What prompted Square Enix to revamp Final Fantasy XIV?

[omninakago]

This is the first time I've ever seen a game get taken down for a year to be completely revamped after the head staff was fired. I remember reading some of the letter that was released a long time ago with the plans to change the game, but I've always wondered if it was really that bad. Surely it couldn't be worse than some of the other MMOs released which, while aren't great, still pull decent numbers.

Were the initial sub numbers abysmally low? I can't imagine so due to brand recognition and it's popularity in the east alone. Were there fan petitions demanding that the game be changed? Was there a huge backlash after the game was released? Did the heads of Square Enix finally sit down and play the game and demand it to be changed?

I'm just really curious as to why such a drastic move was made with this game. Any insight would be much appreciated.

[Edge-]

The game was terrible. It barely functioned, had no real content to speak of, most of the systems in place were incomplete, it was missing a lot of key systems. The game was just really really really really bad. I mean, some people loved it, but objectively it was pretty terrible. Initial sales numbers were poor, subscriber numbers were worse, and feedback was...um...not nice.

Basically, if they had left it alone and not worked towards a revamp, including getting rid of the subscription for almost a full year, I would be surprised if the game was still active. It's probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest, MMO blunder in recent history.

[blackblade]

It's probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest, MMO blunder in recent history.

Tabula Rasa and APB would like to have a word with you.

[Simonzi]

Tabula Rasa and APB would like to have a word with you.

Tabula Rasa and APB don't have shit on FFXIV.

[couchboi]

Well, the game was bad. There was no way around that. Square Enix recognized that and got their shit together. And this revamp looks great, I can't wait for it to be released.

[BahamutOmega]

I was in the last stage of Alpha and tested all the way up to release and all the devs did was slightly adjust combat. Everything was horrendous and they didn't care about feedback the community was trying to give. They released it far too early and everything but the graphics were still very much in alpha stages.

[Remilia]

I played the beta long before. It was rather unoptimized, and rather very very grindy. It's controls were rather slow and unresponsive. There were some nice ideas, but they were terribly implemented.

It at least shows that they somewhat care about the game. It'll be interesting to see the new 2.0 of it. It's probably also one of the few games (much like SWG, except that apparently seem like was for the worse) that got a massive rehaul.

[Thrage]

You mentioned the "head staff" ... thing is, the head staff publicly admitted that the only MMO they had ever played was FFXI. The MMO market has changed considerably since then, and I'm quite certain World of Warcraft was what made me leave FFXI in the dust and never look back. They didn't properly research their market, their demographic, or their competition, and they paid the price for their arrogance. Squenix nowadays feels they can do no wrong, and they're half-correct; people still bought and played FFXIII, and even gave it glowing reviews even though the game is complete shit, after all.

It's my sincere hope that FFXIV is just the first of a series of wake-up calls that increase the quality of Square-Enix titles in the future.

[Grym]

The game was horrid at launch, no real AH, no traditional FF classes, combat was bad, no real content, a lot of the core system seems to have taken directly from FFXI, badly optimized, well, you get the point.

During the year of free to play, they already know all the problems, and planning to make changes, but that could take time, and re-make the game is pretty much the only way to go since the core of the game was bad. Final Fantasy is the most important brand for Square-Enix, they cannot really afford to let the brand name get tainted, hence they doing what they can in order to revive the game.

Even without 2.0, the game had gotten much better now, a lot of things got added, personal chocobo mount, retainer wards with search (sort of an AH, bad, but at least there is something for now), combats are now slightly smoother (fix the spell lock would be nice), and a lot more content now, they have added a lot of missions and fights in a very fast pace also, althought I think they are stopping now as 2.0 supposely only a month or so away.

2.0 looks promising, if they can fix all the issues that people have currently, even as it is now it had taken a lot of my attention away from WoW, if 2.0 can deliver what FFXIV was originally missing, I could really well be on that more than on WoW, easily.

---------- Post added 2012-08-31 at 10:33 PM ----------

You mentioned the "head staff" ... thing is, the head staff publicly admitted that the only MMO they had ever played was FFXI.

That probably explained why the core of the game had all the issues that FFXI had:

- bad optimisation
- lack of movement option
- "hey there is a step in front of me so I cannot go that way"
- people spawn around you when you have stood in that spot for about 5 seconds (forget about seeing people in distance)

Now let's hope 2.0 with new core system, new servers, new clients, new engines, would fix all the issues and bring the game to today's standard.

Now may be SWTOR should looking into doing something similar, the Star War licence could have been a lot more worth while.

[Kaariana]

The game was terrible. It barely functioned, had no real content to speak of, most of the systems in place were incomplete, it was missing a lot of key systems. The game was just really really really really bad. I mean, some people loved it, but objectively it was pretty terrible. Initial sales numbers were poor, subscriber numbers were worse, and feedback was...um...not nice.

Basically, if they had left it alone and not worked towards a revamp, including getting rid of the subscription for almost a full year, I would be surprised if the game was still active. It's probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest, MMO blunder in recent history.

I played FFXIV when it was first released. I was thinking of going back to FFXI the whole time. It was just THAT bad. Repeated map textures, mail and AH features were QUITE different and unusable for the most part. There was a reason why SquareEnix gave users quite a few months free for FFXIV. I am glad they took it back to the drawing board. I am more impressed with the people who still gave it a chance despite all these flaws. Wish the game luck!

[slime]

I played FFXIV when it was first released. I was thinking of going back to FFXI the whole time. It was just THAT bad. Repeated map textures, mail and AH features were QUITE different and unusable for the most part. There was a reason why SquareEnix gave users quite a few months free for FFXIV. I am glad they took it back to the drawing board. I am more impressed with the people who still gave it a chance despite all these flaws. Wish the game luck!

Well I think you hit the nail on the head right here - FF11 was indeed an mmo, it had very many aspects to it that were unique to the game - such as combos between party members abilities and losing XP (even down leveling upon death). FF11 was pretty bad ass as far as a fun and had originality. So, I think that's why people were so taken aback by whatever the fuck FF14 was. It was a game on rails - im not stretching here - it was seriously 100% on rails. It wasn't an mmorpg. The Diablo 2 hating Diablo 3 crowd cannot even hold a candle to how much worse FF14 was to FF11.

[Kaariana]

Well I think you hit the nail on the head right here - FF11 was indeed an mmo, it had very many aspects to it that were unique to the game - such as combos between party members abilities and losing XP (even down leveling upon death). FF11 was pretty bad ass as far as a fun and had originality. So, I think that's why people were so taken aback by whatever the fuck FF14 was. It was a game on rails - im not stretching here - it was seriously 100% on rails. It wasn't an mmorpg. The Diablo 2 hating Diablo 3 crowd cannot even hold a candle to how much worse FF14 was to FF11.

Totally, FFXI was the first MMO I ever played. It was great for its time, so I was hoping they would have innovated a bit from that. That wasn't the case. The combo system was a great idea though. Wish it was implemented much better though. I'll agree on the raging though, it was unprecedented.

[Deleted]

Squenix nowadays feels they can do no wrong, and they're half-correct; people still bought and played FFXIII, and even gave it glowing reviews even though the game is complete shit, after all.

Just to jump in here, even though XIII was poor compared to some of the other FF releases, FFXIII-2 is just absolutely incredibly amazing. Really would recommend picking it up even if you hated XIII (I personally never was able to make myself complete XIII it just felt so horrible, yet I could hardly put down the controller for XIII-2).

[Edge-]

$$$ ... what else should it be?

Actually, it's been a huge money sink for them to revamp. They need to see some moderate success with the re-release to see a return on their investment.

If it was purely about money, they probably would have done what some MMO's do when they're struggling and just gone into maintenance mode, getting as much out of it without re-investing in it in a gamble to try and bring in new players.

[Kenshin]

What prompted Square Enix to revamp XIV is simply because Final Fantasy is their Flagship title. They cannot and will not stand by leaving a FF game with such a bad reputation. If I remember correctly way back before FF 1. Square was on verge on bankrupcy and allowed to push out 1 more game, which was Final Fantasy 1. And that became a smash hit which turned the company around.

Hence their pride is also in the line on this revamp. Not just money.

[Remilia]

$$$ ... what else should it be?

It's a huge risk with a very dubious chance of success on a major return. The light shed on FFXIV is rather dim to begin with because of the 1st launch. Doesn't have any reputation at all from the general majority of the MMO community, so anyone looking at it would be questioning themselves to begin with.
They're investing a lot of money into this with maybe only minor investment returns.

[Grym]

What prompted Square Enix to revamp XIV is simply because Final Fantasy is their Flagship title. They cannot and will not stand by leaving a FF game with such a bad reputation. If I remember correctly way back before FF 1. Square was on verge on bankrupcy and allowed to push out 1 more game, which was Final Fantasy 1. And that became a smash hit which turned the company around.

Hence their pride is also in the line on this revamp. Not just money.

That is why they decided to revamp the game, they cannot allow a FF game to sink like FFXIV, as it would greatly damage the future prospect of the FF titles.

FFXIV is in a playable state now, I am having a lot of fun in it, however 2.0 do look good, they fixing a lot of the system issue, newer map textures instead of keep re-using old ones, and most of all I am really looking forward to the Limit Breaks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxJt3...layer_embedded

[Mukki]

This is the first time I've ever seen a game get taken down for a year to be completely revamped after the head staff was fired. I remember reading some of the letter that was released a long time ago with the plans to change the game, but I've always wondered if it was really that bad. Surely it couldn't be worse than some of the other MMOs released which, while aren't great, still pull decent numbers.

Were the initial sub numbers abysmally low? I can't imagine so due to brand recognition and it's popularity in the east alone. Were there fan petitions demanding that the game be changed? Was there a huge backlash after the game was released? Did the heads of Square Enix finally sit down and play the game and demand it to be changed?

I'm just really curious as to why such a drastic move was made with this game. Any insight would be much appreciated.

The game wasn't taken down for a year, what the heck? Lol.

As far as why it's being revamped, vanilla 14 was the worst MMO ever made. HEY GUYS LET'S DO GUILDLEVES AND KILL THE SAME MONSTERS OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. That's your content!

---------- Post added 2012-09-01 at 07:55 PM ----------

You mentioned the "head staff" ... thing is, the head staff publicly admitted that the only MMO they had ever played was FFXI. The MMO market has changed considerably since then, and I'm quite certain World of Warcraft was what made me leave FFXI in the dust and never look back. They didn't properly research their market, their demographic, or their competition, and they paid the price for their arrogance. Squenix nowadays feels they can do no wrong, and they're half-correct; people still bought and played FFXIII, and even gave it glowing reviews even though the game is complete shit, after all.

It's my sincere hope that FFXIV is just the first of a series of wake-up calls that increase the quality of Square-Enix titles in the future.

Tanaka's out, Yoshida's in. The "head staff" is a different person now, which is extremely relevant.

[Toralin]

I played FF14 at release and it was just ridiculous - it's like they were hoping all the pretty effects would make people not realise there was nothing to do except grind the same mobs or craft...

I'm sure 2.0 will be great, although probably too late...

[omninakago]

The game wasn't taken down for a year, what the heck? Lol.

Poor choice of words on my part. What I was referring to was removing the subscription.