Welp, the Xbox version is dead in the water. What were they thinking?

[Sqwall]

Word going round today is that "Xbox itself is dead". What great timing.

Maybe FFXIV launching on it will save it.

XBOX consoles have been dead since GamePass released on PC. XBOX as a brand is has been dead to me for a LONG time...nigh a decade since the reveal of the XBOX One.

Now the games Microsoft makes...are still good games. Gears 4 and 5....not bad (2 was the best). Halo 4 and 5...not terrible (3 or Reach were my favorites).

Microsoft will continue to produce games even if they let the XBOX brand die...which I feel they pretty much are. Microsoft has been a subscription based company since the windows 7 days and getting rid of purchasing software...and subscribing to software. Microsoft word, excel, outlook...literally programs the entire world uses...make them bah-hillions every year.

Now it's time for their gaming eco system to start taking that first step, hell they have been purchasing IP's for the last 6 years, and now it's time to reap the rewards....but they have to just give up on XBOX.

GamePass and being a 3rd party publisher....that's a win win. Only thing that I would tweak is reduced prices for microsoft developed titles with a GamePass. And stick it to the Sony players. Price of admission to play Halo or Gears on Sony consoles, and i'm a PS5 user....and I would be more then happy to pay for a Microsoft title....FULL PRICE...if that meant I didn't have to subscribe to GamePass...or own an XBOX. Honestly wouldn't bother me.

[Immut]

This guy gets it. The XBOX only exists so MS can create a console -> PC pipeline for gamers.

[BarghastTimes]

Okay, so.... You bought an inferior PC in a proprietary case basically, called the XBAWKS, that's mainly for children to play Fortnite or Call of Duty or whatever.... The Finals. \

And you're surprised.... that the XBAWKS, a product developed by one of the greediest companies in history... A company so corrupt it might as well be called SATAN INC. A company that has kids in mines and wotnot, and like, is so anal about subscriptions they told us their last OS was a lifetime service sub....

You're suprised they wanna charge you to access their servers?

Bro, just get a real computer and throw that piece of shit kid-brick in the shitter where it belongs. LOL.

[Sqwall]

Hot take: the problem is Square Enix, not Microsoft. Requiring a monthly subscription without guaranteed content each month is a very outdated concept. Most live-service games sell you a piece of content, like a battle pass, once per "season" that replaces the need for a subscription. All the normal functions of a subscription-based game, like new maps and gameplay content, are there, and the company is well-funded. But you are paying for the content, not the access. If there is no content, you do not have to pay. Final Fantasy XIV makes you pay regardless of whether there is new content. And Square Enix doesn't give us new content every month. Even World of Warcraft, the only other major subscription-based MMO, has monthly updates. FFXIV is a freakish anomaly in that it's using an old model and it's using it incorrectly.

OK, couple things I have a problem with here.
1. A Battle Pass is in NO WAY better then a payed subscription service. A battle pass has SO many issues from a business stand point and an anti consumer stand point I could spend hours explaining why battle passes are horrible for both sides, but more so on the consumer side.

-Battle Passes are "temporary". You pay an amount of money, for content outside the normal game, and in exchange for cosmetics, bonuses to XP, or possibly special content/story. Very rarely does a battle pass offer CONTENT that is something along the lines of DLC or expansion level of content and is hardly permanent. It's typically in the form of "digital junk".

-Battle Passes are a weak attempt at giving the player content. It may be cheap for the consumer, but one Battle Pass might vary from the next and so on and so on. Therefore it's bad for a developer if they release a real stinker of a season...nobody will enjoy it or pay, then the reviews flood in ostracizing the game.

-Battle Passes guilt the customer to experience the whole experience, it's not necessary, but "You won't get EVERYTHING the game has to offer" unless you fork over MORE money. And it's timed content...SO HURRY UP!! Play for 10 hours a day everyday until you complete your pass....just in time for another pass to come out.

-Battle Passes are not a guarantee for the developer, so if nobody purchases the battle pass then the next season or battle pass content will begin to suffer as budgets will reduce from the lower revenue coming from the battle pass.

Subscription Based Model:
-While it may be MORE expensive up front to get going using this method. However, you get ALL the content available even if you can't do everything. FFXIV is actually doing it to a point that is BETTER then WoW could ever do. I'm talking specifically about FFXIV cadence of content....it's predictable. I know when content will release, and when I can expect it. WoW was just kinda YOLO style releases of patches...sometimes over a year before content comes out. Not all content released is perfect (criterion savage), but it can pave the way for improved versions.

-Sub Based: I can cancel at anytime and pick back up...never miss a season or a battle pass...no FOMO...I just consume that content at my own pace.

-Sub Based: Monthly revenue helps improve the next expansion and current game. Games cost money to make, and having that revenue every month directly helps develop more for the game.

A cosmetic shop is also HANDS down better for the consumer and company. Blizzard learned this the hard way when they released Overwatch 2 and pretty much destroy an good will those consumers had left to fork over any money to support that game. Take out loot boxes that you earn randomly when leveling up, and replace it with a GRIND battle pass to unlock 1 thing per level...and not something you might want...but something we chose for you to have as a reward for your "accomplishment" oh and btw you have to do this every season....trash....

I would be MORE then happy to play the game, earn tokens or random gifts while playing. Then maybe after 100 hours...I'll go over to the shop and have a look, and maybe deck out my favorite hero that I'm really good with. Nope Blizzard decided to lock heros behind the Battle Pass, and gave the player base of OG Overwatch a middle finger.... F*&^ You...pay us money to unlock heros. Overwatch 2 was trash after 2 days....same game...just WAY more over monetized bullshit we didn't need....now look at it.

Diablo 4 is also doing the same thing. "You pay us money for a battle pass...for a to do list" "Once you complete each to do item...you earn levels in your battle pass and you get COSMETICS!" "Content" Fuggin Trash game.

Meanwhile in the year 2001: Diablo 2 Lord of Destruction launches:

Two new character classes: the Assassin and the Druid.
A fifth act taking place in and around Mount Arreat in the northern Barbarian Highlands, with an additional act boss, Baal.
Many new items, including new weapons and new pieces of armor:
33 different Runes, which can be placed into sockets and provide different bonuses from gems.
Runewords are specific sequences of runes which grant a specific set of additional bonuses (similar to the preselected bonuses of unique quality items) when socketed into an appropriate item.
Hundreds of additional Horadric Cube recipes.
Crafted items are very similar to rare quality items but they cannot be found in chests or dropped by monsters. They can be created with the Horadric Cube and the right ingredients. They have 3-4 predetermined properties determined by the recipe and up to 4 additional randomly selected from the same pool as rare item properties.
Jewels gain the same random bonuses that items can. These can be placed into sockets. They have the same effect no matter what the base item is. Unique jewels are Rainbow Facets which have different bonuses to a certain element.
Ethereal items that are normally more powerful than their standard counterparts, but they have lowered durability and cannot be repaired. However, if equipped by an NPC companion they do not lose durability. (There are different Ethereal items which have bonus stats that make them repair durability on their own)
Charms that can be kept in the inventory and provide passive bonuses.
Class-specific items that can only be used by a certain character, e.g. Claws for an Assassin.
Additional unique and set items, including class-specific sets.
An expanded stash for storing items—two times the size of the original stash.
An alternate weapon/shield/spell setup that can be switched to via a hotkey in gameplay.
Hirelings can now follow the player through all the Acts. They can also be equipped with armor and a weapon, can gain their own experience, when before they leveled up with the player, can be healed by potions, and can be resurrected when killed.
The game can now be played at 800x600 resolution, up from 640x480.


*Blizzard today "Why are people still playing this game when we have Diablo 4 out, don't they see all the work we put into the cosmetics?"*

[caffe_macchiato]

-I'm talking specifically about FFXIV cadence of content....it's predictable. I know when content will release, and when I can expect it. WoW was just kinda YOLO style releases of patches...sometimes over a year before content comes out. Not all content released is perfect (criterion savage), but it can pave the way for improved versions.

Your entire post fell apart when you said this. Final Fantasy XIV has not received $156 worth of content over the past year. The system is vastly outdated.

Over a billion people play live-service games that do not require subscriptions. At its best, Final Fantasy XIV represents 0.1% of the gaming market. The fact that FFXIV receives less content than a bottom-of-the-barrel gacha, and at higher cost, might be why Square Enix is losing record amounts of money.

The world's most valuable company, Microsoft, should not devote more than 0.1% of their attention to give a failing company special treatment.

[stranded]

I might be wrong about all of what i'm about to imply, and i probably will be, but when i went to go look at the blog post that news outlets are sourcing the core information from; i found myself failing to see anywhere where it says: 'A Xbox player will have to pay for a FFXIV subscription alongside a Core/Ultimate gamepass." Hell i don't even see the blog mentioning or even suggesting a player will require a licence for the game; just 'gamepass to play the full version of FFXIV'





The only licencing stipulations i am seeing is in regards to the type of game accounts that will be able to partake in the open beta; and that existing FFXIV who have game licences would have to wait until the full xbox release in order to transfer their game accounts with FFXIV licences over to a Microsoft account.

But as it stands, all i'm seeing is in plain english: "To play the full version of Final Fantasy XIV, Gamepass (core or Ultimate) will be required to play" I'm paraphrasing a bit, but that's what it says in regards to what the entry requirements are.

Has it occured to people that Xbox users may only need Gamepass to play FFXIV? no Mog-station subscription, no license key, just gamepass?

I'm probably wrong about this, and if i missed an official post somewhere from SE or Microsoft or Yoshi-P or Phil Spencer, please by all means, i'm a bit of a moron so i miss stuff all the time.

Also sorry in advance for any spelling errors or bad grammar.

This is kind of what I'm hoping as well. Would not be the first time Square gave us the bad news first to make the good news look better. Though I also think I'm just coping with that mindset. But heck, even if I still had to pay for the game itself, if the sub fee was waived when accessing the game on Xbox with Game Pass, I would actually be okay with that. But I still very much doubt it's the case, as much as I hope it is.

[Sqwall]

Your entire post fell apart when you said this. Final Fantasy XIV has not received $156 worth of content over the past year. The system is vastly outdated.

Over a billion people play live-service games that do not require subscriptions. At its best, Final Fantasy XIV represents 0.1% of the gaming market. The fact that FFXIV receives less content than a bottom-of-the-barrel gacha, and at higher cost, might be why Square Enix is losing record amounts of money.

The world's most valuable company, Microsoft, should not devote more than 0.1% of their attention to give a failing company special treatment.

Then I suppose it boils down to what it's worth to the player. I don't see spending $70 on D4 was worth it, and it wasn't. And nor the $40 dollars are year for the bargain battle pass....I don't see a long list of chores in exchange for cosmetics "content" worthy of my hard earned cash. And I sure as hell don't see the "Accelerated" battle pass as anything remotely worth purchasing....
Me: "So I pay more money to SKIP chores? Just So I can get cosmetics FASTER?"
Blizzard: "Yes! Doesn't that sound like a time saver?"
Me: "No, it sounds like exploitation of people that don't have time to play your game so you give them a "choice" to skip things they didn't even have the time to waste in the first place"
Blizzard: "Hmmm, then you prolly don't want to know that we grossly nerfed all the classes so it takes even longer, and for people that don't understand what real value is"
Me: *Blank Stare* "....I'm going to the local game store to get what ever amount of money I can out of this trash game I can while it's still relevant" *get's $55 dollars back*
Me: "Oh hey Neir: Automata for $15....*plays for 300 hours*

I also pay 19.99 a month ($240 a year) for FFXIV and have been for years....and I don't regret ANY of it...as I have got WAY more out of that investment...then I did from Diablo 4 in 3 months of owing the game. Call me a shill/white knight...whatever the new phrase is now if you want...but I know the value of FFXIV is hands down BETTER then any other MMO currently out there...WoW fell off the map. I will continue to play and pay for FFXIV as long as it continues to release content steadily the way that it does...that is just good business. I like what I see...I pay for it....people decide with their wallets. Blizzard has to stop smelling their own farts to ask us "But we made you a Diablo game....Why don't you like the Battle Pass...don't you like cosmetics?"

No I say....I like value and content I can absorb that offers real return on investment. I will no longer buy a live service game ever again after what D4 pulled. Complete waste of time and effort.

[strawberrycake]

All this

Hyper focusing on the shit show that is Diablo, doesn't take away from the flaws of XIV, and how Both MS and SE are currently not in great spots and how their collaboration is happening to make them both more money in a very arbitrary way. SE is Billion in the hole Value wise and is struggling to make money as well. MS just spent around an estimaited 80-100 billion between Blizz, Obsidian and Bethesda and want to make that back as quick as possible.

No matter how you cut it XIV is flawed and this deal is flawed, we should be critical about it. Your dislike of Blizz is subjective as consumerism is subjective. But what does that have to do with XIV and it's flaws? If you;re willing to overlook them neat, still there. This deal is still here.

And to get back on track. No matter how this goes I just hope we get a full on clarification about this issue from official sources soon.

[SieyaM]

Consoles charging you to use your own internet is nothing new. I'm pretty sure SE made a deal with Sony to bypass that for FFXIV.

Guess they didn't care as much for Microsoft.

This isn't an xbox live membership they are asking for it's gamepass which is the service that allows you to play a library of titles for a subscription fee. The xbox equivalent of + is Xbox Live Gold.

[Raim]

Your story makes no sense. You lost your PSN account. So you are willing to start over on Xbox. Why not just start over on PSN and make a new PSN account?