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Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada resigns
 Asura.Rekin
サーバ: Asura
Game: FFXI
Posts: 265
By Asura.Rekin 2013-03-26 22:50:18
There's no reason FFXIV should have been as bad as it was. It's sort of mind-blowing
One reason is enough. They thought making it lazily and slapping "Final Fantasy" brand on it would make it hot money maker.
Wow they spent four frigging years developing their "Crystal tools" which they eventually renamed as "White engine". Right, they used it to make FFXIII and spinoffs on the PS3, but seriously that took precious time they could use on making FFXI more interesting.
They also spent three years to make the "Dancer engine" which FFX, FFXI and FFXII are based on.
You can have a good idea of what it can do when FFXI is running on the "high polys mode" (the character creation screen). Still it's just for show since they can't count on a system with the minimum specs for FFXI would be able to draw 50 characters with that level of detail in Jeuno ... lol
Blah blah blah (I hope FFXI survives this garbage ... I'm far from done with it... -_-;) In one of the posts by the new director for FFXIV I believe he said basically the idea behind it was to make it as different from FFXI as possible. All that talk about learning from competition/ffxi was bs under the previous director's reign. The new director even wrote about how the devs spent a year playing everquest to find out why people liked it before even starting development on FFXI.
The stuff written about the previous director's goal for FFXIV explains why the game crashed so hard. Most good games succeed due to a centralized thesis/theme/etc. that appeals to the audience. In the case of FFXIV it was the equivalent of reinventing the wheel(MMORPGS) and failing horribly.
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Lakshmi.Rearden
サーバ: Lakshmi
Game: FFXI
Posts: 1130
By Lakshmi.Rearden 2013-03-26 22:52:10
I think some of you are making the mistake in thinking that people who left for XIV or who have played other MMOs would want to come back to XI.
XIV was a riskier decision than making XI-2:ARR but XI-2:ARR doesn't get them any more market share or do anything other than assuage fans of a now 13 year old game (who will pay, play, etc, forever regardless of their development decisions).
By Areayea 2013-03-26 23:00:59
oh SE... they need to go and release FFX HD already... as for the rest... as you can probably speculate at this point... I think that having a new CEO will be a good mask for more being lazy... ever since XII (XII was a pretty good game I'll give them that) they have slacked more than a sloth sleeping in a tree... it is as everyone says they just slap their name, or FF, or even KH on something and expect it to sell. Also to bring up the KH topic... KH II released 2005... FFXII released 2006, my point is... they haven't had any real good KH since that one... anyway I speculate that this will just be a mask for like 2 months then everything goes back to normal... it is good that tanaka was rid of for ffxi tho >.> but the newer developer is a little better... but they are starting to slack again... along with they never have listened to us, but that's like attacking a dead horse.
Asura.Rekin
サーバ: Asura
Game: FFXI
Posts: 265
By Asura.Rekin 2013-03-26 23:01:06
I think some of you are making the mistake in thinking that people who left for XIV or who have played other MMOs would want to come back to XI.
XIV was a riskier decision than making XI-2:ARR but XI-2:ARR doesn't get them any more market share or do anything other than assuage fans of a now 13 year old game (who will pay, play, etc, forever regardless of their development decisions). Understandable but to make a game that could hardly be considered a finished product is intolerable. A lot of development time would have probably been saved had they simply taken a few of FFXI's elements that succeeded and improved them along with other successful features from other games. Basically what that quote about them learning from FFXI/other mmos implied. However their attempt to make the game crashed horribly because of the misplaced focus on how to design the game. Rather than finding a theme/idea and cling to it for dear life they more or less ran in every direction with little to no long term goal.
 Cerberus.Mirril
サーバ: Cerberus
Game: FFXI
Posts: 44
By Cerberus.Mirril 2013-03-27 00:10:00
but that's like attacking a dead horse. I believe the term you are looking for is: "Beating a dead horsebird."
Phoenix.Keeley
サーバ: Phoenix
Game: FFXI
Posts: 16
By Phoenix.Keeley 2013-03-27 00:29:13
Square-Enix has two major problems with their business practices.
1. They neglect one of the core principles of the marketing mix - promotion! When is the last time you saw an advertisement for FFXI? Probably never. They do little advertising for their products, and the medium that they generally choose, television, is a dying breed.
2. They claim to be an international company, but they are not adapting and catering to their customer base outside of Japan. Many gamers on the PlayStation and Xbox are not casual gamers. Gamers expect an in-depth and luscious game when it comes to SE and especially FF, but they have failed to deliver. Final Fantasy IS turn-based. Go with what people know and stop trying to change things.
Unfortunately for SE, the games that sell at the moment are highly western influenced and happen to be open-ended worlds like Elder Scrolls and "shoot'em ups" like COD. That is what people want, that is what people buy. Personally, I think that if some Americans took over SE, their profits would more than triple.
 Bahamut.Liuu
サーバ: Bahamut
Game: FFXI
Posts: 17
By Bahamut.Liuu 2013-03-27 05:03:30
I know I'm being rather negative here, and I'm sorry in advance, but I honestly can't see a future for SquareEnix. They've done nothing but make bad decisions since FFX, and no sane person can honestly say that they haven't lost their creative touch. FFXII, FFXIII, FFXIV and all the spin-offs starting with FFX-2 haven't been anywhere near upto Final Fantasy standards.
Their sloth like approach to evolving FFXI throughout it's life, and lack of critical decision making when it was needed, has crippled the game's potential.
Fenrir.Camiie
サーバ: Fenrir
Game: FFXI
Posts: 817
By Fenrir.Camiie 2013-03-27 06:05:40
I know I'm being rather negative here, and I'm sorry in advance, but I honestly can't see a future for SquareEnix.
They can do character design for other companies. While it's been some time since they've made likeable characters, they still make cool looking ones.
Gilgamesh.Tenshibaby
サーバ: Gilgamesh
Game: FFXI
Posts: 971
By Gilgamesh.Tenshibaby 2013-03-27 06:40:23
FFXIV should have been a "full game expansion" onto FFXI. That or a cross-bread version of what they currently are now. They then would have just had to update the FFXI graphics to match those of FFXIV alongside tweaking of systems. It was the less risky option they didn't take. Both games rolled into one; with big future updates such as Abyssea etc, taking the level cap to 99. Would have been brilliant. By keeping the games separate the loss induced by people changing to IV then quitting & other similar things must have been killer. I think of WoW as an example. Imagine if they made a WoW 2, costing a ridiculous amount of money then not allowing you to transfer your character to it? Who is going to join from your most loyal WoW players? A small portion. Who's going to join as a new player? A lot more players than FFXIV gained, but not enough to outweigh the amount still playing WoW and refusing to transfer. When i look at it... it's just been complete suicide. Such a shame.
I still think they should consider it. Even now after the new FFXIV release. If losses like this are going to occur yet again, i have hope this could be something that happens. It's also a way to not waste the effort and time spent on FFXIV - as they would if they put the project to bed.
I kind of went off topic, oops, but who doesn't! I just feel in reality this right here is where it all went downhill. Simply because they didn't roll the games together causing people to leave and not pay the subscription fees. SE said they actually intended for this to be the case, where 14 would be essentially another Mog House exit, but they said it was too difficult technically.
By Latifah 2013-03-27 07:12:51
Considering most MMOs seem to fizzle out or go free to play within 1-2 years, I think FFXI is a far cry from crashing and burning.
It have been crashing and burning for long time. But these kinds of replies are typical from an ffxi fan on denial
Ffxi Used to have 34 servers, now it's down to 14, on top of that most of those servers barely reaches 1k players and half of them are afk @ jeuno 24/7. It is hard to find a group to make events, even if most of the content is soloable or low manable, scary how they are holding players on empty servers instead merging everything in to save money.
The new expan might bring re-subs, but that won’t cut it, not with gw2/ ff14 around the corner. New players on ffxi are just people that got banned.
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Bismarck.Faelar
サーバ: Bismarck
Game: FFXI
Posts: 4108
By Bismarck.Faelar 2013-03-27 07:28:08
Haven't see a thread about it but here it is, big news, but not surprised.
Because I posted it here 3 hours before you made this topic:
http://www.ffxiah.com/forum/topic/18542/random-thoughtswhat-are-you-thinking/10897#2270238
By Sarick 2013-03-27 07:28:39
they are holding players on empty servers instead merging everything in to save money.
Each time they did this more people left in droves a few months afterwards. Just forcing everyone into a small room doesn't help if areas are full and the content doesn't push interest.
Lakshmi.Saevel
サーバ: Lakshmi
Game: FFXI
Posts: 2228
By Lakshmi.Saevel 2013-03-27 07:35:37
Gilgamesh.Tenshibaby said: »I think there is some enmity between Japan and China that made it a bad move for them. Or thats what I remember reading with the whole Horse bird thing.
Understatement of the week! I thought so but idk enough about their history to be comfortable saying anything for sure XD For the most part, they mix like oil and water. The Chinese won't let go of major WW2 atrocities, and the Japanese don't feel obligated to assuage any bad feelings. Sad, really, since I have great friends in both countries. Well, not just sad for THAT reason, but you know what I mean.
Ohh it goes waaaay further back then that. The Chinese and Japanese have been at war with each other on and off for the past few thousand years. They also involved Korea in their games that ultimately culminated with Japan assassinating members of the Korean royal family and then annexing them as a "new Japan". Few hundred years prior to that China made Korea "an offer it can't refuse" and turned Korea into a Chinese vessel state (it retained autonomy in name only).
So yeah these three countries really don't like each other. Every time there is a some major election the Koreans get all crazy nationalistic and blame Japan / China (the conservatives) and the USA (the liberals) for every ill that's befallen them.
Anyone doubting me just needs to look up their dokdo island craze.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liancourt_Rocks_dispute
By ScaevolaBahamut 2013-03-27 20:09:50
Bismarck.Dracondria said: »FFXIV should have been a "full game expansion" onto FFXI. That or a cross-bread version of what they currently are now. They then would have just had to update the FFXI graphics to match those of FFXIV alongside tweaking of systems. It was the less risky option they didn't take. Both games rolled into one; with big future updates such as Abyssea etc, taking the level cap to 99. Would have been brilliant. By keeping the games separate the loss induced by people changing to IV then quitting & other similar things must have been killer. I think of WoW as an example. Imagine if they made a WoW 2, costing a ridiculous amount of money then not allowing you to transfer your character to it? Who is going to join from your most loyal WoW players? A small portion. Who's going to join as a new player? A lot more players than FFXIV gained, but not enough to outweigh the amount still playing WoW and refusing to transfer. When i look at it... it's just been complete suicide. Such a shame.
I still think they should consider it. Even now after the new FFXIV release. If losses like this are going to occur yet again, i have hope this could be something that happens. It's also a way to not waste the effort and time spent on FFXIV - as they would if they put the project to bed.
I kind of went off topic, oops, but who doesn't! I just feel in reality this right here is where it all went downhill. Simply because they didn't roll the games together causing people to leave and not pay the subscription fees. 
To be honest, I'm far more likely to play 4 again than 14 if I ever quit XI.
good thing SE's released like 80 zillion versions of 4
yeah the past 10 years have just been fractally bad
サーバ: Bahamut
Game: FFXI
Posts: 12
By Bahamut.Predatory 2013-03-27 23:02:58
The problem I have with the whole Square_Enix thing, (and it might be Wada and it might not), is the long drawn out cinematics, (granted they look cool, but they lock you in and seem to take forever to play out), that you are a virtual prisoner to, that I would imagine, have the tendency to blow a games budget from the outset. I'm a gamer, I like things fast paced, and sitting at my pc or ps3 locked in a cutscene for 10 minutes or so is irritating as hell. I like my games to have a great story line, but you can get that story line by going through shorter cutscenes involving more npcs, you know, questing. Since FFVII days it seems to me that the company or companies involved with Square-Enix have been trying to make crappy movies rather than great games, with the notable exceptions of FFXI and FFXII.
By Jetackuu 2013-03-27 23:05:17
I actually wish they had more cut scenes, they were amazing.
Although they should be optional, not forced.
As for Enix: *** them.
サーバ: Valefor
Game: FFXI
Posts: 1837
By Valefor.Applebottoms 2013-03-27 23:23:53
I think what would bring back FF would be to bring back the "turn-based" strategy and to also go back to where it came from.. IMPLEMENT STRATEGY AND THOUGHT AGAIN.
I remember playing 13 and thought.. wow.. all I have to do is press X and I can win.. it thinks for me... so.. fun...
Previous games you had to think, and honestly, I played the game on live action mode. Even though it was turn based you had to think on your toes and react to what was going on around you at that point in time. Was great.
Also.. just a good story. Not one that spans 3 games with stuff even a 5 year old couldn't understand what was going on with.
It's just frustrating to see the way it's going right now. I do agree with games like CoD taking over here in the west, it's hard for developers to make a game that's rewarding that people will buy.
But as they say, if something is good, people will buy it.
...or I say that. Either or.
サーバ: Odin
Game: FFXI
Posts: 197
By Odin.Rendra 2013-03-27 23:30:35
Short and to the point... They have sucked since they merged because Sakaguchi left and within a few years so did the rest of the FF Team.
There hasn't been a good FF since FFX. Without counting XI.
XII, XIII and all the spin offs have just been horrible... the only games that have been decent... were Crisis Core, and the 2 Dissidia games.
By Dantedmc 2013-03-27 23:41:02
Valefor.Applebottoms said: »I remember playing 13 and thought.. wow.. all I have to do is press X and I can win.. it thinks for me... so.. fun...
Previous games you had to think, and honestly, I played the game on live action mode. Even though it was turn based you had to think on your toes and react to what was going on around you at that point in time. Was great.
You use basically the same move over and over again in every other Final Fantasy, you barely have to think at all for any of the main story line battles. I don't see how that's any different. And just how you said there was an option to play live, there was an option not to use the auto-battle. Additionally the auto-battle didn't always do exactly what you wanted, sometimes it was better to input your own commands. Honestly it was very similar to gambits from FF12. And you did have to think on your toes in Final Fantasy XIII. For example, switching to sen-sen-sen to guard against powerful attacks such as ultima, or switching between offensive and defensive paradigms period.
The argument that Final Fantasy XIII was so easy makes no sense, because no Final Fantasy main story is that hard without self-imposed challenges.
By Areayea 2013-03-28 00:02:42
no... if you never did your sphere grid on X, the game became impossible (I remember watching my brother struggle through every single battle until like Luca when I kept watching him die and checked it and sure enough... he wasn't using the sphere grid XD); but there was still some strategy back then... not just hit enter 5billion times ; ;
By Dantedmc 2013-03-28 05:55:40
And if you never used the crystarium (Final Fantasy XIII equivalent of the sphere grid), the game became difficult too, so I don't see your point.
Quetzalcoatl.Xueye
サーバ: Quetzalcoatl
Game: FFXI
Posts: 6386
By Quetzalcoatl.Xueye 2013-03-28 06:39:10
no... if you never did your sphere grid on X, the game became impossible (I remember watching my brother struggle through every single battle until like Luca when I kept watching him die and checked it and sure enough... he wasn't using the sphere grid XD); but there was still some strategy back then... not just hit enter 5billion times ; ;
...
Well, yeah. If you never take the time to learn how to jump in Kingdom Hearts, you're not gonna get too far, either. <_<;
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 Leviathan.Andret
サーバ: Leviathan
Game: FFXI
Posts: 1071
By Leviathan.Andret 2013-03-28 14:40:28
Article for those interested:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-03-27-single-player-ip-will-cause-problems-for-square-enix
The article is doom and gloom as well as 'adds moar multiplayers' attitude but the comments from people in the industry is very insightful.
サーバ: Bismarck
Game: FFXI
Posts: 33979
By Bismarck.Dracondria 2013-03-28 14:41:21
I don't like multiplayer in RPGs/singleplayer story games >_>
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By Drjones 2013-03-28 14:47:06
All I saw was: "We need to learn how to budget. At all. Ever."
Didn't even have to read the whole article.
サーバ: Shiva
Game: FFXI
Posts: 8022
By Shiva.Viciousss 2013-03-28 14:50:55
He isn't saying add more MP, he is saying make better single player games. And he is right, for a single player multiplatform game to sell under 5m copies, its a bust. Tomb Raider, Hitman, Deus Ex all have the same problems, way too short, little replay value, not worth 60 bucks. People used to be able to put hundreds of hours into SE's RPGs, where has that gone. If I am going to buy a single player game, it has to be an immense game with a compelling story, at least 20 hours of gameplay. Otherwise, I will just wait for it to be in the bargain bin.
By Drjones 2013-03-28 14:59:13
The problem isn't that they're bad or too short.
The problem is that they take over $100 million to make.
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サーバ: Shiva
Game: FFXI
Posts: 8022
By Shiva.Viciousss 2013-03-28 15:00:04
60 bucks for hundreds of hours of entertainment is a bargain, 60 bucks for a 10 hour crappy experience is a ripoff.
Ragnarok.Ashman
サーバ: Ragnarok
Game: FFXI
Posts: 4252
By Ragnarok.Ashman 2013-03-28 15:00:05
Just make SE vs. DoA volleyball: sandy moneygrab core.
Make sure all the male main protagonists since Enix poisoned the well have bikini tops on too.
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