Wada ResignsFollow

Relevant:

http://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/61413-Don-t-panic%21-Yoshida-said-everything-ll-be-all-right-after-Wada-s-resignation?p=983588#post983588

You talk like ARR is in a position to turn away customers, beggars can't be choosers. They just came from a failure so embarassing they had to rebuild the game due to it possibly destroying the entire brand of FF.

As well anyone with a true desire to see the company thrive should.

SE's fans are a diverse bunch and they can make quite a bit by appealing to them both on the broad and the niche scale. But beyond even that, the fans of the game are a thirsty bunch. They'll eat up any info given to them, but starve them and they'll seek satiation elsewhere - which is bad. One of the greatest things about Final Fantasy and Square Enix in general was the ability to enthrall its audience. Even if you disagreed with certain decisions or game aspects, the story, the passion, and the general sense of true adventure instilled within their games is what keeps players coming for more.

But these 5+ year development cycles with little to no word as to the worlds and experiences that are coming leaves us with little to enjoy or be excited about. Worse, with no open communication there can be no feedback that can change something that could be disastrous to the success of a game.

Yoshida has the temperament to know what 'feedback' to ignore over his work and what feedback to incorporate. But his policies need to be spread to every project active in SE's development cycle if it wants to re-attain the rockstar status it once had. To do that, they're going to have to be more open-faced (let us see our developers! Let us see their work and passions! Show us the voice actors we love! ,etc) to satiate the ravishing hunger for media that's become the trend of this generation. If you're not at the forefront of our thoughts, you're yesterday's news - aka ancient history.

I know it's just a rumor, but I'm betting its true that versus was rebranded as FFXV. It would make sense that around the same time that development stopped 2 years ago is the same time that FFXIV's launch failed to bring in the numbers they were wanting. It would only make sense to put off other projects to make sure your current ones are able to float by themselves.

Well you did say better than many in the Industry But oh Well! As far as better than anybody in SE ? Who knows i am not interested in a blogger producer, i am interested in a producer that can deliver quality games(Yazmat, Ito, Sakaguchi) tho yoshi does brings a fresh newer look into MMO to SE, i just dont think emulating the norm is gonna be enough, he needs to give the game some FF feeling and by that i do not mean to literally bring parts of the series into this game.

Turning away customers who aren't paying you money anyway doesn't cost you a dime.

Beggars gain nothing from begging from other beggars.

WoW was only the most successful MMO of all time because it had thirteen million people paying them money. If a sub base has thirteen million people, but only a hundred thousand of them actually ever spend any money, the company is wasting resources. The other 12.9 million people are providing them no value other than a big number to brag about.

Glad we're both already romantically involved because I am with this post

The average gamer is above thirty years old and has kids and a career these days. They can afford to pay $15 a month for quality.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

I'm a good example. I bought GW2, and haven't bought a single thing from the gem store. In fact, nobody I know has bought anything from the gem store.

Meanwhile, I'll be giving SE my legacy monthly fee when playing FFXIV... actually, two monthly fees, because my wife is playing too. And I'll be buying a PS3 version. It doesn't take a lot of people like me to make F2P very worthwhile over the long run.

Over the same period of time, GW2 (f2p) will never profit from me beyond what I spent on the initial game.


Same story here :) Tho i will not garantee i will P2P FFXIV if end game is lacking, but i will give it an honest try.

$180 a year is less than 3 regular games. I buy very few, so it's not a stretch at all. That being said, I'm currently in love with Gamefly. At the rate I fly through them any more, it's just not worth sticker price.

Regarding the F2P vs P2P conversation; damn near EVERY game used to be F2P. Now you can't even finish some games without visiting their DLC shop. And don't even get me started on all those "Free" games for mobile devices. This trend is what's really under my skin about the industry lately. So, I've given up "completing" games and just keep them the 3 or 4 days it takes me to finish the story, then send them back. If I play anything that's over 10 hours any more, it's a big surprise.

I really don't see the sub fee payment method being a barrier to entry any longer either. With the advent of loadable debit cards and such, there's no reason a kid can't spend his allowance on a sub fee. On the other hand, an adult budgeting for video games can just take 3 mediocre titles off the "maybe" list and steer those funds towards the sub fee. And like Cat said, the average gaming population is in their 30's. If they're anything like me, they just want to set up that auto payment for the sub fee on their debit/credit card and forget about it. The convenience is worth it. I also prefer the sub fee model because it does somewhat limit spammers and RMT. I know it doesn't get rid of them completely, but it is a barrier to them. And I'm certainly all for that.

I very much agree with this. And I'm willing to pay more money over time if that means playing a game with a more invested community.

As a previous poster said, I am different than other gamers because 1) I plan on playing FFXIV, and 2) I'm a lifelong fan of the Final Fantasy franchise (I started playing at the launch of the first title, and not FFVII). This game doesn't have to be the best MMO ever in order to win several years of my business. It just needs to be good.

If it's not good, then I'll give it the same treatment I'm giving GW2... beat the central storyline as soon as possible so I can move onto something else. There's a reason I enjoy Final Fantasy games so deeply though, and I really enjoyed the storyline Yoshi-P introduced to v1.x. Based on that, I'm confident that I won't be disappointed by 2.0.

I agree. There is definitely an exaggeration going on here about the effects of free-to-play versus pay-to-play, but Final Fantasy fans have always been like this.

People used to suggest that it was a good time for Final Fantasy XI to go free, and that was always met with widespread negativity. Users who were normally calm/civil would verbally berate whoever suggested it. It was quite strange.

I don't really care that much. After all, Square Enix is likely going to introduce microtransactions even if the game stays P2P. I know that FFXI has had microtransactions in certain forms, and I expect FFXIV to go 10 steps further with pets, mounts, and more for real money. While I'm not poor or unable to afford it, that would get to be a bit much on top of a subscription fee.