New MMO by SE

[Katlan]

Oh yeah, remember, they're just announcing this, so in b4 6-7 years of development, end of worlds etc.

They don't announce stuff until its well into development. SE isn't Blizzard. The only exception seems to be w/ the XIII tri-games since they were all announced at the same time

[Appie]

So are you basically saying that freezing all their other projects until XIV is either fixed or dead would be a wiser thing to do? The new game still won't come out before either happens regardless (it'll be only announced before march 2012, it won't be released anytime soon).

Personally I think they should just drop out of the whole MMO scene after the 14 fiasco, which I don't think can be saved anyway, but that's just me. Of course SE will never think this, MMO are a fuckin goldmine and they are right, when the games are done right.

Yes, it won't be out for years, but not like SE does much in 5 or more years, just look at 14, 2003 gameplay with 2011 graphics. For SE to somewhat redeem itself on the MMO market it will first have to make 14 a succes or some very good marketing for this new MMO. I'm thinking the latter will happen considering my opinion on 14. And since SE now actually listens to feedback there might be a glimmer of hope. SE has alot to prove now that they can actually make a current gen MMO (and not just graphics).

And i do hope that you are not implying that it's the 3rd division working on this new title. SE is larger than XI and XIV, and the new MMO can be completely independent from either.

The fact that SE is larger than FFXI and FFXIV is the only reason they still didn't go down. I think everybody is aware of that. You mentioned only subscription games in your last post, so I do the same. If you want to talk about SE as whole, you shouldn't start about subs.

And I seriously doubt this will be anything FF related, DQ seems like a far more likely candidate for a "big mmo".

They may not know what's best for them

So we agree then

[Alderaan]

Old but still relevant!

You can't develop an MMO in a traditional game-studio culture

Surprisingly, many of the more high-profile MMO failures were developed by the largest, most well established publishers in the industry. These projects had the benefit of solid financing, large teams, established IPs, and proven development methodologies that had been refined over decades of developing successful games in other genres. What happened? You can certainly make a list of everything that went wrong – the game industry is full of "armchair generals" who would love to do so for you – but ultimately the quality of a game is determined by the development culture that created it, and creating a successful MMO requires a radically different development culture than the culture optimized to produce traditional video games. While these large publishers have refined the process of creating traditional video games to an art, many of them have not yet realized that an MMO requires a completely different development process, and a studio culture to compliment that process.

The defining characteristic of top MMO development teams is their awareness that they are delivering a service, rather than creating a product, and that release day is the beginning of a long-term relationship with their customers, rather than the end of the project. Traditionally, release day is the time to go home, repair your relationship with your spouse or significant other, and sleep for a few days, but the weeks and months following the release of an MMO are the most critical point of your development cycle. It's the time to make it clear to your customers that you will stand by your game, and that their trust in you as the developer will be rewarded. Regardless of your business model, you are asking players to invest hundreds or thousands of hours playing your game, and you need to demonstrate that you are committed to protecting the economy, quickly fixing bugs and exploits, and adding live content. If the entire development team is recovering at the beach in those first critical weeks, you will be unable to demonstrate your willingness and ability to support your game, and your players will be hesitant to invest their time and money with you.

[Shuichi]

Old but still relevant!

^This. Now if I could just acquire enough money to start my own game company...! ^_^

[Crizto]

I could only hope this game would be seperate from any other title. Make sure to bump the thread when more news comes out in 2 years

[Correction]

If I'm an investor I'm getting the fuck out of SE right now. They're announcing another multimillion dollar sink into a saturated market following a massive collapse of their last foray into the aforementioned market.

All without announcing any huge management shakeups.

SE is doomed without new leadership.

[Ksandra]

Old but still relevant!

while admirable and important, I don't think that's even close to being the only reason games are failing. Rift tried very hard to do what is described, but it looks like they are losing subs too, and will probably fall into the background the same way aion did.

[Hyan]

Personally I think they should just drop out of the whole MMO scene after the 14 fiasco, which I don't think can be saved anyway, but that's just me.

Yep, that sounds better.

That article is fluff at best....

All without announcing any huge management shakeups. SE is doomed without new leadership.

I'd dare to say poor management is only a part of their problems. Usually the problems run deeper than that, but the companies think simply changing the CEO will fix them.

[Alderaan]

while admirable and important, I don't think that's even close to being the only reason games are failing. Rift tried very hard to do what is described, but it looks like they are losing subs too, and will probably fall into the background the same way aion did.

I disagree completely about Rift. Of course they're losing subs, but every MMO does after a few months. Rift's "problem" is the same problem WoW had in vanilla where only 5% of the playerbase gets to see raiding content. It's still early and i see no way it falls to the background as Aion did simply for the fact that it has 10 times the content of Aion and counting.

[Katlan]

I'd only assume that this mmo has been in development during the part of the time in which XIV was. Otherwise it doesn't make sense for them to start a new mmo, given their financial statement, while XIV is in such a crux.

[Correction]

I'd dare to say poor management is only a part of their problems. Usually the problems run deeper than that, but the companies think simply changing the CEO will fix them.

I don't see how it runs any deeper into a company than the decision-making engine that steers the in-house creative talent in one direction or the other. SE's past five years on consoles and PCs has been a comedy of bad decisions in rapid fire.

[Lordender]

Whelp it could be a chrono trigger MMO i'm sure whatever it is they'll ruin it with it being a grindfest and really bad gameplay.

[vrumpt]

could be a facebook game for all we know. People wishing for an XI-2 or something should remember that XIV was kind of supposed to be a spiritual successor to XI, same races and all... same director... yeah. That turned out well. Regardless, this is a bad decision for SE. I guess the wheels were already in motion before their financial struggles were apparent with the release of XIV, only reason i can see them pushing forward is to finish what they started.

[Gokulo]

There's also the whole "focus on expanding MMO franchise" in their plans, no? So I guess this was at least a little expected.

[Xno Kappa]

EDIT: derp nvm

[Ksandra]

I disagree completely about Rift. Of course they're losing subs, but every MMO does after a few months. Rift's "problem" is the same problem WoW had in vanilla where only 5% of the playerbase gets to see raiding content. It's still early and i see no way it falls to the background as Aion did simply for the fact that it has 10 times the content of Aion and counting.

because WoW totally went into the background like Aion amirite?

You just proved my point lol.

[Katlan]

because WoW totally went into the background like Aion amirite?

You just proved my point lol.

Let's not forget that WoW is still in its vanilla stages, so a game that copy's Vanilla WoW's endgame sure knows what ppl what!

[Sol-Blackguy]

Final Fantasy Tactics MMO?

[Ksandra]

Let's not forget that WoW is still in its vanilla stages, so a game that copy's Vanilla WoW's endgame sure knows what ppl what!

yap. I don't think WoW ever had a "problem" when it came to subs. I'm sure there was a little up and down before the miracle patch 6 months in (fixing glitches), but vanilla was definitely not any kind of failure because of endgame content.

[Nevex]

Let's assume for a second that this new MMORPG ends being named "Final Fantasy *something*" and it's not a lost cause.
In order to attract customers they need to differentiate it from the other MMOs.
How many sci-fi MMORPGs are there? I can't think of any.

Isn't anyone else sick of stereotypical medieval towns, floating castles, crystal mines, magic forests and all those envirorments that have been redone to the nauseum in both online and offline RPGs?
I'd rather have a MMORPG with FFVII/VIII/XIII-like envirorments for once.

If they want to succeed this time they need to take all the things the series is praised for and combine them with a unique design that doesn't recycle the usual fantasy/medieval ambientations.
If they do that I'm sure the fans would close an eye or two and try it out.
Then it would only take a few positive reviews to turn said new MMORPG into a cash cow.