New Vanafest incoming.

[Spira]

Agreed.
There's not going to be any connection between the worlds at all. It defeats the purpose of it being a separate game..

Julian> not that I know of. As in I don't see it on the bbs and they probably have JP mines to look at, but I wouldn't be sure because I'd require a site metrics tool to tell for sure

[machiko]

I think they will announce a new cheapo addon at Vanafest, the main reason will be to advertise XIVv2 though. If you're honest the only audience that game has is XI players and I think they will either hope we move over or play both games so it makes sense to advertise it there.

[Tsuneo]

Why even call it Vanafest if they want it to be about 14. It would be awfully deceptive for them to masquerade a 14 event as an 11 event.

[Draylo]

Shantotto is gonna ride Vanadiel into Eorzea and we'll take over after 2.0.

[Eldelphia]

I didn't mean 'port our pimped 99s into xiv' I meant more... incentives to encourage the XI population into XIV. Whilst it is totally possible to continue the game for probably another 2-5 years I can't see where it can go without sizable investment. If they announce expansions and plans for further development - awesome. But how long do you hold onto what must be an old platform when your major investment has to be XIV? XI is unique and amazing and I really really enjoyed my time in game until the end of 2011 but it's coming up for 10 years old and I'm wondering when they'll let it go.

[Tagus]

As long as it's profitable they'll keep it around. When they do dump it, they'll probably sell the rights to some other company to maintain the servers... they won't just unplug the game and not get shit. What they could do, is similar to what Blizzard is doing with WoW users for trying out Diablo III, and offer in-game incentives for playing ffxiv. Hell, I'd hop over and check out the new one for a unique shiny in my ffxi, if it was a really good item.

Edit: I should mention the difference being, it would have to be a really good item because Diablo III is going to be an awesome game, whereas FFXIV is a steaming pile of shit from what everybody seems to say.

[Trigun]

If they would have said from the beginning that you'd be working towards the jobs of MNK WHM etc. in XIV I think there would have been less haters (including me). I don't know if that was the plan from the beginning though.

As far as the Vanafest I think what is needed most is a PS3/or/Vita port. What is wanted most is new content.

[machiko]

Why even call it Vanafest if they want it to be about 14. It would be awfully deceptive for them to masquerade a 14 event as an 11 event.

Cause it's guaranteed to get a good turnout at the target audience and get media attention? How many would go to Eorzeafest? Nothing is beneath them now honestly, if v2 fails they will look like imbeciles.

As far as the Vanafest I think what is needed most is a PS3/or/Vita port.

Ps3 port would be good, do enough people care about Vita to make that worth a damn? o.O

[Taint]

Cause it's guaranteed to get a good turnout at the target audience and get media attention? How many would go to Eorzeafest? Nothing is beneath them now honestly, if v2 fails they will look like imbeciles.



Ps3 port would be good, do enough people care about Vita to make that worth a damn? o.O

Windower functions are too important to make any port worth it without some major game restructuring.

[crux]

I'm baffled why anyone would assume they'd decide to close Final Fantasy XI down. It makes no sense on any level I can imagine, for a myriad of reasons I can explain. The fact that releasing bad news at a festival is a terrible idea is the most trivial of reasons, though logical all the same. The paramount reason this game will persist, repeating what others have said, is that this game is profitable. Has been profitable - will continue to be profitable. Every character on their servers is profit, and every add-on or expansion they sell is profit. If Final Fantasy XIV is going to sink or swim, why the hell would they want to eliminate a persistent source of income and a place for the FFXIV players to backstroke back to if it does sink? We all have our doubts about the competence level of SquareEnix as an entity, but removing their safeguard to try to squeeze a few more dollars out of a failed project is insane. To stop FFXI now is to cut us and themselves off at the knees. Bad for everyone involved.

A PS3 announcement is possible, since we know Tanaka would like to see it happen, but even Tanaka himself said it isn't likely because of the difficulties of working with PS3. They've yet to get FFXIV to the system; seems unlikely that they'd push two MMOs onto the console at the same time. If there's any validity to conspiracy theorists ranting about FFXIV shutting down FFXI, I'd say it's very possible that a PS3 port of FFXIV makes it much less likely to see a FFXI port on the same system.

Vita is much more likely and perhaps even more profitable of a decision, as it would be the first major MMO to hit a portable console. On the other hand, I have to wonder why anyone wants it to happen. Sure, it's nice to have fantasies of playing a MMO over 3G on the go, during a lunchbreak, or on a long trip, but does anyone fantasize about typing with a virtual keyboard? It would not only require a new UI catered to the device, but it would usher in a legion of players that solely speak in chatspeak (more so than already exists, at least). It wouldn't be cheap to port and the userbase has yet to justify itself for the Vita. The timing doesn't seem right, but I won't rule it out completely.

I think there's reason to be optimistic for add-ons or perhaps even expansions. I'll tackle expansions first, since it's the tougher of the two to justify. The biggest reason I remain optimistic for an expansion is that it's a crash crop for SE like few others. Not only can they put a pricetag on the box that aligns with current gen games and be assured that hundreds of thousands of people would buy it, but it would also bring back many thousands of players which means many thousands of subscription fees. Never mind the "free" PR that a new expansion for a ten year old game would bring to entice new players. The second major reason I could see it happening is simply considering the time line. It's closing in on five years since the last expansion. Before that the biggest gap for an expansion was two years. Even if we consider the add-ons as a collective expansion (a hell of an argument to make), by the end of this year it'll have been two years since Heroes was released. Expansions have the ability to seem "bigger" than content trickled out through updates or even add-ons, regardless of the reality of it. If they're going to keep this game going as their safeguard (which as I outlined above is pretty much a sure thing), it would do them well to dangle a big fucking carrot in front of our noses.

Add-ons seems like a worst-case scenario for me, because I just can't think of a good reason why not. The counter-arguments to both expansions and add-ons is the system limitations of PS2, but we know for a fact they've been working on those very issues for some reason. It very well could be to ensure that trickled updates can persist on the system, but I find it unlikely that SE wouldn't capitalize by charging for add-ons at the very least. They have proof six times over that we will buy add-ons if that's our only option. That said, they told us we'd get six add-ons as soon as they told us we'd get one, so it seems like a bit of a tired horse at this point. I see add-ons being likely only if it's the only thing they have the ability or the resources to manage.

All that said, a decade is justification in and of itself for a festival. It seems logical to announce something big to celebrate such a landmark, but when push comes to shove, a festival just to celebrate a decade old MMO even without a big announcement is still better than no festival at all.

[Chamaan]

I still don't get why anyone would think about porting a character from 11 to 14 anyway. All it would do is give you a character with max physical level. What skills would even transfer over except for the crafting levels? Not to mention I doubt they're willing to go through and do graphic redesigns for old items from XI (though being able to dye your adaberk would create an awesomely bloody schism in the community between those no good Rebel Blue Adaberks and the Yankee sonsabitches with Purpleberks).

I really think we're getting the new UI unveiled. New HD title screen! But honestly I'd settle for being able to adjust the music volume of the title screen and PoL. Goddamn that would certainly be vanafest worthy after years of having to manually turn down the sound just to log in.

[calinz]

I really think we're getting the new UI unveiled. New HD title screen! But honestly I'd settle for being able to adjust the music volume of the title screen and PoL. Goddamn that would certainly be vanafest worthy after years of having to manually turn down the sound just to log in.

That's actually a very good prediction. Seems quite likely too.

As far as the title screen music goes... I just moved the .dat for it in a different folder. Years ago >.>

[machiko]

I'm baffled why anyone would assume they'd decide to close Final Fantasy XI down.

Most XI players are blind sheep, if they closed down XI many would go right to XIV. As such it would appear they they did the impossible and turned around a high profile failed game. To a company like SE at this point in time the prestige of that as well as importance to XIV not failing after the amount of money they threw at it is probably more important than the profit they make from XI. Of course there is more chance they will simply crap the game up instead of close it so this happens more slowly and less noticeably, which is exactly what they are doing.

XIV has cost them, what 50-100mill at this point to create? The profits XI could make in the next 5-10 years probably don't come close to that money being lost and the humiliation of V2 failing.

[arus2001]

If we're to believe XI has 300k subscribers paying an average of $14/mo, that's $4.2m a month and over $50m for the year. Now, I don't believe that the current user base, but to suggest XI hadn't potentially paid for XIV ages ago is a bit silly. Only thing sillier would be SE having a festival to announce the game's closure. SE's got its paws in other games and media like music, manga, and anime. Surely they're not all black holes of money sucking from the FFXI teat.

[vadre]

Most XI players are blind sheep, if they closed down XI many would go right to XIV. As such it would appear they they did the impossible and turned around a high profile failed game. To a company like SE at this point in time the prestige of that as well as importance to XIV not failing after the amount of money they threw at it is probably more important than the profit they make from XI. Of course there is more chance they will simply crap the game up instead of close it so this happens more slowly and less noticeably, which is exactly what they are doing.

XIV has cost them, what 50-100mill at this point to create? The profits XI could make in the next 5-10 years probably don't come close to that money being lost and the humiliation of V2 failing.

Two things, I wish this thread would stay down until some info comes out, keeps being bumped like once a week and I think we've got Vanafest news

Secondly, I don't get this logic, people didn't all immediately jump to XIV on release and I doubt they'd immediately go over just because XI closed. If we're going to create theories based on complete assumptions I'd propose that a large proportion of XI's remaining base are there because of friendships and investment in their characters. If SE shut that down for XIV's sake, I expect people would resent it to the point they wouldn't want to invest in XIV out of principle.

The reason XI is going down the tubes is because other projects like XIV are heavy resources consumers (theyre working to basically create an MMO in 2 years), meaning there simply isnt enough left for the old PS2 flagship mmo, suggesting that they're intentionally making bad decisions which will cost them money in the short term seems... odd.

At worst, I'd say they're just milking the old cashcow and letting it run its course, not killing it off.

[Spira]

Website updated!
http://www.playonline.com/ff11/event/vanafest2012/

2 day event at Pacifico Yokohama

stage events include..
Talk session with current devs, talk with past devs, mini concert & live, various contests, quiz, real mog bonanza, other stuff and a surprise..
(for both days)

floor events include..
live quest, vanadiel cafe, picture taking corner, testing out new battlefields, capsule toys, goods, and so on..


..unless I have something major on, I'm definitely going for this one.. and hopefully on both days.
anyone else going?

there's presale tix starting late April if im not wrong...

[Draylo]

lol I'd love to go but it seems pointless if I won't understand anything.

[Tsuneo]

Hopefully, they have a live feed like they did in 2010. I didn't understand a thing they said then, but I knew what was relevant to the game.

[Izzy]

lol I'd love to go but it seems pointless if I won't understand anything.

That's how I feel. Ahhhh well, here's to hoping they found a way to clone humans, and Yoshi is now working on both games!

[Shenrien]

Surprise is gonna be they unban everyone that got banned in salvage duping, release information about salvage updates, and how they're adding 5 more floors on top of the current floors in each zone that will drop 15, 25, 35 -1 that can be turned in with magian moogle with your current salvage gear to +1 it, also going to release new bags that drop 250 Alexandrite on the top floor boss.

Also going to talk about Revamping Einherjar and Limbus more that they hinted about earlier in the year, and tease us with Neo-Ultima and Omega, and a hidden end boss where the two were merged together, and in Einherjar Odin brings the Shadowlord with him from the alternative reality(past) as the end boss in revamped Einherjar.

and the final bit of information will be expansion to the far east!

can dream right?