Originally posted by ArtificialGlorylol do you think japanese would seriously choose wow over a square-enix title?
I don't mind grind(especially in MMOs) myself, but the kind that Peach described just sounds ridiculous. The question is: how did FFXI become a financial success? I seriously doubt that the hardcore players alone could keep it above water.
and this is the reason why I think FFXIV will unfortunately stay afloat.. I believe they will recieve a ton of japanese consumer support
look at pokemon.. its still the same stank game.. and its currently topping the charts over there.. blech..
oh well.. theres still guild wars 2 and D3 to look forward to.. 😉
Indeed, the name is the major component in FFXI's success, and without it would be nothing like as successful.
Still, other big names have failed so the analysis has to go a bit deeper- one element is the eastern market's higher tolerance to grind (and liking grind is a whole different thing from the ridiculous claim that XI didn't have grind).
Also, as I say, its era. It was launched in the time when MMOs were still mostly doing that; just being a functional MMO was enough to work out (well just. I think XI came right at the tail end).
But times are changing- and furthermore, a lot of the details they have tried to change for XIV apparently are not working out that well either. I don't think it can necessarily live on the strength of the name- not with XI still running, after all.
They have recognised there is a problem. Still, very early days- the name IS strong enough to see it through those first months which, if this troubled, would easily kill many others.
My understanding now is that the PS3 version has been delayed with no release date now available- due to quality control issues, basically, after the PC release. I understand Deus Ex 3 has been delayed too.
After slashing their earnings forecast, Square-Enix recently issued this statement:
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"With weak sales performance of console game titles that were newly released during the current fiscal year, as well as harsh market feedback regarding a key title, we recognize the
strengthening of development capability in our Digital Entertainment segment as our most critical managerial issue."
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.... ow! As corporate speak goes, that's as blunt as it gets. Translation- "Our games sold worse than we wanted and one in particular was shit; we need to make better games." At least they admit it.
ha!.. and you know the sad part is I was rooting for this game in the biggest way.. really beautiful stuff.. but it just has no substance unfortunately... its going to take so much work to get this to become tolerable to western tastes.. I mean heres hoping but damn.. we're talking practically developing a whole game again, IMO
I'm completely in love with the theme song of this game 🙁
l96P-OPOSDk&hd=1
Ok, so this saga goes on, with an official letter from the developers.
http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com/pl/teaser/
Merely a year after release, they are finally going to be asking for subscriptions as they effectively launch v2 of the game. Good Lord! A full release basically turned into a one year beta test (except you had to buy the game to get in) because it was in such an appalling state!
And they are still not expecting the PS3 version until late next year. Gah!
I have no idea how much money they've lost thus far having to run it for free, but they are going to have to do well now to keep it in any sort of viable position.
So, this game was always an amusement to me. TOR may have faltered due to a misjudgement about how the market has changed, both in terms of gameplay offered and the subscription model, but it was not a fundamentally awful game, and it had some distinctive points to offer in the area of story.
FFXIV, on the other hand, turned out to be completely awful, from the ridiculous bugs to the interface accessibility issues to the dull-as-ditchwater gameplay to the general completely uninspired take on everything the MMO market can possibly offer.
It was the worst of all worlds and got punished for it- so badly that they had to extend the free trial by months, effectively cancelled the PS3 release, published several apologies, had the CEO state that the entire Final Fantasy brand had been damaged by the game and fired almost the entire staff that worked on it.
Well, with a new version coming soon, the PS3 release is now back on the cards, but the above was still an effective cancellation as what we have now is not just tweaks to the original but, effectively, a whole new game in the same setting.
Brief summary- new interface, new engine, new combat system and apparently 90% of game assets redone from scratch. There'll be very little of the original left, though I assume the basic design is the same. It's more like the changes you would see in a sequel to a single player game than any sort of MMO patch.
So, to be fair, this is a good effort from Squenix. They said sorry, they admitted it was crap, they said they would do something about it- and they have done something about it on a scale I've never seen before.
But... isn't this too late? Even if the FFXIV brand is not irreparably damaged, and even if this turns out to be a decent game, this is still going for the outdated WoW style MMO approach- grinding and subscription fees. We've just seen TOR fall afoul of that approach.
Any chances for this one?
As a huge fan of FFXI online since the start I have to say that this game started off as a wreck. It was no where near finished at all.
You're not gonna want to miss this game.
Ever since Yoshi P took over though, and I've been playing and sticking it out since launch, the game has become very entertaining to play even now before A Realm Reborn comes out.
Its almost in the beta phase for the new game and It was just leaked less than a week ago.
The footage starts at the 10 minute mark if you want to see. Such a major improvement and im excited as hell for this game.
Here are some trailers, the voice over on the first one is kinda iffy but the second trailer with the female sounds better, kinda.
There are events going on in the game right now which lead up to the purpose of changing the whole game. Basically they added a storyline as to why the game will be changing and they did it very cleverly.
Dalamud is coming to destroy the land which are controlled by the garleans. As I play you can see it get larger and larger with each new patch. It went from being a tiny red dot in the sky you had no clue of to this massive giant meteor coming to destroy everything. Right now it looks visually stunning seeing how close it is and how its changing the weather around the game as well as tiny little meteors falling about.
Cant wait for this to launch. Technically the first initial launch. So far I have BLM PLD and DRG at 50.
Originally posted by Ushgarak
Yeah, it always looked ok, but that was never really the point, was it?I have no ides if the new version is actually any good as a game or not. The question really is- does that matter now? Can they re-release a title with this much baggage using a subscription model that is, broadly, dying?
Not only does it look okay now but even that doesnt compare to whats in store for 2.0. Most of the areas now have a lot of copy paste designs. Doesnt look that way at all in the new version and with a few areas they just recently added as a patch.
..But as someone whos played since the launch and who requently visits their forums, yes, they can re-releases this title with its subscription model (which has also been improved) I'll only be paying 10 dollars per month to play a game which, imo, has a greater story and lore than most of todays MMO's with the graphics and history as a company to back it up beautifully. The PS3 release should also help. Ive seen quite a few returning players in the past 3 months since it became pay to play.
After its failed release and having to go Free to play for months, they still had subscribers willing to pay and see how it pans out, which I am glad I did and got to contribute to. This gave a lot of benefits to a lot of subscribers.