Dev Tracker

[Spira]

lame or maybe just a practical decision.

there are definitely a lot more PS2 FFXI players in Japan and i'm not sure if the HDD is supported there but a sizeable percentage of that playerbase are still only using PS2 so they can't afford to exclude that many of them. I'm thinking survey data probably skews towards a majority if not almost all the PS2 users outside of Japan also playing on Xbox or PC already, meaning that they have an alternative platform to peruse SoA expansion content.
The threshold for making that decision is probably based on cost number crunching. I honestly doubt there are any more than 100 non-JP players who play only on PS2/3.

That, and its most likely a lot cheaper to distribute that in hard copy across Japan, so the number crunching for cost effectiveness is probably a lot lower. That said, I think it's probably gonna be a very smalll single pressing for SoA PS2.

[Azat]

I know its not the same in comparison, but could say that all these UI updates planned could be for the na/eu in mind more so then the jp, since the impression now is they are mostly a pc platform base.

[Spira]

lol you could call it that.. but its not a fair swap.
we took the money to be spent on NA PS2 users and used it to improve playability for NA PC users, oh and PC users everywhere else. but nothing extra for you NA PS2!
IF that was how budget was allocated I'd say its for the greater good of the game lol.

truth be told tho there really are a lot of console (read: ps2) FFXI players in japan. when the Rom9 thing went viral, I saw pages of JP players not willing to buy the whole rom9 thing because they couldn't check it themselves on ps2. or they were on pc but not on test server. its really a different technocultural environment.. because PCs aren't as big over there and people rely a lot more on mobile phones.

[Alolbont]

Many people already have a PS3 so buying an xbox just to play final fantasy seems kind of silly. I play on both PC and PS3 at the same time, so most of the time I'm not seeing the horrible PS2 graphics anyways. I like the convenience of not having to tab over and being able to control both chars easily with my keyboard for my main and a controller for my alt. If I cant get SoA on my PS3 then I may resort to buying a 360 for it or just use a second PC and buy/set up a controller like the PS2 version just so I don't have to tab over D:

I thought everyone had all systems by this day in age? I guess im one of the few the buy right out of the gate.

Even if you didnt want to buy an xbox, everyone has a pc. Theres no excuse to not play on pc. The game is so freaking old you can play it on just about any piece of shit pc you can toss together.

The only reason PS2 users still have is the fact they are lazy. Their is minimal cost for switching hardware to a better system and you gain so much if you move to pc.

[Michelob]

I thought everyone had all systems by this day in age? I guess im one of the few the buy right out of the gate.

Even if you didnt want to buy an xbox, everyone has a pc. Theres no excuse to not play on pc. The game is so freaking old you can play it on just about any piece of shit pc you can toss together.

The only reason PS2 users still have is the fact they are lazy. Their is minimal cost for switching hardware to a better system and you gain so much if you move to pc.

I feel like you didn't read what I was saying in the post that you quoted... I said I play on BOTH PC and PS3 at the same time. Yes I could get into the whole 3rd party programs thing and work something out that is roughly equivalent to what I have going on right now, but I gave you a reason why I still play on PS3. Saying there is no excuse isn't really a fair judgement.

[Alolbont]

I feel like you didn't read what I was saying in the post that you quoted... I said I play on BOTH PC and PS3 at the same time. Yes I could get into the whole 3rd party programs thing and work something out that is roughly equivalent to what I have going on right now, but I gave you a reason why I still play on PS3. Saying there is no excuse isn't really a fair judgement.

I was more referencing your comment about having to buy an xbox was silly.

[Septimus]

truth be told tho there really are a lot of console (read: ps2) FFXI players in japan. when the Rom9 thing went viral, I saw pages of JP players not willing to buy the whole rom9 thing because they couldn't check it themselves on ps2. or they were on pc but not on test server. its really a different technocultural environment.. because PCs aren't as big over there and people rely a lot more on mobile phones.

Wait wait wait... There were people who believed that we faked whole zones because they either have a 90 year-old gaming system or too dumb to sign up for the test server and verify it themselves? It's nice to see that conspiracy-theory stupidity isn't just limited to America...

[Julian]

So for 5 years we tell them to drop PS2 support...now they drop PS2 support (for some of the playerbase...its a start), and people are upset?

I assume the problem is that they aren't fully dropping ps2 support, which is what was desired. (Because it would allow them to finally not have the "ps2 limitations" crap to fallback to)

Since that isn't the case, people instead just see this as another display of xenophobia.

(Because in a way it is, especially if they don't provide any way at all for non-JP PS2 users to install the expansion. If they do provide that, then it's just calling xenophobia for the sake of blaming SE)

[Tarage]

Wait wait wait... There were people who believed that we faked whole zones because they either have a 90 year-old gaming system or too dumb to sign up for the test server and verify it themselves? It's nice to see that conspiracy-theory stupidity isn't just limited to America...

Xenophobic people gonna xenophobe.

[Trigun]

Is it safe to say NA/PC/360 ruined it for NA/PS2?

I don't think the community reps would fight for the PS2 users. They got that SE money.

[Eurell]

What ruined it is probably that barely anyone uses only Ps2 anymore lol.

[Elizara]

Unfortunately I'm going to lose a FFXI friend because we won't get the PS2 version of that expansion (and I hope he'll stay long enough to finish out a assault static). I did offer to have my brother build him a PC, but he refused. Do NOT ask me why. There's proly others that won't, due to stubborn, money or whatever.

Luckily for me, me and my brother went to PC a while ago, PS2 became our backup copy. It'll just save me having to scrape up the money for two copies. ^^ Ironically the PS2 version used to be the most stable version but now it freezes on tons of NPCs. It's sad but that's the way it is.

[Gwynplaine]

Is it safe to say NA/PC/360 ruined it for NA/PS2?

I don't think the community reps would fight for the PS2 users. They got that SE money.

Who cares this is what the players have been asking for. Progress marches on.

[Chamaan]

They could always offer a free copy of the Abyssea collection for PC to anyone on a PS2. Then at least people wouldn't be anymore out of pocket making a switch to PC. They'd just have to buy the expansion like the rest of us.

[Ramses]

I thought everyone had all systems by this day in age? I guess im one of the few the buy right out of the gate.

Even if you didnt want to buy an xbox, everyone has a pc. Theres no excuse to not play on pc. The game is so freaking old you can play it on just about any piece of shit pc you can toss together.

The only reason PS2 users still have is the fact they are lazy. Their is minimal cost for switching hardware to a better system and you gain so much if you move to pc.

I have a ps3 and I have a mac. No, not everyone has a pc.

[Yugl]

They could always offer a free copy of the Abyssea collection for PC to anyone on a PS2. Then at least people wouldn't be anymore out of pocket making a switch to PC. They'd just have to buy the expansion like the rest of us.

If SE can determine who does and does not have a PS2 version, they should do this.

[Shenrien]

>_> No one recall that vote thing that came out like.. a year ago or so, where when you logged in you were prompted to select what consoles you play XI on, they could have just looked that the community sizes, and reviewed the votes and then took that information and applied it to their distribution decision with this choice.

[Yugl]

>_> No one recall that vote thing that came out like.. a year ago or so, where when you logged in you were prompted to select what consoles you play XI on, they could have just looked that the community sizes, and reviewed the votes and then took that information and applied it to their distribution decision with this choice.

This has been mentioned multiple times actually.

[Kaisha]

They could always offer a free copy of the Abyssea collection for PC to anyone on a PS2. Then at least people wouldn't be anymore out of pocket making a switch to PC. They'd just have to buy the expansion like the rest of us.

Given the age of the MMO, SE's best bet would to just include a 'all-in-one' key to FFXI in the SoA expansion if they're going to bother selling a retail copy of it. I could really use me a new up-to-date disc. Steam copy is woefully behind, although that'll probably get addressed when the expansion comes out anyways.

[bungiefan]

The console recognizes if the game has been installed or not. Full expansions count as a game. So unless the console installs differently than the PC version (different naming structure) a foreign disc is going to be useless. I could be wrong on that, but I dont think I've ever seen anyone ever try/say they've registered an expansion across zones (JP/NA/EU).

Nope, it all goes to the same partition, and the file structure inside is similar to the PC structure, several ROM folders. I have a torrent link in the update files thread, and I made a thread when the last Abyssea came out with my full install in a RAR for people to fix the hard drive error on a system that doesn't read discs.

DNAS will stop you from using a JP disc to install, and POL Viewer looks for a specific disc ID, so it won't detect a disc from outside the region.

On PC, installing the core game, and then copying the ROM folders over from another computer with it installed will give you all the expansions, even though you didn't run all the installers. PS2 appears to work the same way. Also, if you alter the DAT files, or replace them with dummies, a file check redownloads them, even if they weren't part of a patch. The whole game is on SE's servers if you can trick POL Viewer into downloading all the files. SE doesn't name their files in a complicated way, it's all numbered DATs in numbered folders, with a few base directories. A systematic batch of dummy files and a file check could trigger it.