Why FFXI Will Continue For A Few More Years.

I've been seeing numerous posts about people fearing that FFXI is going to end soon and everyone has their own speculations as to why it will. Just the same, everyone has their reasons for why it would be a good thing or bad thing ranging from "I'll Play FFXI till the day I die and have every relic," to "Finally it'll end and I can have a social life again."

This topic is to discuss the future of FFXI and centralize all of the "Oh Noes" popping into every other topic. So, on with the topic at hand...

Why FFXI will continue for a few more years.

Final Fantasy is Square Enix's flagship series and after so many years, there is still a large fan base and player base playing FFXI. If they were to one day say "FFXIV is now online and playable so *** You All!" and turn off the FFXI servers abruptly, it would piss a lot of people off and compromise their future customer base.

What's probably going to happen is the same thing that happened to Everquest and Diablo. When FFXIV comes out, FFXI is going to have a huge loss in players (possibly 50-75%). When that happens, they'll consolidate and merge servers. As the servers get to be fewer and fewer, then when get into overhead costs.

Overhead costs for Square will be composed of the salary for the FFXI maintenance team and the FFXIV team, as well as server up keep fees, utlity bills, etc. Eventually as they continu to consolidate servers and all that reamins is Bahamut, Asura, and Ramuh (just name dropping). They'll have to see if it's still feasible or not.

Feasibility can come down to FFXI and FFXIV balancing each other out. If FFXI is losing the company only thousands of dollars but FFXIV is profiting millions, it's justifiable to realign the budget. If FFXI is losing too much though then a few options finally come up in like 10 years.

1. Shut down the servers. Hope you enjoyed FFXI, hope you have a good memory cause as your grandkids are playing FFXXV they'll never see this gem.

2. Open Source/Free Server. The Diablo series path. Still being played by lots of people, the company doesn't give a ***cause it doesn't effect there profits good or bad with minimal maintenance required.

I know this post ran a little long but I'm sure this will turn into a big debate amongst you. Just try to keep the flaming to a minimum because everything is speculation and everyone is going to have their own view.

Discuss.

SE says that as long as players continue their support, XI will continue. They also said they hope people play XI one day and XIV the next and alternate between the two. I foresee myself doing the latter. Especially since SE and IGN discussed some more:

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/991/991483p1.html

Specifically, no experience points and the weapons being vastly important to character growth are really interesting.

Draw whatever conclusions you will. Claim whatever demise you will.

The simple truth of the matter is that FFXI isn't going to die completely for a very long time.

THe best reason why is evidence:

Ultima Online is still going, 12 years later.

Everquest still gets updated regularly, and wasn't superseded by Everquest II or Everquest Online Adventures.

Don't assume that just because you intend to pursue greener pastures in another game, others will feel the same way. I am sure quite a few are drawing the opposite conclusion and are looking forward to opportunities that might open up once more hardcore players leave for the newer game.

^This. Once all the leetists jump ship to the new game, because they just HAVE to be first and get the uber ***before everyone else, then it'll open up ***for peeps on good old FFXI. If anything, maybe ***will get a little more relaxed; with less competition people might be more apt to help each other and such....

Never know, it could happen...

Reading the interview makes me think more of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Final Fantasy Tactics A2.

In those games, you chose your job, then learned abilities by equipping different weapons.

Those games did have an experience point based system, tho.

I'll be playing this game when FFXIV comes out. With the way SE treats us sometimes (you'd know if you ever had to call them about anything), I really have no desire getting sucked into another mmo made by them. Yes, it looks and sounds really cool, but no thanks. I'm already sucked into this game, so I'll keep playing. If it dies, then I'll get a life.

But hey, if all this means is a mass exodus of douche bags, then so be it! :)

Well, Perhaps they will shrink the servers, but it won't Die.. when did Diablo LOD come out? There are still ppl there doing Key runs and Organ runs there and still do alot of Cow runs too.. I can't see why ffxi will still run , I mean how many servers do we have? 20 ish? they can shrink it down to 10 or even 5 and still run well. I bet too that if they close it, someone will have the script and run private servers with no upgrades support and just run on a "As is" basis.

IT won't die.. and if it does just die outa no where in 3 more years and forces everyone ont o 14 or 15 or w.e it is.. then I will not sink anymore money into ff, and just play a game that isn't required to go online.

Perhaps the system will be like the 'sphere grid' in FFX. Where you upgraded your character with points like that.

And with the weapons... Perhaps the more you wield one type of weapon, the more proficient you become with that type.
Then, each weapon may require a prerequisite level of proficiency to equip it. It could also be that the more proficient you become with one weapon, the less proficient you become with other types of weapons.

Which would lead to more specialized characters and the need for more than one character, similar to WoW/PWI/etc.

Tbh, I wouldn't mind the system being quest/event based where you get rewards not only in equipment, but in 'points' that could then be spent to improve your character.

Not really 'experience points' and linear growth, but a free-form system that allows more customization to the player.

I guess this 'is' a bit off-topic here though. lol

I played Everquest in the past and when Everquest 2 came out lots of players stayed on the server, but not too many for the server. So as the OP said we got merged with another server and population was again at "normal server" levels. I was just so happy before merging because almost every camp was open and NMs as well xD. So if it does happen be sure to go camp your favorite NM before the merge begins and you could score some big $$$.

FFXI has been declining on some servers for awhile, through bans and stupid updates lots of said F U SE and left.

FFXIV could be the final nail in the coffin for FFXI, as more and more is revealed of FFXIV over the coming months we'll see how if differs from FFXI and if its worth paying for 2 MMOs from the same company.

Its been what 2-3days? Since FFXIV was revealed and i've already seen a drop on my server (thats saying alot since there wasnt many ppl there anyway) alot of people have have given up and asking whats the point of carrying on playing FFXI with FFXIV out next year.

Unless SE brings out a big update and the other mini expans go well, FFXI may/will loss alot more of its player base.

That being said I dont see it dying anytime soon, there will always be hardcore players/fans that will stay till the servers close, wont be surprised if SE merges servers by time of FFXIVs release.

It all depends on what my friends/linkshell decided to do. If everyone went to FFXIV, then I'd go as well, if they stayed, I'd stay. I would admit I would probably get FFXIV to at least check it out and play it when nothing else is going on :D

Agreed with Citag. I've been a FF fan for years, since the Super Nintendo. I play this game as much for the social aspect as for the gameplay. If the majority of my friends decided to switch to FFXIV, then I'd probably at least check it out. But I don't see that happening...most of us are pretty dedicated to this game, and it would take something monumental to get us to "jump ship", as it were. 8)

It's too profitable for SE to even remotely consider shutting it down anytime soon. It doesn't take too much resources to keep an MMO going after you've had your final release of content without any major updates.

As said before, just look at all the old online bizzard games? Battle.net is run by a hampster on a exercise wheel and many people still play them religiously.

theres alot of ppl that put alot of blood sweat and time into this game, so b4 they switch off to ff14, they gotta consider the amount of time thats been put into this game :\ ^^ sry but im not putting another 7 years into ff14 lol

ff14 will be the same as ffxi regardless of how u see it.

^ This. I just quit 11 today because my job and family have made MMOs just to demanding for me. No matter how awesome 14 may be in the future, I probably won't even start.



What do you mean you agree with the title? I don't know, maybe my brain just shut off for the night and I can't comprehend sentences anymore.

Forget pXI man, FF XI ain't WoW, scripting all mob/NM behavior to have the same feeling as an "official" server will never EVER be possible. pXI is still nothing but an upgraded altana viewer for now. Gameplay wise, you can't do ***on it. FF XI server must have 1000+ players at anytime to be enjoyable (counting the afk in there, let's say 600+ active), otherwise the whole game becomes pointless. No economy, HNM open to anyone, impossible to complete most of quest/mission because of the lack of people. This is completely different from other well known and good working server emulator (PSO, Diablo, WoW, etc...).

Who's gonna host a 1000+ players FF XI server without lag, with decent GM team to prevent cheating/abuse ? That's just a dream.

this would be a nice idea this way people could still play/enjoy the game if they ever start playing their old games again xD

Mind you in the future this might even make a good lan game haha

SOE: Please play both games we wonts your moneyz.

Sorry to sray off-topic, but incidentally PSO is run on private server, and the game is still fantastic =). I don't think it's even emulated.

One of the guys in our ls made the comment that SE will also keep XI alive for the JP players still running XI since XIV won't be running on PS2. I've put too much time into XI to move... Now if they did some kind of character migration from XI to XIV (really doubt it) then maybe I would make the move.

That pretty much means Diablo and Starcraft. Both are still nice games!

^^

"TO THE MOON ALICE" /cue in random chesire cats

If they shut down FFXI I would love for them to publish something on all of the myths around certain parts of FFXI.

If people want to pay to play, SE will keep FFXI alive, even if it means to merge servers. Besides, if SE would suddenly kill power to the FFXI servers, what kind of example would they send to the new FFXIV players, when the next MMO by SE comes out.

Personnaly for me, I'm not even gonna touch FFXIV with a 40 foot pole. I understand the <Draw In> power of the MMO games now.

I think this quote from Frank the Tank sums up the power of MMO games. "Fill it up again! Fill it up again! Once it hits your lips, it's so good!"

I spent too much time on FFXI to start over on a new MMO to get sucked in again.

edit: changed FFIX to FFXI
(Thanquol phails big time at roman math)
LOL

um...it will continue....b/c...of me....

did i sound full of myself enough there? i hope i did...if not i might have to edit...

>.>

<.<

Lol! Frank the tank, I think I met ONE of them before.