160°

Final Fantasy XIV Column - Should it go F2P?

Final Fantasy XIV first launched in the hopes of delivering big. Unfortunately, it was met with a poor reception. We felt no inclination to dive in based on previous experiences and critical reaction. We'd hoped Square would have learned a lot from the competition this time, it seemed we were wrong.

Still the desire to get it right was clear for all to see. The launch was quickly followed by a massive ‘A Realm Reborn’ relaunch last year, followed by console releases, making it the first major new-gen MMORPG on Playstation 4.

Square have shown they’re not ready to give up just yet, and we're glad they haven’t. There’s a really solid game brewing underneath the surface, and lots to like here, though I am concerned that the future of the game may not end well with a continued subscription-based model.

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expansivedlc.com
Cerbus4087d ago

Stupid opinion piece by cheapass gamer.

AsimLeonheart4086d ago

They do not need to make it F2P. F2P games often suck more money out of you in the end as compared to paying a fixed amount. However, reducing the subscription fee a little might be a good idea. Right now the a year's worth of subscription fee is equal to two or three full priced PS4 titles. That is a very discouraging fact for many gamers.

SirBradders4086d ago

Discouraging to some but let's face it alot of people buy a game for 40-50 quid and then fork out another 20-30 for DLC.
That alone gets you a sub to a ever evolving game for more than a year so it's justified in my eyes.

Lord_Sloth4086d ago

What about a yearly plan though? Right now they have 2 million subscribers. Assuming everybody is paying the minimum amount That's $20,000,000 every single month. Far more than they would need for the servers and expansions. Hell they could charge $10 power year and be okay. XXXD

Is Be fine paying a $40 yearly sub but monthly just seems greedy and stupid to me. I don't want to purchase a game then constantly pay just to be allowed to play it. I took part in the beta and enjoyed it greatly but not $120 a year enjoyed.

randomass1714086d ago

They could do what World of Warcraft initially did and make the first twenty experience levels free then after that you need to pay. A year long subscription plan could also be an interesting idea.

Toon_Link4086d ago

I'm with you on a price reduction. As a FFXI player for 7 years and a ffxiv player fora year during 1.0 I lost interest in 2.0 pretty fast and paying 13 a month wasn't worth it. Now if I could pay say 8 a month I'd probably keep my subscription but I don't plan on playing the game enough to justify the premium sub prices.

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porkChop4087d ago

No. It's one of the few games that's proven itself to be worthy of a subscription.

Volkama4086d ago

Out of curiousity, in what sense is it worthy of a subscription?

I am not asking if the game is good or bad. Forget your opinion of it in that sense, and weigh up what you get back for that monthly sub. Does the content/service justify the price?

Not trolling here. I make no bones about it, i didn't like FFXIV when I tried it but I definitely favour good fair subscription MMORPGs and they're so rare now, I'm curious as to whether I should "vote with my wallet" and hold a sub for FFXIV. I managed an entire year subscribed to Rift without ever playing it because they genuinely provided great value for the model.

wheresmymonkey4086d ago

There's a lot to do. The community is great, everything is really well balanced (something f2p really gets right). The FATES are a lot of fun, the main questline boss stuff keeps the game engaging and there's obviously a large team working to make sure all of this keeps running smoothly.

Its a very enjoyable game. I've never been a fan of MMORPGS, I got bored of WoW really quickly, but i've found myself glued to FFXIV.

I don't mind paying £6 a month for something i enjoy with a ton of content.

just my 2 cents.

MeteorPanda4086d ago (Edited 4086d ago )

this game continuously adds content. l can't even start to explain how much you can do cause l havn't done all l can :/

Also you pay one sub if you get it on ps4...honestly having the ability to just switch between pc and ps4 is a absolute dream.

Also l've noticed that SE is actually listening to its western players, so many bugs fixed and features added cause of feedback. (can l mount chocobo while l have it in companion mode please" <-- this happened recently, before you had to unsummon your bird before you could mount up, was annoying and drained gyshll greens)

The c.e.o has also mentioned that he'd rather shut the game down then make it f2p, l'm with him on this, they just simply did so much on this mmo to make it free

Volkama4086d ago

Thanks for the feedback. What kind of cycle are the content releases on?

I am aware of a big patch that added housing and such, and I think perhaps 1 big patch besides? And some kind of Lightning Returns tie-in event, but I don't know how substantial that was.

Sod it I'll re-subscribe this evening and have a look around. Even if I still don't enjoy it I appreciate their resolve to avoid a cash shop.

Heisenburger4086d ago

A big part of it for me, initially, was that they only asked $39 for it. So it comes with a free month.

If I wasn't sick of it after an entire month of playing it, I could then pay for another month.

So far it's still cheaper than a retail game, and I've gotten two months of content.

There aren't many games, if any, that have held my attention for that long.

Considering the fact that if this were a retail game:
I would have beaten it in a couple of weeks, traded it in, and been left with nothing to play with my best friend makes it worth the investment.

Right now, there isn't anything on PS4 that my buddy and I can sink all our time into. I'm of course speaking strictly about coop experiences. Mercenary Kings being the exception.

So for the month of May, when there are not games that we collectively want coming out, we can spend fourteen bucks and have a game to play all month.

I'm not an mmo guy, so that's how I look at it. I could spend sixty on a game to play next month, or fourteen.

And honestly, the reason that it's worth the sub for me is that I simply enjoy my time with it.

NexGen4086d ago

@volkama: Roughly three months for big content additions (free with sub, not dlc, and very hefty additions). Expansions are also coming and we'll underway. Smaller content patches are in between the big three month patches, and these "small" content additions blow most paid dlc's out of the water.

Long story short, the content they add is more than ample (and free). DCUO and many other f2p mmos charge for these as dlc packs, and contain a tenth of the content. It's quite surprising actually.

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JustPlay44087d ago

So someone hate it, means it should be free? That kinda dumb, if don't like it don't play it.

Double_Oh_Snap4086d ago

No shit right? This game is pure quality and far from f2p imo. Yeah it doesn't reinvent the wheel but like I said pure quality if you don't like it don't sub.

People obviously do like though as the games numbers are rising not falling.

ThanatosDMC4086d ago

Also, f2p is not going to happen. Just look at FF11.

randomass1714086d ago

It's an MMO. Demanding it be F2P is like demanding PSN+ and XBL be free.

Nekroo914086d ago

On pc yes...i still find it a bit hard to pay a subscrition fee on a console

Panthers4086d ago

The game is great. If it did go F2P, hopefully it would still have a subscription option like SWTOR has, because I would still subscribe.

Volkama4086d ago

But swtor is still broken by the presence of the f2p model. As a subscriber you still have xp/currency/crafting booster consumables available, and a bit of included currency to buy some doesn't make that ok.

Subscribers should have all those perks baseline, and never ever have any reason to go into the cash shop interface IMO.

Show all comments (34)
140°

Square Enix is “aware” of Final Fantasy XIV player numbers dropping

Square Enix president Takashi Kiryu discusses the dropping player count of Final Fantasy XIV and the numerous projects of YoshiP.

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videogamer.com
jznrpg2d ago

It’s really old now. All great MMOs decline.

PRIMORDUS1d 22h ago

Also who wants to keep paying a monthly fee every month, there are other options like Guild Wars 2 😁with no monthly fee and while not that many people overall compared to FF XIV, it did increase to about 21 mil now.

Sephiroushin1d 12h ago (Edited 1d 12h ago )

I prefer to pay since i do not like guild wars and it keep kids away, but FF14 decreased on quality since they started to make it "more accessible", tried throne and liberty and while it was okay it has so many issues, same for dune awakening... Its time to start making a new FF MMO

kaewcha7341d 23h ago

Looks like Square Enix is self-aware but still stuck in place, they see the player drop and apologize for the bugs, but nothing really changes. Shame, FFXIV used to be the gold standard

Servbot411d 22h ago

My entire free company has stopped playing. The writing has consistently gotten worse and the content is sparse and lacking; unless you are a hardcore player there's very little for you to do. They are over-catering to the people who will grind three+ times a week on a single fight for multiple months when the playerbase by large doesn't want that sort of content. Square needs to dedicate more resources to the game instead of wasting them on mobile and other live service slop.

Miraak82 1d 16h ago

The biggest factor for me is the way they butchered job design over the years , the casualization and over simplification really hurt a good chunk of enjoyment I used to have . Jobs lost any form of complexity and just became " press glowing button" DDR style for fighting where the gameplay loop is a about the 2 minute burst window . They removed most DoTS, timer mechanics , cast times, pets, RNG ect and all around homogenized everything . When you try and can cater to everyone ... you cater to no one .

110°

FF14 lead apologises as the “quality of service has declined recently” as they fell into complacency

YoshiP, the director and producer of Final Fantasy 14, has apologised for the state of the game at the time of writing.

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videogamer.com
CrimsonWing696d ago

Do you not see this happening during development? Like, why are we apologizing after the fact instead of stopping it during development?

Stopac6d ago

Criticism and reflection occur after the fact. The apology acknowledges the past criticisms with the new expansion and they're keeping transparency with players about it. Now that they've acknowledged it - it will be interesting to see what kind of cycle we'll get with a new expansion and I wonder if they're planning something special with beast master since they didn't mention it in the last live letter.

anast6d ago

It's all good, as long as the price of the product decreases.

Stopac6d ago

The base game and expansion go on sale all the time and doesn't stay full price for very long since a new expansion is on the horizon.

If you're stating they should reduce the price of new expansions or the sub fee, no, that's not gonna happen lmao people aren't even complaining about that. They are criticizing the same old pattern of content that releases and how it is devolving into mediocracy.

anast5d ago

"They are criticizing the same old pattern of content that releases and how it is devolving into mediocracy."

The product should be cheaper then.

PapaBop6d ago

I was unhappy with DT and have spent far less time in it than any other expansion but it's things like this that makes me respect Yoshi P. It's rare for such a high profile developer to be so candid in his assessment on a live game.

Stopac6d ago

Same, i've found my self resubbing every two patches instead of keeping it up. Don't own a home in the game so there's no point in keeping a constant sub going. The post story is getting interesting though.

90°

Final Fantasy XIV Releases Patch 7.25 Screenshots Ahead of Update

Square Enix released new screenshots of the upcoming patch 7.25 for its popular MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV, including the Occult Crescent.

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simulationdaily.com
29d ago