Quote:
Matsui
FFXI is celebrating its 20th anniversary at last, and our interview on this occasion is with Mr. Yoshida, the head of our Creative Business Unit III.
Yoshida
Thank you for having me.
To begin, as the head of Creative Business Unit III, the division overseeing the FFXI project, how exactly are you involved with FFXI?
Yoshida
Please allow me to explain from the beginning. First of all, FFXI had a very unique position in Square Enix as its first MMORPG. FFXI was our first instance of business alliances with PC manufacturers and preparing dedicated marketing staff. At the forefront of it all was Mr. Hiromichi*, and this made him a key figure of extreme significance. After I took over FFXIV Version 1.0, the other project he was overseeing, Mr. Hiromichi returned to focusing on his role as FFXI Producer until he departed from Square Enix. That was when he asked me, “Yoshida, if you can, would you take over FFXI too?” and that was how I became involved with FFXI.* Hiromichi Tanaka, original Producer of FFXI.
I see, so there was some history between the two of you.
Yoshida
I owed a huge debt of gratitude to Mr. Hiromichi, and so given it was an MMO business, I decided to oversee it within the division I was managing at the time, Business Division 5. After taking over, I pondered what should be done for FFXI, a game supported by many passionate players, and my resolution was to ensure the operations of FFXI can continue as long as possible.
Matsui
Back then, there were a lot of specifics that only Mr. Tanaka was privy to, and I remember Mr. Yoshida conducting a thorough internal inspection to uncover them.
Yoshida
That I did. (laughs)
I was looking at the numbers for everything, including development-related costs, personnel assigned to each aspect of the game, how the patch cycles worked for it, labor and server maintenance expenses, and so on. These specifics were crucial not only for me, but for Mr. Matsui as well. He also needed a firm understanding of the numbers as he was to take over as producer. With Mr. Hiromichi leaving the company, neglecting to comprehend these specifics would be the downfall of our operations and ultimately force us to end the service for the game.
Of course, on an emotional level, I wanted FFXI to maintain its previous scale of operations. However, if we kept going at that scale and couldn’t bring in enough revenue as a result, that would be the worst-case scenario. Therefore my first venture after taking over FFXI was to uncover the specifics and decide what to cut back or expand upon.
Matsui
It was an inevitable part of securing the game’s future.
Yoshida
Another matter was how long we could maintain support for North America and Europe. Our investigations revealed there was still a high demand in North America, so we increased our resources there and moved forward with advertising and public relations (PR) as well.
However, back then our overseas offices were predominantly focused on FFXIV and lacked the staff to devote to FFXI. To resolve this, we approached Square Enix America to re-evaluate their staffing, planning for anniversary-related and promotional projects, and community events. After that, we held another discussion with the team to establish a long-term plan, after which Mr. Matsui and his team took over the operations, and here we are now.
What about your current involvement with FFXI?
Yoshida
Currently, aside from sharing information on the interval and content of version updates, I’m primarily involved in the budgeting side of things. I generally evaluate the cost-effectiveness of advertising and PR, this interview series being one such example, and provide alternate ideas should there be any shortcomings.
It seems like your role requires a different mindset compared to working on standalone games.
Yoshida
That's right. When it comes to MMORPGs, spending money on advertising and PR has the effect of retaining more players, but this is a difficult concept for someone who hasn’t been exposed to the online game business. It’s often said that money shouldn’t be spent without an explicit plan for profit, but the opposite is true when managing a monthly subscription MMORPG, where player retention is the “profit.”
On the other hand, the hard part about the MMORPG business is that doing nothing leads to a decline in player retention, which means decreased revenue. Understanding this concept makes an enormous difference. I’m not stingy in giving the go-ahead to spend, but when we do, I evaluate the cost-effectiveness and have the team make the most of the information for our next expenditure.
I see.
Yoshida
On the other hand, I believe the game content should generally be left to Mr. Matsui and his team, rather than have me superficially intervene. With that said, when they’re making the game more accessible for new and returning players, I do occasionally ask them to tweak certain aspects of the user interface (UI) that I, as a third party, found confusing.
Matsui
When we revamped the FFXI installer in 2019, we first asked Mr. Yoshida to have a look, then tweaked words and phrases that were hard to understand.
Yoshida
FFXI is an MMORPG with such a distinguished history, and it’d be a pity if players couldn’t make it past the entrance. So I directed the team to make the installer more accessible by using words that are more common today.
Matsui
Prior to that, the installer still had technical jargon that was quite difficult to understand. I think we subconsciously believed those words were still common knowledge, just as they were for PC users back when the game was released two decades ago.
Yoshida
PC users back then were the kind of people that were knowledgeable about graphics cards and such, after all. (laughs) Because times had changed, I felt we should be careful to avoid tripping up our players with that kind of technical jargon.
Matsui
We also tweaked the chat feature based on the modern standards we learned from Mr. Yoshida.
Yoshida
Another discussion we had was what we could do for returning players looking to rejoin the community after a long absence. FFXI was released during the golden age of MMORPGs, and there are many who consider FFXI as a place where they can “come home to.” However, I guessed that players would come back to FFXI all alone and end up logging off without reuniting with anyone, so I requested a system to help players reconnect with others.
Matsui
Recent games try to keep social interactions casual, but FFXI was designed to be more fun with close-knit communities, so we’ve been receiving advice on how to rebuild that aspect. We’ve also borrowed engineers from Creative Business Unit III on a number of occasions.
Yoshida
In regard to profitable operations, hiring server engineers and other staff to work exclusively on FFXI around-the-clock the whole year round would increase its expenses. So in Creative Business Unit III, engineering fees are expensed under FFXIV, while the FFXI team can submit proposals for tasks that require engineers. Once a proposal has been reviewed and approved, we have the programmers estimate the costs and then have a discussion with them. If we asked them to focus on FFXI for three months, for example, then FFXI would only incur costs for those three months. This allows us to keep costs down and is one of the perks of overseeing two MMORPGs in our division.
Ah, so managing multiple MMORPGs is what allows you to make those kinds of pragmatic arrangements.
Yoshida
When our engineers are unsure what to prioritize, we can designate their priorities and allow them to work productively without hesitation, which I believe is also one of our strengths.
FFXI is celebrating its 20th anniversary at last, and our interview on this occasion is with Mr. Yoshida, the head of our Creative Business Unit III.
Yoshida
Thank you for having me.
To begin, as the head of Creative Business Unit III, the division overseeing the FFXI project, how exactly are you involved with FFXI?
Yoshida
Please allow me to explain from the beginning. First of all, FFXI had a very unique position in Square Enix as its first MMORPG. FFXI was our first instance of business alliances with PC manufacturers and preparing dedicated marketing staff. At the forefront of it all was Mr. Hiromichi*, and this made him a key figure of extreme significance. After I took over FFXIV Version 1.0, the other project he was overseeing, Mr. Hiromichi returned to focusing on his role as FFXI Producer until he departed from Square Enix. That was when he asked me, “Yoshida, if you can, would you take over FFXI too?” and that was how I became involved with FFXI.* Hiromichi Tanaka, original Producer of FFXI.
I see, so there was some history between the two of you.
Yoshida
I owed a huge debt of gratitude to Mr. Hiromichi, and so given it was an MMO business, I decided to oversee it within the division I was managing at the time, Business Division 5. After taking over, I pondered what should be done for FFXI, a game supported by many passionate players, and my resolution was to ensure the operations of FFXI can continue as long as possible.
Matsui
Back then, there were a lot of specifics that only Mr. Tanaka was privy to, and I remember Mr. Yoshida conducting a thorough internal inspection to uncover them.
Yoshida
That I did. (laughs)
I was looking at the numbers for everything, including development-related costs, personnel assigned to each aspect of the game, how the patch cycles worked for it, labor and server maintenance expenses, and so on. These specifics were crucial not only for me, but for Mr. Matsui as well. He also needed a firm understanding of the numbers as he was to take over as producer. With Mr. Hiromichi leaving the company, neglecting to comprehend these specifics would be the downfall of our operations and ultimately force us to end the service for the game.
Of course, on an emotional level, I wanted FFXI to maintain its previous scale of operations. However, if we kept going at that scale and couldn’t bring in enough revenue as a result, that would be the worst-case scenario. Therefore my first venture after taking over FFXI was to uncover the specifics and decide what to cut back or expand upon.
Matsui
It was an inevitable part of securing the game’s future.
Yoshida
Another matter was how long we could maintain support for North America and Europe. Our investigations revealed there was still a high demand in North America, so we increased our resources there and moved forward with advertising and public relations (PR) as well.
However, back then our overseas offices were predominantly focused on FFXIV and lacked the staff to devote to FFXI. To resolve this, we approached Square Enix America to re-evaluate their staffing, planning for anniversary-related and promotional projects, and community events. After that, we held another discussion with the team to establish a long-term plan, after which Mr. Matsui and his team took over the operations, and here we are now.
What about your current involvement with FFXI?
Yoshida
Currently, aside from sharing information on the interval and content of version updates, I’m primarily involved in the budgeting side of things. I generally evaluate the cost-effectiveness of advertising and PR, this interview series being one such example, and provide alternate ideas should there be any shortcomings.
It seems like your role requires a different mindset compared to working on standalone games.
Yoshida
That's right. When it comes to MMORPGs, spending money on advertising and PR has the effect of retaining more players, but this is a difficult concept for someone who hasn’t been exposed to the online game business. It’s often said that money shouldn’t be spent without an explicit plan for profit, but the opposite is true when managing a monthly subscription MMORPG, where player retention is the “profit.”
On the other hand, the hard part about the MMORPG business is that doing nothing leads to a decline in player retention, which means decreased revenue. Understanding this concept makes an enormous difference. I’m not stingy in giving the go-ahead to spend, but when we do, I evaluate the cost-effectiveness and have the team make the most of the information for our next expenditure.
I see.
Yoshida
On the other hand, I believe the game content should generally be left to Mr. Matsui and his team, rather than have me superficially intervene. With that said, when they’re making the game more accessible for new and returning players, I do occasionally ask them to tweak certain aspects of the user interface (UI) that I, as a third party, found confusing.
Matsui
When we revamped the FFXI installer in 2019, we first asked Mr. Yoshida to have a look, then tweaked words and phrases that were hard to understand.
Yoshida
FFXI is an MMORPG with such a distinguished history, and it’d be a pity if players couldn’t make it past the entrance. So I directed the team to make the installer more accessible by using words that are more common today.
Matsui
Prior to that, the installer still had technical jargon that was quite difficult to understand. I think we subconsciously believed those words were still common knowledge, just as they were for PC users back when the game was released two decades ago.
Yoshida
PC users back then were the kind of people that were knowledgeable about graphics cards and such, after all. (laughs) Because times had changed, I felt we should be careful to avoid tripping up our players with that kind of technical jargon.
Matsui
We also tweaked the chat feature based on the modern standards we learned from Mr. Yoshida.
Yoshida
Another discussion we had was what we could do for returning players looking to rejoin the community after a long absence. FFXI was released during the golden age of MMORPGs, and there are many who consider FFXI as a place where they can “come home to.” However, I guessed that players would come back to FFXI all alone and end up logging off without reuniting with anyone, so I requested a system to help players reconnect with others.
Matsui
Recent games try to keep social interactions casual, but FFXI was designed to be more fun with close-knit communities, so we’ve been receiving advice on how to rebuild that aspect. We’ve also borrowed engineers from Creative Business Unit III on a number of occasions.
Yoshida
In regard to profitable operations, hiring server engineers and other staff to work exclusively on FFXI around-the-clock the whole year round would increase its expenses. So in Creative Business Unit III, engineering fees are expensed under FFXIV, while the FFXI team can submit proposals for tasks that require engineers. Once a proposal has been reviewed and approved, we have the programmers estimate the costs and then have a discussion with them. If we asked them to focus on FFXI for three months, for example, then FFXI would only incur costs for those three months. This allows us to keep costs down and is one of the perks of overseeing two MMORPGs in our division.
Ah, so managing multiple MMORPGs is what allows you to make those kinds of pragmatic arrangements.
Yoshida
When our engineers are unsure what to prioritize, we can designate their priorities and allow them to work productively without hesitation, which I believe is also one of our strengths.
https://we-are-vanadiel.finalfantasyxi.com/post/?id=367
