2015 Expansion

Don't even need to alter older content much graphicly and porting to nex gen while killing off ps2/360 support allows for FFXIV quality with each new update. New expansion/zones with such while old content remains old looking? Reminds me of how FFXIV was originally intended to be for 11 where u could step into the past and present version at will. Wishful thinking like I said. lol I know.

I'd suggest on Official Forums except for the fact I can't seem to be able to join them for w/e reason iono.

As of atm FFXIV is the Future for SE for the next 10+ years. FFXI is not. Which is by default being 11 is a game hindered by outdated technology that eventually is left behind and forgotten. If not now. Eventually. Port or Bust.

Look another person who doesn't comprehend that this game is a PS2 game ported to other consoles, and dropping support would do nothing.

I'm aware of PS2 but I don't understand does nothing. Unless a new platform of potential players and utilizing the newest technology to prolong a game's lifespan does nothing? I mean I'm not a SE dev so idk what is and what is not possible but it sounds as if SE had the same ideas as me long ago. Which I eventually realized. lol Hopefully they remember.

Lots is a technical term lol.

And I'm not talking about a facelift, (to the other posters), I'm talking about a sequel to FFXI.
Not a spin off or a sequel to the Final Fantasy genre, a direct sequel to XI and Vanadiel.

If FFXIV is the future, then SE might want to file for bankruptcy protection now.

I have a FFXIV account up and running and paid for and, though I don't play that game much whatsoever, until recently everyone including SE themselves said FFXIV was doing above and beyond expectations. Heh I guess such news just makes FFXI going Bust more of a threat to SE themselves which only makes porting over to Nex Gen even more wise.

As long as XI even has a moderate player base then I cannot see them not adding an expansion to it in future, no matter how small or large it may be.

The future may well be with XIV but if a company cuts off a revenue of cashflow, and I don't pretend to know the exact amount XI pulls in for Square-Enix, for no apparent reason beyond upkeep surpassing intake then they are seriously stupid.

I can definately see them taking a few steps to try rejuvinate XI's player base and try add fresh blood to what is admittedly a dated game. Whatever these steps will be I have no idea but I think we will know before too long.

its about 1.5M a month apparently. Or so they report. But you know with an Idris you will be ready for the next tier >.>

As far as I know, XIV is doing fine.
Will it continue to do so? No clue.
But they're between a rock and a hard place now in terms of its direction and its obvious they had no strategy for the game, nor did they look beyond what it would be after its release date.

The facts that support this:
-They've made content that is less than 1 year old irrelevant. In some cases, content that is 3 months old becomes irrelevant. This would be fine if they're plan was to continuously release new content at the current rate. But that would be one of the dumbest business decisions ever. Its expensive and its a lot of wasted resources with minimal return on investment. The ROI in this case isn't increased customers/subscribers because recent figures suggest huge decline in active player base, rather it is probably the retention of the 500k players.


-Getting into XIV is becoming increasingly difficult for new players. They've released so much fragmented content that doesn't support linear progression and doesn't really provide an open world experience either. Its content that you can skip for the most part. They've shown signs of addressing this by making content mandatory to progress. Which would be fine if the content was interesting... but its not... its a grind.

Some say its a game that's built for people to subscribe and play for a month or two, then unsubscribe and resubscribe when new content comes out. I guess such gamers exist these days, but the truth is that won't last long as the game becomes dated and these types of gamers go for new, brand new titles that are more advanced and feel fresh- an entirely new experience. Sounds more rewarding than turning the on and off button on XIV.

I myself played 1.0 when it was released all the way until they took down the servers when the meteor arrived. I restarted first day when 2.0 came up up until we cleared coil 1-5 before echo buff. When they announced coil 6-9, new tombstone currencies and basically the reset button - me and all my friends realized what the game was going to be- a constant grind with little immersion and new gear every patch..something we were not interested in, something that did not meet our expectations after 10 years of FFXI together.

-SE recently nerfed the relic weapon quests in XIV to encourage new comers to take up the quest and I guess spend more time in game. This is probably the biggest clue to the problems manifesting behind the scenes.

It should be noted Yoshida was never really a full blown game producer and only worked on specific dynamics. The difference in experience between him and Tanakka is really becoming pronounced these days. The amount of resetting in XIV is ridiculous...

I think the market's appetite for a game like XI pre-Abyssea is pretty robust. The next company that produces an open world quality MMO that doesn't *** up the lore or combat system stands to profit majorly.

No the "PS2 Limitations" was an excuse for SE to not do stuff for a long time, in the name of barance!

When it really amounted to them not wanting to do something, or to explain to the masses that their devkit would have an overhaul (including the codebase) for them to make a change worthwhile, which would cost a lot of money, and they had no intention of doing so.

Dropping support for anything isn't going to magically rewrite the code, or improve their devkit, or the built in limitations of the game, since the PC version is just a port, a bad one at that.

This has been explained over and over and over.

source? outside of a very small vocal minority I've yet to see a speck of evidence indicating that this is the case. the vertical treadmill where you play in spurts is likely here to stay permanently; it's more appealing to those with less time and those who want a system that they can feel like they're regularly progressing.

personally I see the appeal, not wearing the same pair of pants for 5 years is nice, but wearing them for more than 2 weeks would be nice too. a middle ground would be superior to any progression model thus far enforced by an MMO, but will probably never see one of those. XI shouldn't have attempted to emulate a vertical progression model; it was never based around one and the relatively few people who play it are cemented in the horizontal "I want to use this shiny I spent 6 months grinding Byakko for forever" type of mentality, and it's proven a disastrous turn to do so overall. The age of the game and people moving on to "greener pastures" surely had something to do with it as well, but the sudden shift in focus was the primary catalyst.

As far as seeing another expansion, probably. For as long as they can milk the cash cow they will, XI oozes profits at this stage in its life and the cost of developing content for it can't be very high. 2015 is being optimistic though. Earliest I'd expect anything is Spring 2016. Neither XI nor XIV are going to be going anywhere for a while, so anyone saying that either one is destined for the grave in the near future is simply ridiculous.

LOL you should see most servers they are very busy next time you should do your research before commenting and according to the Dev team XIV will be getting yearly expansions. Not exactly something SE would do if XIV is doing as bad as you say. They are also adding an EU data centre and generally the EU population is a hell of a lot small than NA/JP so unless there wasn't high demand for this they wouldn't be going to the trouble of adding a new set of servers.

I don't have any primary or secondary research to quantify the stated demand. I'd be interested in some though. However all I have to go with is a little bit of intuition and experience. What you mentioned are the selling points for the current MMO model. Doesn't necessarily mean there isn't demand, stated or otherwise, for alternatives. We're just not observing an alternative's success because there aren't any. Probably because the game companies are playing it safe and working towards what they know, even if it isn't as rewarding as some of the potential alternatives.

About the intuition and experience I mentioned at the start of my post; its based on observations on how other, non-mmo games are consumed. Some of which have a solid, long term following and are actively played. Yet they don't follow the MMO "spurt" and "sprint" model.

Just my opinion, I wouldn't build a marketing plan with what I have yet, but its worth a look. How much demand is really out there for an XI-2?

Unless the entire social-network era collapses in itself, fast paced mmo will be the ones sought out the most. Long term commitments go in the opposite direction of what is the instant gratification market that people seek now.

Agreed on this.

Has SE made back even remotely close to what they spent developing 14 with ver 1 & 2?

They could easily sell me another expansion, even if it was just a few months worth of updates packaged together. Current content is kind of boring and easy because SE hasn't put much of an emphasis on balance lately (enmity system is broken, magic damage system isn't competitive, Rudra's is superpowered at the moment, refresh sources are essentially optional for WHMs, etc.) However, if I'm playing anyway then I'll be damned if I'm going to not buy an expansion for my main even if it only gives access to another handful of events.

Pointless to even compare the 2 game you have one that 11+ years old and another that's what 3 years?. I don't even see where the debate even begins.

Then I'm not really sure how SE originally intended to merge 11 w/ 14 exactly. Unless ver1.0 was indeed the same PS2 devkit ported to PS4 and was the cause of all the issues prior to ARR. I'm not sure if SE ever put a finger tying the issue to PS2 devkit or not. Regardless I still think a PS4 port is the only real affordable solution for 11.

Ya'll ninjas posting in an FFXIV thread.

Well, I dunno, I started playing 14 about 3 months ago not knowing my *** from a hole in the ground, not really being part of any Free Companies or anything and I'd like to think I'm doing really good at it.

Also, I did pretty much everything without having to resort to an external Wiki or source.

I think it's very easy for nublets to get into FF14... 11 on the other hands, yesh.

and old content is still very usable for noobies, for a training ground if anything. I would say I'm a dodging pro now cause of the tons of times I forced myself to do Ultima HM