Counterpoint from someone who’s played the game regularly since the PS3 beta in 2013: I like that FF14 doesn’t necessarily try to take over your life. Sometimes during an expansion or big patch it’s all I play for weeks at a time. Other times I play a couple hours a week if that. It’s an MMO that allows you to put it down for a while and focus on other games, then come back and not feel like you’re so far behind that you can’t catch up (cough Destiny). Yoshi-P has even specifically encouraged playing that way.
I don’t doubt there are folks who wish the game had more content and released it faster. There are also plenty of people like me who are comfortable with the current pace and plan to play FF14 into the indefinite future.
Just feels a little like stoking a forced narrative to say that now, after 11 years, it’s suddenly in mortal danger from World of Warcraft because of a perceived content drought…
True, although if I was only playing something a few hours a week / having reasonably long breaks from it I’d not be able to justify the monthly cost (like half of Ultimate isn’t it, which gets you so much more).
It’s the age of it that makes me think Square needs to pivot a bit (just like Bungie needs to with Destiny) - as it means more and more players will have played most of the content.
It’s just a big risk - 65% of their profit and if they start to lose the players like Bungie have a bit, it could really cause issues for them given other projects aren’t particularly performing.
Guess the article struck a nerve with that factoid - that’s a big share from just one game.
Maybe the answer is some wider IPs or somehow getting some big hits if they’re not planning to change much on FF14 - it’s too much of “all the eggs in one basket” and as someone who enjoys Final Fantasy I don’t want to see them go bust or lay loads off…
PS: Should add I’m probably not best placed to judge the article, hence linking it here - I’ve stuck to just the single player FFs as I’m not really into multiplayer / relying on online people and also I was a little concerned if I really got into it it’d be yet another subscription but for just one game, although I did claim the perk and boot it up initially with the thought to give it a go maybe at Christmas…
Well that’s kind of the point though - at least if you go by Yoshi-P’s public statements, Square doesn’t need or expect FF14 players to engage every month of every year. They are cool with players taking time off during low-activity periods and then subscribing again for big content drops. I’ve unsubscribed for a couple months here and there myself.
That’s their model and it’s apparently worked for them for 11 years now. I swear I’ve read 20 similar articles over the years saying that this time is different and the game is in a permanent death spiral and no one is coming back. From the inside looking out, it’s never felt that way.
Yeah but think that’s also the point of the article (to be fair to them) - if people become more likely to take months off while waiting for new content, and the new content is spaced further out, due to it being such a cut of Square’s numbers it could have an outsize impact on them.
I do hope it’s just FUD from them - FF14 has funded them through some absolute failures like that live service game they shut after 6 months and Forspoken, and surely they’re due a big non-FF hit soon anyway.
I know it’s going to be years till FF17 but it’ll likely be more than enough to keep them going until that’s out - I’m probably a bit fed up with the incessant layoffs to keep profits up and shareholders happy across the industry so am keeping a more worried eye on some of my favourite franchises…
Should mention one game I’m thinking may go either way (or at least impact its online component in time and its sequel in 15 years time) is GTA6.
I’ve no doubt at all it’ll sell masses at launch, but I’m not sure it’ll have the staying power of 5 and given how important it is to Rockstar and Take Two whether it’ll impact them.
TT are one of the scummier publishers in recent years with consumers (first to £70 games for example) but I’m more concerned for the development staff not the shareholders or executives - they can go rot.
The reason I’m not sure is I don’t know how GTA6 (or 7 in the future if I’m wrong on 6) threads that fine needle given everything nowadays seems to descend into political and cultural arguments (often with no relation to the actual facts).
I’m honestly intrigued to see how they pull it off - the last GTA first released 11 years ago, culture has moved on a lot since then - will everything GTA allows you to do be seen as acceptable in a new game, or will they tweak some of it and risk outrage?
My thinking is they may take the South Park approach and satirise everyone’s views and be offensive to everyone to avoid issues - but given the anti-establishment and anti-capitalism satire before many players seem to have missed, I don’t know if that’ll work or if people will just see / hear what they want to.
I loved the series as a teenager and played it madly, then as a student I found myself being a bit more considerate while playing (particularly as missions are so much easier without cops on you) and now apart from police chases and the odd Online game my mate drags me on, I’m not really a big player anymore so I don’t have a horse in the race really.
But I will find the launch fascinating as I expect it to be a microcosm of our social media in general - I’m very willing to bet there will be petitions from all sides, some saying it’s offensive, others that it’s been watered down / has become tame.
Particularly on the toxic hellhole formerly known as Twitter…
Damn!! I thought this was going to be about Switch 2!!
I agree with you in regards to how you play FFXIV but for me, it’s The Division 2. Haven’t played it in a while and am waiting for them to reveal their next expansion next year. I’m definitely not someone who wants to keep playing the same game week in and week out grinding for daily/weekly cosmetics and whatnot.
While probably not entirely accurate, Xbox says I have 18 days of playtime in Starfield. It’s definitely a landmark game release for me. Best decision I made was pre-ordering a Series X when the ZeniMax acquisition was announced. I couldn’t imagine missing out on this experience and future BGS titles.
Random getting old thought for the day - when you finally realise why all the men you knew as a kid got socks for birthdays and Christmas, as you hunt for a clean matching pair with no holes despite knowing you’ve got hundreds of the bastard things…
Also at the danger of giving PC Gamer more airtime (honestly I swear I’m not becoming PC Master Race!) I did enjoy the rant about MFA / 2FA - as it’s one thing I find Microsoft and Xbox particularly good at.
If his organisation weren’t cheapskates and used Microsoft Exchange, Office and Teams, rather than Google and Slack, he’d only have to do it once a week or so using the Microsoft Authenticator app.
Obviously we use other MFA stuff to secure servers etc, but for me there’s a reason I use Microsoft / Xbox across my console, PC and work - it just all works without being a complete pain in the ass.
There’s one supplier meeting I have that requires Zoom - I’ve only gone to 10% of them as I cba to log into that piece of crap (it never remembers anything) when Teams just works (particularly with Outlook) . If the supplier wants me that badly they can join our Teams calls lol.
It’s also why I’ve always been bullish about Microsoft’s corporate division and why they’ll apologise later, pay a fine and de-bundle Teams from Office (for example) as once users have an easy life with their Microsoft account accessing everything without further MFA and by using single sign on for our external suppliers, they won’t give it up.
So IT teams will just add Teams into the install list next to Office, and the higher ups will usually sign off the Microsoft contracts with only minor attempts at negotiation - because having everything work seamlessly is just too valuable.
There’s many irritations about Office, Windows and even Xbox sometimes, but as we know from Smart Delivery, Quick Resume, cloud saves and Play Anywhere they’re just so bloody good at making it “just work” that when you go elsewhere you just can’t understand how anyone lives like that lol…
It’s in the language of Metric. I do wonder if the snobs that play Japanese games with Japanese VO will insist on playing this with French VO. The game still looking great.
As a Japanese VO snob(lol), I probably will not. When it comes to voice work on a game it really depends on which I think sounds better, like if I’m playing a dragon ball game Japanese VO all the way.
Currently playing through Metaphor and I so far like the English voices more, but not by so much that I wouldn’t play the Japanese VO version.
I see you took it the way I meant and not as a slight. I personally prefer games with English VO even if they sound better in Japanese as an example, I just don’t like having to read subtitles if I don’t have to. I don’t like it whilst watching TV or movies either.
lol I always find it funny that people don’t have the same type of respect for other languages. Like Stellar Blade for example I doubt people played that game with Korean voice over and English sub. Then something like the witcher series may have been done with Polish in mind. Then there are many other games where gamers are most likely not playing in original language. I’ve always found it odd people will only do that with Japanese games, but not for other languages
From the inside looking out, it’s never felt that way.
