Subscription Cost Vs. Content Drops

[Jeeqbit]

Do you have this same info for the .1 to .2 patches?

I see 7.1 was 11/12/2024, so we are at 15 and a half weeks so far.

The 28th March would be 19 weeks then. And we know 7.2 is coming late March. So it will be the usual 19 weeks.

6.0-6.1: 18 weeks
6.1-6.2: 19 weeks
6.2-6.3: 20 weeks
6.3-6.4: 19 weeks
6.4-6.5: 20 weeks
6.5-7.0: 39 weeks
7.0-7.1: 19 weeks
7.1-7.2: 19 weeks

[Ranhansha]

3.0-3.1: 20 weeks
4.0-4.1: 16 weeks
5.0-5.1: 17 weeks
6.0-6.1: 18 weeks
7.0-7.1: 19 weeks

Overall it's the norm for what it has been through Endwalker, which is about 19-20 weeks. The only exception is really the timeframe between the last patch and the expansion, which between ShB-EW was 8 months and EW-DT was also about that much, up from the 5 months it used to be.

The extra time has obviously paid off. Look at all the extra content people are enjoying. We now have Moogle Tomes every patch, which were used to fill in content droughts. More subs=More money=More stuff on the Mogstation=Mote time between patches=Profit. What a joke.

[Ranhansha]

Do you have this same info for the .1 to .2 patches?

I see 7.1 was 11/12/2024, so we are at 15 and a half weeks so far. It's already feeling like a stretch...I probably log in only twice a week for less than an hour at this point.

Final Fantasy XIV Major Patch Release Intervals
2.0 → 2.1: 16 weeks
2.1 → 2.2: 15 weeks
2.2 → 2.3: 15 weeks
2.3 → 2.4: 16 weeks
2.4 → 2.5: 12 weeks
2.5 → 3.0: 22 weeks
3.0 → 3.1: 20 weeks
3.1 → 3.2: 15 weeks
3.2 → 3.3: 15 weeks
3.3 → 3.4: 16 weeks
3.4 → 3.5: 16 weeks
3.5 → 4.0: 21 weeks
4.0 → 4.1: 17 weeks
4.1 → 4.2: 16 weeks
4.2 → 4.3: 16 weeks
4.3 → 4.4: 17 weeks
4.4 → 4.5: 16 weeks
4.5 → 5.0: 24 weeks
5.0 → 5.1: 17 weeks
5.1 → 5.2: 16 weeks
5.2 → 5.3: 26 weeks
5.3 → 5.4: 16 weeks
5.4 → 5.5: 18 weeks
5.5 → 6.0: 34 weeks
6.0 → 6.1: 18 weeks
6.1 → 6.2: 19 weeks
6.2 → 6.3: 20 weeks
6.3 → 6.4: 19 weeks
6.4 → 6.5: 20 weeks

With some help from the AI (not doing all that Maths), but you'll see the dates coincide with Jeeqbit's, so I guess it's not that wrong.

[ZephyrMenodora]

Final Fantasy XIV Major Patch Release Intervals
2.0 → 2.1: 16 weeks
2.1 → 2.2: 15 weeks
2.2 → 2.3: 15 weeks
2.3 → 2.4: 16 weeks
2.4 → 2.5: 12 weeks
2.5 → 3.0: 22 weeks
3.0 → 3.1: 20 weeks
3.1 → 3.2: 15 weeks
3.2 → 3.3: 15 weeks
3.3 → 3.4: 16 weeks
3.4 → 3.5: 16 weeks
3.5 → 4.0: 21 weeks
4.0 → 4.1: 17 weeks
4.1 → 4.2: 16 weeks
4.2 → 4.3: 16 weeks
4.3 → 4.4: 17 weeks
4.4 → 4.5: 16 weeks
4.5 → 5.0: 24 weeks
5.0 → 5.1: 17 weeks
5.1 → 5.2: 16 weeks
5.2 → 5.3: 26 weeks
5.3 → 5.4: 16 weeks
5.4 → 5.5: 18 weeks
5.5 → 6.0: 34 weeks
6.0 → 6.1: 18 weeks
6.1 → 6.2: 19 weeks
6.2 → 6.3: 20 weeks
6.3 → 6.4: 19 weeks
6.4 → 6.5: 20 weeks

With some help from the AI (not doing all that Maths), but you'll see the dates coincide with Jeeqbit's, so I guess it's not that wrong.

Thanks. Looks like they managed to trend uo to 4 extra weeks on average. It’s significant.

[Jeeqbit]

15-16 in ARR and HW
16-17 in SB and ShB
19-20 by EW
19 so far in DT.

If they announced the extra week in SB I didn't see it. But they did announce the EW change by saying it would be 2 extra weeks + holidays. I suppose 19 is 2 extra weeks beyond 17.

[ZephyrMenodora]

15-16 in ARR and HW
16-17 in SB and ShB
19-20 by EW
19 so far in DT.

If they announced the extra week in SB I didn't see it. But they did announce the EW change by saying it would be 2 extra weeks + holidays. I suppose 19 is 2 extra weeks beyond 17.

They also nearly doubled the time between .5 and the new expansions. It’s a whole lot of extra nothing when you add it all up. Tons of money for consistent subscribers.

[Supersnow845]

Yeah the increase of 4 weeks on average is bad but the real killer is the fact that the x.5->x.0 is now basically approaching 3/4 of a year when x.5 is rather even the most content dense patch anyway

[Videatur]

Final Fantasy XIV Major Patch Release Intervals
2.0 → 2.1: 16 weeks
2.1 → 2.2: 15 weeks
2.2 → 2.3: 15 weeks
2.3 → 2.4: 16 weeks
2.4 → 2.5: 12 weeks
2.5 → 3.0: 22 weeks
3.0 → 3.1: 20 weeks
3.1 → 3.2: 15 weeks
3.2 → 3.3: 15 weeks
3.3 → 3.4: 16 weeks
3.4 → 3.5: 16 weeks
3.5 → 4.0: 21 weeks
4.0 → 4.1: 17 weeks
4.1 → 4.2: 16 weeks
4.2 → 4.3: 16 weeks
4.3 → 4.4: 17 weeks
4.4 → 4.5: 16 weeks
4.5 → 5.0: 24 weeks
5.0 → 5.1: 17 weeks
5.1 → 5.2: 16 weeks
5.2 → 5.3: 26 weeks
5.3 → 5.4: 16 weeks
5.4 → 5.5: 18 weeks
5.5 → 6.0: 34 weeks
6.0 → 6.1: 18 weeks
6.1 → 6.2: 19 weeks
6.2 → 6.3: 20 weeks
6.3 → 6.4: 19 weeks
6.4 → 6.5: 20 weeks

With some help from the AI (not doing all that Maths), but you'll see the dates coincide with Jeeqbit's, so I guess it's not that wrong.

Well I must say a clever way of using AI for once. Good use of data.



Denoting the thread discussion I unfortunately have to bring up WoW again (especially since I'm from there) and on WoW the content release is 8-12 weeks between patches whether major or minor. This coincides with the new season and consequently new gear for mythics and raids. Waiting 20 weeks for a tier (and not even always for every patch, because from 7.0 -> 7.1 there is no additional raid tier), 1 trial and 1 dungeon I don't know if it's exactly a value that can be compared to other games, because for me the value of the expense is not reflected in the content. People have made a point of denoting the RP side but it's not in-game content, it's content you create yourself and you can do it even with a piece of paper (but we both know we're talking about ERP and therefore third party use)

[Jeeqbit]

Denoting the thread discussion I unfortunately have to bring up WoW again (especially since I'm from there) and on WoW the content release is 8-12 weeks between patches whether major or minor. This coincides with the new season and consequently new gear for mythics and raids. Waiting 20 weeks for a tier (and not even always for every patch, because from 7.0 -> 7.1 there is no additional raid tier), 1 trial and 1 dungeon I don't know if it's exactly a value that can be compared to other games, because for me the value of the expense is not reflected in the content. People have made a point of denoting the RP side but it's not in-game content, it's content you create yourself and you can do it even with a piece of paper (but we both know we're talking about ERP and therefore third party use)

All I know about WoW is they bought out a company with 100 game developers so that they could work on WoW, so that they could reduce their patch gaps from 9 months to be what it is now. My guess is they had to do this because they struggled to recruit (especially with what was going on at the time) and the people in that company were local.

[Videatur]

All I know about WoW is they bought out a company with 100 game developers so that they could work on WoW, so that they could reduce their patch gaps from 9 months to be what it is now. My guess is they had to do this because they struggled to recruit (especially with what was going on at the time) and the people in that company were local.

Blizzard's Team 2 has always been in charge of WoW, and the number varies depending on how many other internal Blizzard studios are put in charge of the game at that particular time. The patch release cadence was increased to 8 weeks from Dragonflight onwards to allow for a constant number of additions (which is why people pay for subscriptions) and with TWW has also led to 3 fixed seasons but which fill up over the course of the expansion with sub-patches to give story content, gear etc.

Making investments is an important part of maintaining a service, if you don't apply investments you just have a drop in overall quality and it's not good for the game itself. Blizzard experienced a drop in activity during Shadowlands due to both the quality of the expansion and the excessively long release of content, and has restructured the release cycle so that there are no longer any empty periods.