We are actually getting a Mobile FF14 ? WHAT!?

[Loggos]

I can't put into words how much I don't like this.

The trailer feels exactly like what I excepted from its mobile game iteration: flashy, sparkly, casual fun without much substance. Nothing of the things that define FF14 and ARR. Not even a mention of that weighty, epic story, no scenes with a serious or darker tone. Just a firework of fun colours and happy partytime.

(Also, I know we didn't have au ra, viera and hroth NPCs in ARR but I don't think it's a smart move to not include them as playable races from the start. (At least I didn't see any in the trailer?) They are such fan favourites after all, esp. viera and au ra. Not being able to play as either of them and potentially having to wait till heavensward/shadowbringers, which is years from now, makes me even less interested.)

Also, since mobile gaming is a lot more widespread in Japan and China iirc (though please correct me if I'm wrong) and gacha makes so much money, in conjunction with their restrictive and outdated spaghetti code for PC/consoles, I'm worried that they might prepare to slowly move away from PC/consoles alltogether and aim to turn FF14 into a purely mobile title in the long run. Not next year or the 2-3 years afterwards but perhaps across the next 10 years with the full switch coming when this post-EW arc with its 2-3 expansions comes to a close.

I guess like this they can start over with fresh code while also turning it into an even more "profitable" (but not necessarily more player-friendly) game.

Though I guess with new code/a new engine they could also pull a Genshin and try to develop a true cross-platform game that works on mobile and stationary devices. (Though this might make cross-platform team-fights hard/impossible because of the stark differences in gameplay limitations between platforms. Genshin is already held back by that a lot and it shows.)

[WillIrishclover]

My thoughts on this

I dont like it, but its not taking resources away from XIV, SE got licensed the I.P to tencent and it'll probably just stick to Asian markets, not gonna play a mobile game but it aint draining resources from XIV, I dont think this will do well in the west either, but it'll probably do decently well in Japan and China.

THAT SAID, I do think FFXIV has an I.P or a brand is no longer that plucky underdog and this just points to another symptom of a game which is past its peak.

[Boblawblah]

Only fear is that it's f2p and they try to link it to the non mobile FFXIV in anyway.

[Reinha]

I dont like it, but its not taking resources away from XIV, SE got licensed the I.P to tencent

It's being supervised by FFXIV devs and Yoshi-P. How is that not taking resources away from FFXIV? Development time is a resource too.

FFXIV MOBILE is officially licensed by SQUARE ENIX and developed by LIGHTSPEED STUDIOS under the supervision of FFXIV Producer and Director Naoki Yoshida and development team members.

[Rithy255]

I can't imagine it being the same ff14 we have (If it is thats 100% bad news for the game).
So it seems like resources going elsewhere yet again... woo.

[Hanayumi]

Oh fun another one if these... wait... its not April 1st...

[Daralii]

Something odd is that there's a paragraph on the Japanese and Chinese pages talking about their attempts to faithfully recreate the character visuals that's absent from the English one.

Machine translation:

Each race has its own unique production process. For example, in the creation of Hyuran males, it is important to convey a calm and friendly personality. In designing the textures for the characters' faces, we sought a natural finish that accentuates their personalities while avoiding excessive realism and flamboyant details and instead focusing on the style of the original work. In addition, in creating Lalafell, applying the same techniques as for the Hyuran male would have resulted in dark shadows on the face. For Lalafell, we adjusted the unevenness of the high polygon model repeatedly in ZBrush and weakened the NormalMap value to adjust the vertex normals of the face so that the shadows would not be too dark. This allows for an expression that brings out Lalafell's cuteness even more.

The promotional images have obviously been touched up, but they also look much loser to a high res ARR than the updates in DT.

[Miguel85NYC]

What would happen if FFXIV Mobile is better than Retail? I see a lot of people quitting retail and moving to mobile

[Hanayumi]

Oh watched Yoshi P's interview about it, yeah its definitely more for the Asian mobile market, so;
• Going to be rolling out in China 1st, global later on
• It'll be F2P with some other form of monetization
• Starts off with 2.0, expansions later
• NOT part of CBU3 development

[VeyaAkemi]

What would happen if FFXIV Mobile is better than Retail? I see a lot of people quitting retail and moving to mobile

You couldn't pay me to play through ARR again...