FFXIV Languages

[outzaidur]

Don't know if it has been discussed and I am too lazy to do a search. (yes I am a bastard and I should be banned)

Why did SE choose to have 4 language support for FFXIV? I think I remember it being the same for FFXI. And the choices seem a bit odd...

Japanese, no need to explain this choice.

English, aah the language of the internetz...

But then hey hey! German and French? Huh? I really don't see the need for them to include European languages... compared to like Mandarin Chinese, Hindi and Spanish where there are a ton more native speakers. Besides, all schools in France and Germany teach English...

This list may be faulty but it shows an decent picture of what I mean:

1. Mandarin Chinese NATIVE: 873 million
2nd: 178 million
TOTAL: 1.051 billion
2. Hindi NATIVE: 370 million
2nd:120 million
TOTAL: 490 million
3. Spanish NATIVE: 350 million
2nd: 70 million
TOTAL: 420 million
4. English NATIVE: 340 million
TOTAL: 510 million
5. Arabic NATIVE: 206 million
2nd: 24 million
TOTAL: 230 million
6. Portuguese NATIVE: 203 million
2nd: 10 million
TOTAL: 213 million
7. Bengali NATIVE: 196 million
TOTAL: 215 million
8. Russian NATIVE: 145 million
2nd: 110 million
TOTAL: 255 million
9. Japanese NATIVE: 126 million
2nd: 1 million
TOTAL: 127 million OFFICIAL: Japan, Palau
10. German NATIVE: 101 million
2nd: 128 million
TOTAL: 229 million


German at nr 10 and french at nr 18! I mean, worldwide release but niched languages? huh?

[qpoiuwer]

The MMO gaming populations in many of those countries is near-0, and China in particular is more of a government thing than a language thing. SE has community reps in Japan, USA, and several European countries, which is where their base languages come from.

[isladar]

Why the fuck are you worrying about this, ffs.