Letter from the Producer, XIII (07/08/2011)

[miokomioko]

There are way more potential customers in the world than the type of person you described (and are).

[Jesifromgaruda]

Players being patch to patch this early on, not even a year into it is bad news. Players being patch to patch is the reason why WoW is down 600+k subs.

I'm not trying to be a cock, but where did you get that number?

I tried to find it on the internet but all I read was that Blizzard wont release the number of people who are subbed so no one actually knows. I don't even play WoW, just curious because that seems insanely low to me.

[Lordender]

I'm not trying to be a cock, but where did you get that number?

I tried to find it on the internet but all I read was that Blizzard wont release the number of people who are subbed so no one actually knows. I don't even play WoW, just curious because that seems insanely low to me.

http://kotaku.com/5800175/world-of-w...-subscriptions

This was a few months ago, its probably even worse now, they lost 600k subs for cataclysm being terrible.

[Lordender]

There are way more potential customers in the world than the type of person you described (and are).

You're right, but how are they going to target those players? There is way better options already out there to target anyone who's looking to get into an MMO and quite honestly, 14 would probably isn't high on anyones radar. SE isn't going to win back most of the 11 crowd, hell most of the 11 players I know hate everything about 14 and vow to never try it again and wish they could get their money back.

With games that are promising a lot and taking their time to get polished up like SW:TOR, TERA, GW2 plus good content updates that continue to roll out on 11, its going to be nothing short of needing a miracle hailmary pass to win the superbowl to even put 14 into the same conversation no matter the amount of revamping that gets done.

Can 14 be good? I think it can eventually be a lot better than 11, the potential ceiling is very high still for 14 but the questions remain:

Can SE get it done in time?

Will they be able to keep what they currently have when it comes to 14?

How are they going to weather the up in coming storms?

Can they produce next gen content without all the limitations we saw early in 11's life.

[CaptainN]

Pretty much this, you really only have one chance to make good on an MMO game. I know people who were huge fans of 11 that bought completely new PC's + high end gfx cards plus 5+ months worth of crysta just to play 14 only to be so disappointed by it they decided to try XI back out post-abyssea. A few friends now laugh @ how terrible 14 is everytime some new news comes out, most of them say they'll never try 14 back out again and will stick with 11 till the servers shut off.

Not only is 14 a terrible terrible "game", you still have 11 which has actually become a shitload better with age and has really become a different game over the past couple of years, that is not going to help 14 at all. I don't think 14 is ever going to get out of the shadow that has been casted over it by 11. I don't even think we need to bring up SW:TOR, TERA, GW2, D3 when 14 can't even stand up to its older brother in 11.

PS3 only owners don't have these games as choices, I firmly believe there is a market for MMO on the PS3 + 360 (If the game turns into something, we know its going to happen) the question is will FF14 ever get good enough.

[Kaylia]

What kind of gamers doesn't have a pc? With all the bad rep ffxiv got, I can't imagine its fanbase being too big on ps3. It's definitively gonna sell a few...too many, but I doubt it will be enough to bring the game back to life.

[miokomioko]

What kind of gamers doesn't have a pc?

Come on, you can't be that naive...

I'd say that having only a household Windows/Mac machine for word processing and internet browsing and having a Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft box in your bedroom is a pretty standard thing in a lot of households across the country. A desktop machine that can play brand new games isn't as common as we privileged folk like to think.

[Charismatic]

All I know is I went to dinner with some old HS buddies a while back and I was just mostly listening when the MMO talk started because they're all big on WoW and I quit that before even getting Lv20, just didn't click with it.
Anyway, a friend asked me if I was still playing XI. When I said I play it off and on, the convo slowly shifted toward XIV and while none of them have played it, they are all convinced it is ass just because of reviews and word of mouth.
There's not a ton you can do about that kind of reputation since most people who are hearing this don't become interested enough to see if anything has changed down the line. The impression is made, now... as we all know, they'll draw in some folks but I can't imagine the game being 'successful' after the failed launch. Successful in this instance means meeting their goal of surpassing FFXI subscriber numbers, I assume when that statement was made they meant peak FFXI numbers but perhaps they meant current. They might beat out FFXI's current playerbase at FFXIV's peak but I doubt it'll go much beyond that.

[CasualPlayer]

Come on, you can't be that naive...

I'd say that having only a household Windows/Mac machine for word processing and internet browsing and having a Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft box in your bedroom is a pretty standard thing in a lot of households across the country. A desktop machine that can play brand new games isn't as common as we privileged folk like to think.

Agree with Mioko. Also, yes Kaylia is that naive.

At this point I don't have faith that XIV is coming out on PS3 though. High end pc's have problems running the game can't imagine running it smoothly on a playstation. Aside from, that like other people have said mmo gamers are pretty "flighty". Once the word gets out a game sucks the community is pretty quick to abandon ship and not look back.

Look at all the games that sucked at launch and became good over time already. How popular are any of them now? It will take some genius marketing by SE to make people notice this game again and we was how much marketing they did for pc launch.

[Lucavi]

What kind of gamers doesn't have a pc?

The entirety of Japan. Who did you think this game was for?

[Kaylia]

Come on, you can't be that naive...

I'd say that having only a household Windows/Mac machine for word processing and internet browsing and having a Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft box in your bedroom is a pretty standard thing in a lot of households across the country. A desktop machine that can play brand new games isn't as common as we privileged folk like to think.

Of course, it was an overstatement, but if people have a ps3 in their room, AND are interested in a p2p MMO based on a franchise that is popular with an older games, yes, the odds that they have a PC able to run FFXIV is high. It's not like you needed the best pc ever to play it either.

I'm certain there is a few players who were looking forward FFXIV and had to skip it because of this, but it can't be as significant as you seem to think.

[Lucavi]

Again, you're talking about non-Japanese, Kaylia. Japanese don't have god-rigs over there; its predominately console. Their rigs only need to be powerful enough to run train simulators and dating sims, and I'm being serious. Why do you think SE's been so adamant about making sure every MMO they launch is on a console? Did you think it was for the good of the worldwide market?

Fuck no. They'd have made 0 bucks in domestic sales if they had left both games as PC-onry. I'd wager they'd have sold more copies is they ran it strictly through 360 than strictly through PC, especially with the amount of power a PC needs to be able to play this at high settings thanks to the shitty optimization. PS2's XI was the ugliest thing this side of Rage Racer for the PSX, with jaggies all over the place, but it ran smoothly and as a result, it sold like hotcakes in Japan. The PS3 won't look nearly as good as a true PC, but the gap is far closer in terms of AA and other visual goodies, not to mention framerate (although a PS3 will never truly compare with an unlocked PC framerate).

[Meko]

Ridge Racer > FF14.

[Niiro]

Again, you're talking about non-Japanese, Kaylia. Japanese don't have god-rigs over there; its predominately console. Their rigs only need to be powerful enough to run train molestation simulators and rape sims, and I'm being serious.

ftfy

[Gulkeeva]

Again, you're talking about non-Japanese, Kaylia. Japanese don't have god-rigs over there; its predominately console. Their rigs only need to be powerful enough to run train simulators and dating sims, and I'm being serious.

You know, a decent amount of those games are very CPU / GPU intensive, that would "rape" most people's PC over in the US ya know

especially many of the games from this company ran on max settings http://www.teatime.ne.jp/top.html
NSFW !

[Lucavi]

CPU / GPU intensiveness stemming from poor optimization/low budget isn't really something to giggle at, Gulk. C'mon, man.

[Elcura]

You know, a decent amount of those games are very CPU / GPU intensive, that would "rape" most people's PC over in the US ya know

especially many of the games from this company ran on max settings http://www.teatime.ne.jp/top.html
NSFW !

You are depravity incarnate. I wonder how deep your hentai pocket is... Actually I'd rather not know lol

[Lucavi]

I've seen one picture of his... "room". Good god.

[Cichy]

All I know is I went to dinner with some old HS buddies a while back and I was just mostly listening when the MMO talk started because they're all big on WoW and I quit that before even getting Lv20, just didn't click with it.
Anyway, a friend asked me if I was still playing XI. When I said I play it off and on, the convo slowly shifted toward XIV and while none of them have played it, they are all convinced it is ass just because of reviews and word of mouth.
There's not a ton you can do about that kind of reputation since most people who are hearing this don't become interested enough to see if anything has changed down the line. The impression is made, now... as we all know, they'll draw in some folks but I can't imagine the game being 'successful' after the failed launch. Successful in this instance means meeting their goal of surpassing FFXI subscriber numbers, I assume when that statement was made they meant peak FFXI numbers but perhaps they meant current. They might beat out FFXI's current playerbase at FFXIV's peak but I doubt it'll go much beyond that.

My friend went to Gamestop the other day to buy a copy of FFXIV and he was telling me about his experience. First he was asked "Really?" when he said he's looking for a copy, and than the clerk told him the game was a piece of shit.

[Lordender]

My friend went to Gamestop the other day to buy a copy of FFXIV and he was telling me about his experience. First he was asked "Really?" when he said he's looking for a copy, and than the clerk told him the game was a piece of shit.

Gamestop employee's in my area have always bashed SE, I remember causing a scene in Gamestop the day I picked up Wings of the Goddess, dude made a smart assed remark saying FFXI was fail, kind of implied only retards play it over WoW. I told the dude he was a pile of shit infront of about 30 people and told him to shut the fuck up and ring my preorder up.