Part 9 of 10
If you haven't seen the info from part 8 yet on Ultima Weapon, Crystal Tower, etc., check it out:
http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/119...=1#post5981517
Highlights:
-The next expansion (just a few teasers)
-Promoting the game
-PS4 and additional PC support
-Expanding into China and beyond
-----
So, despite the amount of content in 2.1, you won't be issuing a packaged version?
Yoshida: No, this is just intended to be a patch.
Will you in the future?
Yoshida: Yes, but we're not thinking about that until 3.0. That said, the PS4 edition will include patch content. We're not sure if 2.2 will make cut, but 2.1 will be included.
What's your planned update cycle between 2.1 until the expansion of 3.0?
Yoshida: We're planning two and a half to three months. It's still early to talk about 2.2, but we think we'll be able to deliver on that commitment.
So with 2.1 in December, you expect that 2.2 would be in March, and then additional updates in June, September, and December?
Yoshida: We will try our best to make it so.
Previously it was announced that you'd be doing a LIVE letter on a trip to Osaka next year. What are the plans for that?
Yoshida: We are looking into some public centers where we can do this, and we'd like to try to get about 200 players to come out as well.
Will you be doing this around the same time as the PS4 release to promote it?
Yoshida: I'll be talking more about the PS4 version in the 11th LIVE letter. This will be more focused on patch 2.2.
Oh, so it'll be for 2.2?
Yoshida: We're planning to have it in January, so we'll talk about feedback for patch 2.1 and we'll have some details ready to talk about for patch 2.2.
So after you talk about 2.2 in Osaka, any plans to talk about 2.3 or later patches in, say, Sendai or Fukuoka?
Yoshida: We're planning to do this once every two months or so, and hit 5 cities next year. We're looking into Sapporo, Sendai, Nagoya, and Fukuoka.
So you also announced the World Tour, which is good news for players in the West.
Yoshida: That's right. This is something we haven't really done before.
Well, being developed in Japan, I think there would be some bias towards Japan.
Yoshida: Yes, we don't want our overseas users to miss out, so we want to make sure we get everywhere. Even within Japan, we don't want to only focus on metropolitan areas, but we'd like to thank people from all over Japan. I think by having about 200 people at the event, we can enjoy spending about 4 or 5 hours doing a producer letter live, having an open discussion, and having some fun event content like we did with the Titan battle.
Oh, so it won't only be a public broadcast, but you'll also be doing other special events. Sounds like these will take a pretty long time.
Yoshida: Yeah, we think these will be about half day events for the audience members.
So you wont go on for three consecutive days like at a game show?
Yoshida: No, no, just one day. It would be impossible, I'd die (laughs). We'll be doing things on a different scale than for a game show, but it will still be a lot of work.
What are the plans for the World Tour?
Yoshida: I would think about this like the Vana'fests from FFXI. We would plan the scale of those to include thousands of people. It would be something like the Eorzea Festival in Japan. We haven't exactly decided where and when for the US or Europe just yet.
For FFXI, these events were done for two nights at hotel venues - is that what you're thinking of?
Yoshida: Well, maybe. We don't want to spend too much development time, but I also don't think we could restrict it to just one day.
So one thing that became common in FFXI for these events was to announce expansion packs... any planned contents for the World Tour?
Yoshida: We think we'll be doing things along the same lines... so I'll leave it up to your imagination.
For the expansion pack, will it be coming out in the second half of 2014?
Yoshida: I don't know if it will be ready that quickly (laughs). For the world tour, though, we want to make sure we have some new information to announce so people don't feel like they wasted their time, so we'll have some material to talk about.
By the way, you talked about 2.1 and the PS4 edition but you haven't mentioned anything about the DirectX 11 edition. Any progress on that?
Yoshida: We're just working on promoting the PS4 version at the moment. We'll be showing it running on a PS4 during the 11th LIVE letter on December 14.
Will you be showing the PS4 on screen or is it just a demo version of the PS4?
Yoshida: We can't show the PS4 test kit so we'll only be showing the screen, but I think we'll be able to show remote play from the PS Vita.
Yeah, I've seen remote play from the PS Vita and that did look good.
Yoshida: Yes, I think it does run well on the PS4.
From your point of view, what do you think about the PS4 version?
Yoshida: It's great.
How does it compare to the highest quality settings on the PC version?
Yoshida: Well, I can say that it has a lot of memory and I'm definitely happy with the results.
For those who play with the PS3 version, do you plan to have them change to the PS4 version?
Yoshida: Well, it depends on your play style, you'll have an additional choice. Of course, like we announced before, we'll also have the free transfer to the PS4 version, so they may decide to do that.
Does it run in 60 FPS in full HD?
Yoshida: The PS4 edition is focused on getting characters drawn on screen rather than retaining 60 FPS. Even so, there's no particular advantage to maintaining 60 FPS in a MMO.
Makes sense. So for a MMO you're keeping it at 30 FPS so that you can get all of the character on screen.
Yoshida: Yes, it'll be fixed to 30 FPS and we'll instead be trying to get the maximum amount of rendering with that.
Will you be able to use any form of display without restrictions like those on the PS3 version?
Yoshida: It's basically like the PC version, there's no restriction.
Aside from the frame rate, are there any functional limitations on the PS4 version?
Yoshida: This isn't a limitation, but we'll also be adding it to the PC and PS3 versions - we'll be putting in an option to adjust the number of rendered objects. For example, we'll have an option which adjusts the amount of characters displayed. For example, there might be a setting like "party members only."
So how about the progress on the DirectX 11 version with updated graphics for the PC?
Yoshida: We're too focused on the PS4 version right now so it's not totally clear and I can't talk too much about the development. Needless to say, we'll be looking to implement 64-bit support.
So for the new generation of PC games, AMD has their new Radeon cards as well as a proprietary new API called Mantle. It seems like for games, using Mantle works faster than anything before, including the conventional DirectX. Any plans for optimization of the game to support Radeon and Mantle in the future?
Yoshida: That won't be for a while. We're only three months into launch, so we're working on things one at a time. 2.1 is a huge scale update, and starting on February 22, we'll be putting out the PS4 beta version. We're also looking at possibly launching the China version next year, and we've gotten feedback and are looking into versions for Taiwan, South Korea, and Russia as well. We're taking it one step at a time.
Understood. So the expansion into new territories will start with China next year?
Yoshida: There's a chance, we're considering starting from there.
Will you have local servers separate from the existing server group?
Yoshida: Yes. Although the current service is global, we want to regionally deploy the different versions so that players don't struggle to be able to play.
This sounds totally different from the policies of FFXI overseas expansion.
Yoshida: Is that right?
Yeah, in FFXI the policy was to place all servers in Japan so that all services could take place in-house. It never expanded outside there.
Yoshida: I see. Well, when I took over FFXIV, we had already decided to work on expanding into China, and we've been working with Shanda Games on the China version.
In the future will Shanda be working to deploy other versions besides the Chinese version like the Korean or Russian versions?
Yoshida: The China version is a priority because it's huge in the online gaming market.
Do you have a beta test planned for the Chinese version?
Yoshida: Not just yet. We're working with Shanda to plan the beta version.
So you're working on both internally?
Yoshida: Yeah, basically we're moving forward with the translations at the same time as the Japanese version.
Any planned date for official service in China?
Yoshida: Right now all we've announced is "next year."
What will the business model be for China?
Yoshida: We're still talking about it. We haven't even decided whether we'll do a freemium style game. The state is a little chaotic in the freemium market in China, so we're talking about it with Shanda.
So next year you'll have about six languages that you're supporting?
Yoshida: It hasn't been so easy. World of Warcraft didn't launch in China until it's fifth year. It's a lot of work to start operating in a new territory, so we're looking into how we can spread to a more global version over the span of about three years.