about timing. FFXIV is in a transition phase that should push it into it's second big story arc, and we already know that XVII has likely been in the making for a while now.

[RitsukoSonoda]

Yoshi P wants to make a new one at some point before he retires, and there's no way SE is going to let him go elsewhere to do so.

So it'll happen eventually. It's just all about timing. FFXIV is in a transition phase that should push it into it's second big story arc, and we already know that XVII has likely been in the making for a while now.

Part of me thinks we will see a new DQ MMO made before then since DQX came out in the Wii era. The question will be whether they keep it in Japan or not.

At the same time I feel like the Mana Series would be a lot easier to transition into a proper MMO Action RPG.

[Dyvid]

Doubtful, as MMOs are considered old-hat and far too finanically demanding to bother with, when mobile games are the big money earners nowadays (FFXIV ARR only came about because it started as 1.0 whose development began way back around 2006ish, in otherwords, the heyday of the MMORPG).

A new FF MMORPG simply just doesn't seem likely I'm afraid - especially when FFXIV is still earning enormous amounts of money to the company.

I do agree with you in principle about MMO is a dying if not dead genre however SE hasn't had huge success in the mobile market with its more recent titles; Echos of Mana, First Soldier, FFXI Mobile, etc... However, I guess successful depends on how much money it was able to quickly pull in rather than long term growth in the mobile game. Honestly the current game industry confuses me as people would rather download a free game then pay for everything in it rather just paying a full product from the start.

As for the original poster, don't count on anything anytime soon. SE would rather ride FFXIV as long as possible to fund its dumber ventures than spend money on secondary MMOs. FFXI remake was dropped and DQX never did make it overseas as an MMO.