MMORPG Numbers

[FFXIFlux]

http://www.mmogchart.com/

FFXI number back to where they were at NA release and dropping.
EQ numbers pitched hard recently.
Runescape, the freebie that people play at work in a browser, going up fast.
Lineage 1 and 2 surprisingly strong still.
WoW is king, queen, prince and princess.

[DeusNoctis]

C-c-c-c-c-c-combo breaker!

[Chupunpupun]

http://www.mmogchart.com/

FFXI number back to where they were at NA release and dropping.
EQ numbers pitched hard recently.
Runescape, the freebie that people play at work in a browser, going up fast.
Lineage 1 and 2 surprisingly strong still.
WoW is king, queen, prince and princess.

Yea, I saw that last month. FFXI is like 4-5 years old so I wasn't surprised but I was surprised by WOW's numbers. I can't even imagine what would happen if they made a StarCraft MMORPG .

[divisortheory]

If they stopped banning legit players, started listening to player suggestions so people stopped quitting, and started banning RMT based on a better heuristic than "he's got a lot of money" their market share might go up.

[Maguspk]

http://www.mmogchart.com/

FFXI number back to where they were at NA release and dropping.
EQ numbers pitched hard recently.
Runescape, the freebie that people play at work in a browser, going up fast.
Lineage 1 and 2 surprisingly strong still.
WoW is king, queen, prince and princess.

Yea, I saw that last month. FFXI is like 4-5 years old so I wasn't surprised but I was surprised by WOW's numbers. I can't even imagine what would happen if they made a StarCraft MMORPG .

Fuck that, that'd be gay as hell because units weren't RPGish enough.

Now Pok

[BRP]

SE needs to drop the PS2(for Wii, I'd say), totally re-engine their game, fix their RMT and end-game issues, add a noob tutorial, and make a strong advertisement(wow the FFXI commercials were weak as hell, and I think I only saw 3) for them to really push for 1 million accounts. It's a good game either way, I don't care how many people play it. Nobody played Earthbound when it came out.

Something tells me Flux wouldn't have posted this if FFXI was placed higher.

[Paulisdead]

Its the quality of the player base, Not the quantity that counts. I would rather take the 10% Idiot population of FFXI than the 90% Idiot population of WoW.

[Lordwafik]

5 mil seems like an aweful lot of people. Do they count each toon as an account?

[Nikko]

10% Idiot population of FFXI

wow what server are you on. lol

[Lyramion]

Omg we could discuss FFXI vs WoW here - I bet noone ever did that!

[Zolt]

5 mil seems like an aweful lot of people. Do they count each toon as an account?

No, an account can have 8 (I think) toons per server, so something like 1k toons if you really wanted to use it to its fullest. Somethng funny about wow though is that they went ahead and fucked up their Korean release because they refused to do the whole net cafe sale thing that every other mmo does there (which also tends to pad subscription numbers). Imagine how many more accounts they'd have if they were willing to change their business model for that one market

[Kurp]

SE needs to drop the PS2(for Wii, I'd say), totally re-engine their game, fix their RMT and end-game issues, add a noob tutorial, and make a strong advertisement(wow the FFXI commercials were weak as hell, and I think I only saw 3) for them to really push for 1 million accounts. It's a good game either way, I don't care how many people play it. Nobody played Earthbound when it came out.

Would it really be worth it for SE to completely rework the game at this point? I don't know jack about programming/game business but I'd imagine dropping one platform and adopting another would be too much work both programming and PR wise then just creating and releasing a new game. RMT, endgame fixes sure, but I don't think they'd ever even consider going to those lenghts.

If they're going to go to such measures as dropping some platforms and using others and then go on a wild advertising spree, they'd probably be better off doing it for something new than trying keep this one going.

edit: I think the best thing on there is seeing how bad EQ2 failed. >_>

[BRP]

FFXI still appears to be one of the highest selling MMORPGs(which looks even better when you don't count China). A lot of people who play this game simply love this game. This is why it has such a static number of players. It would be smart to just look better for new players. If they want to make money, they need to really make FFXI look better(by new engine, I didn't mean like, adding jumping), use its cutscenes to the best of its ability(add cutscenes for every zone that automatically trigger the first time you walk in that spot, such as entering Jeuno for the first time, you hear loud airships flying over you, people running around, maybe show Wolfgang in the back. Get people to think "Wow, this place is really alive"), dare I say, make the game more soloable/duoable at level 10 to 20. Some crazy deals like "Turn in your WoW account and get one month free!", after changing the game around to seem more appealing to people entering for the first time.

[TomodachiF]

damn i love brp <3333 <_<>_><_<

[½pint]

I think this might only take into account America... FFXI numbers are terribly small compared to WoW.

Re: 're-engineering FFXI'; it is too late now to do that, the game is too old, they should just make sure their next one is better and not dependent on non-upgradable hardware.

[½pint]

I love the idea "turn in your WoW account and get one month free" lol XD

[epigram]

I would like real developer feedback...

[Janice]

I think this might only take into account America... FFXI numbers are terribly small compared to WoW.

Re: 're-engineering FFXI'; it is too late now to do that, the game is too old, they should just make sure their next one is better and not dependent on non-upgradable hardware.

This can't be just America. Lineage 1 and 2 are in there. Korea is included in this chart.

[Seebo]

BRP your sig makes me want to punch babies

[gemini~cusp]

5 mil seems like an aweful lot of people. Do they count each toon as an account?

No, an account can have 8 (I think) toons per server, so something like 1k toons if you really wanted to use it to its fullest. Somethng funny about wow though is that they went ahead and fucked up their Korean release because they refused to do the whole net cafe sale thing that every other mmo does there (which also tends to pad subscription numbers). Imagine how many more accounts they'd have if they were willing to change their business model for that one market

The 5 mil figure is way too high since subscription figures aren't reduced to "active players" or "number of account holders". Some MMO's like Eve-Online have very low subscription rates no matter how you use it but, unlike WoW or FF, their game is growing upward with more subscribers and active users at a higher rate than FF or WoW.

Also it might have been good FF reduced their sales of the game in Korea. Korea law does allow for the active selling of online currency in mmorpg's for real-money. They also have laws where players can take the game to court if they feel the game has caused their character to loose significant property since they recognize online gaming and characters as a "product of intensive investment and creation of the player".

There has been law suits where players in Korea have taken to court (and won) the game developer of a mmorpg for having their accounts hacked and loosing all or half their items. This and the Korean government's stance on rmt being legal (anyone who playes lineage can know that a crap load of the rmt there are Korean) might have discouraged SE from taking serious efforts to release the game in Korea. There's definately more reasons but not goign to makea lit