Square Enix Looking to Strengthen The Final Fantasy XIV Development Team

Despite the rocky launch that affected Final Fantasy XIV, Square Enix still seems confident about the game's chances.
So confident that they're hiring new employees for the development team, and many of those positions list console development as a preferential trait.

[Kamikaze135]

It seems like they're hiring to get the console version out of the door.

I have to be honest, I felt nothing but regret after buying this game, but it's come a long way. 1.18 made the game worth playing and 1.19 seems to enhance the game in so many ways. 1.21 seems like it'll make XIV great from the patch notes.

[Canary]

It's a better game now than at launch.

But still not a very good one.

FFXIV is barely able to maintain a community free-to-play: I find it laughable that they're expecting to bring back the subscription fees when (if) the console version launches.

FFXIV was clearly a (comparatively) low-budget, rushed title when it launched. Most developers would have let it fail quietly. Square Enix, however, keeps throwing money at the problem hoping they fix it.

And even if FFXIV becomes the best, most fun MMO to play in the next 5 years, no one will care, because it was such an unplayable, wretched failure of a game when it launched.

[Abriael]

Actually at the moment FFXIV is a solid title. It's not stellar, but the upcoming patches have a whole lot to look forward to and will probably get the game quite a lot above the current status of "solid".

I don't think it's unrealistic to plan to bring back fees when the game reaches the level it should have. If it's good, people will pay.

People will care because it's going to get a whole new launch, to a whole new audience, with whole new reviews and so forth.

[Reibooi]

How you get the idea that the game was rushed when it was in Dev for nearly 6 years is beyond me. The main issues was the director producer during the original Dev time. Tanaka did FFXI and should have learned from that but he didn't and add on top of that that SE wanted to get the game out the door lead to the horrible launch.

That said since Yoshida has taken over the game has improved by leaps and bounds and after the next major patch at the end of this month will be in a very good state(which it should have been from the start)

You seem to think FFXIV can't recover and I'm sorry but you are wrong. Final Fantasy XI had a horrible launch as well. One that can be argued was worse then XIV as even core systems were broken. Most people don't know this however because XI was exclusive to Japan for it's first year. SE improved the game in leaps and bounds over that year and then used the PC and US release as relaunch of sorts and guess what... The game did great and went on to become a very big success for SE and a pretty popular MMO which to this day still has a solid player base.

SE is gonna try teh same thing this time. The PS3 release will be used in a way to relaunch the game and will more then likley ship with the games first full expansion like FFXI did and with someone who knows what he is doing at the helm(Naoki Yoshida) The chances of this working are quite frankly rather high. Consoles owners will give the game a shot simply because of lack of MMO's on the platform and since the game has improved and will continue to a good chunk of those players will stay.(Not all of the gaming population is N4G and many gamers will check it out simply because of the Final Fantasy name. Despite what the population of N4G will have you think the name still does mean something. The same thing happened with XI and alot of those folks became long term players just by giving the game a random shot)

As Abriael said when the PS3 version comes out the game will get a new launch with new reviews and new press and it will serve to cover up the games bad launch to a certain extent.

[Ethereal]

Good bring it to the PS3.

[Game13a13y]

I'm not holding my breath, but we shall see.

[Sieg]

Why not free until lvl 20 or play for free until you meet a certain point? Hell, put it on for PS+ subscriber and I'll be happy to try this again. The PC launch was a disaster. I loved XI, before the.......yea besides that. This might still have potential for profit and growth.

[Reibooi]

If you still have your PC copy the game is still free to play right now and is a VERY large improvement over the launch. I'm sure you would find something to like if you gave it a shot. If you bought it once and got your account activated you can just torrent it if you don't wanna buy another copy.

I think it would be worth it if you were around to actually play the game at launch. You will likley be surprised at how much the game has improved.

[sasuke99]

hire some Korean professionals, they will fix the game in no time!

[Leonesaurus]

I love Final Fantasy XIV! >:D Yay for hiring more members to the already awesome dev team!!