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There are almost 300 Square Enix employees on Final Fantasy XIV excluding outsourcing

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
So apparently Square Enix has decided to super ultra invest in Final Fantasy XIV.

This also explains why they don't seem to be announcing many games from Japan lately.

There's a lot more about the game in the interview.

RPGSite said:
RPG Site: About how large now is the team working on FF14 and how has it - if at all - affected Square Enix development internally? Actually, I’m really interested in the way the team works so perhaps if you could describe a bit about day to day workings and various staff roles? Going back to the idea of 2.0 having an ‘epic Final Fantasy-style’ story, I’m really interested in who will be handling the scenario and dialogue writing—things like that.

Yoshida: Currently, the in-house team consists of almost 300 members. We also have outsourced a fair amount of work to third-party companies, so all-in-all, the team is fairly large.

Some of the core members include:

Naoki Yoshida – producer/director – (Dragon Quest series)
Yoshihisa Hashimoto – technical director – (CTO, Luminous engine)
Hiroshi Takai – assistant director – (Last Remnant, FFV, Romancing Saga series)
Akihiko Matsui – battle director – (Final Fantasy Series, FFXI)
Hiroshi Minagawa – UI director – (FFXII, Tactics Ogre)
Takeo Suzuki – art director – (FFXII)
Akihiko Yoshida – lead artist (FFXII, Tactics Ogre)

And many, many more Square Enix veterans
Source: http://www.rpgsite.net/articles/397-final-fantasy-xiv-a-realm-reborn-developer-interview
 
WWXDO.jpg
 

stuart

Banned
That's a lot of people! There seems to be a surplus of MMO's on the horizon, will be interesting to see which survive and which crumble.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
Sounds way too risky of an invesment for my liking.

Can see the finished product living up to expectations, butt fear they have already made their bed with the original release..
 

duckroll

Member
Sounds way too risky of an invesment for my liking.

Can see the finished product living up to expectations, butt fear they have already made their bed with the original release..

At this point, is it even possible to not meet/surpass expectations? I think most people have extremely low expectations of the game as it is. Butt fear indeed! :)
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Sounds way too risky of an invesment for my liking.

Can see the finished product living up to expectations, butt fear they have already made their bed with the original release..

At this point, is it even possible to not meet/surpass expectations? I think most people have extremely low expectations of the game as it is. Butt fear indeed! :)

I'm sure it will become Square Enix's #1 source of free 2 play revenue!
 

cw_sasuke

If all DLC came tied to $13 figurines, I'd consider all DLC to be free
I wish SE had just developed new MMORPG IPs instead of pushing their classic IPs like FF/DQ into that area.
 
For the revitalization of the FF brand, we decided not to shutdown FFXIV and to continue the services while adding improvements at the same time as rebuilding the game from scratch. As a result of the decision we made, it was inevitable to move the resources within the HD game to FFXIV and new title releases have suffered for 2 to 3 years.

So this is one of the main reasons we have yet to see versus13. FF14 draining all there resources. I'm afraid FF14 is going to bury them.
 
The journey this game has taken and changes along the way have been many. I'll be surprised when(if?) it gets to a point when it'll be doing ok.

At this point really, with all the resources that have been poured in will this game ever be profitable for them? I would imagine the money from FFXI was dried up already : p
 
Didn't they just say that they were going to have smaller development teams.

>.> I must be getting them confused with another developer?

This seems like suicide.
 

Pooya

Member
The journey this game has taken and changes along the way have been many. I'll be surprised when(if?) it gets to a point when it'll be doing ok.

At this point really, with all the resources that have been poured in will this game ever be profitable for them? I would imagine the money from FFXI was dried up already : p

looks like they are just doing this to keep face, making money is secondary :p a sound business plan. Chances of this project turning out a success are pretty much null, in the time that sub based MMOs are dropping like flies. them not rebuilding it with f2p in mind is just going to cost them even more down the road xD
 

duckroll

Member
This does not bode well for the next generation.

What does this have to do with generations? This is a case of a company flunking a MMORPG release, and then going all out to try and recover from it. It's unprecedented and has nothing to do with the problems of "this generation".
 

Eusis

Member
Didn't they just say that they were going to have smaller development teams.

>.> I must be getting them confused with another developer?

This seems like suicide.
I imagine they'll break back up that team into smaller ones after this is done, but as someone who still liked SE games it's REALLY frustrating that emergency development of FFXIV quite plausibly decimated their Japanese output for now.
 

Pooya

Member
What does this have to do with generations? This is a case of a company flunking a MMORPG release, and then going all out to try and recover from it. It's unprecedented and has nothing to do with the problems of "this generation".

he means their next generation, they will still be busy making FF14 ... this time f2p edition
 

duckroll

Member
he means their next generation, they will still be busy making FF14 ... this time f2p edition

By next generation FFXIV should be dead. I don't think they can continue with this farce post-2.0. The relaunch of FFXIV will either be somewhat successful and profitable for S-E (hahahahaahahahhaahahahhahaha no) or the project will be killed and all losses absorbed for good. I can't see them continuing with this face saving campaign beyond this year because ultimately S-E is a listed company with shareholders.
 

dramatis

Member
looks like they are just doing this to keep face, making money is secondary :p a sound business plan. Chances of this project turning out a success are pretty much null, in the time that sub based MMOs are dropping like flies. them not rebuilding it with f2p in mind is just going to cost them even more down the road xD
I don't think they're doing this to keep face. There's no question 11 was the most profitable FF for SE, because of subscriptions. So they want to keep the money streaming in with a newer subscription MMO. What the business side just hasn't accounted for yet is that f2p has changed the market since 11.

Whatever the case is, if they can capture a chunk of the console market, then I think they'll eventually do better, but not 11 levels. If they fail for a few months, they'll move to f2p.
 
They are pouring so much money, time and manpower into such a failure of a game. It's a fucking miracle that Square Enix still exists as a company.
 
What does this have to do with generations? This is a case of a company flunking a MMORPG release, and then going all out to try and recover from it. It's unprecedented and has nothing to do with the problems of "this generation".

I mean in regards to Square Enix developing any potential FF titles for the next generation.
 

duckroll

Member
Serious question: Is there any possibility at all for a major MMO in today's market to exist on a subscription model and remain popular and profitable? Even WoW seems to be winding down, and that's the juggernaut which cannot be compared to anything else.


I mean in regards to Square Enix developing any potential FF titles for the next generation.

Yeah sorry, I interpreted the statement wrongly. I think S-E is already troubled this generation though, most of their Japanese staff might not make it to the next if this shit continues. :(
 
Serious question: Is there any possibility at all for a major MMO in today's market to exist on a subscription model and remain popular and profitable? Even WoW seems to be winding down, and that's the juggernaut which cannot be compared to anything else.

Rift.

It has lasted for over a year, and while it does have an F2P to level 20 feature, it's not much different than giving people a 7-14 day trial of the full game which just about every MMO has done. WoW offered free trials long before any of the expansions so I don't think a "starter" F2P system necessarily counts against a subscription MMO.
 

Pooya

Member
I don't think they're doing this to keep face. There's no question 11 was the most profitable FF for SE, because of subscriptions. So they want to keep the money streaming in with a newer subscription MMO. What the business side just hasn't accounted for yet is that f2p has changed the market since 11.


that's what I'm saying, there is no hope for a FF14 reboot if it's $15/month. There are much better MMOs completely free (PSO2 is the latest). Either they are completely oblivious to the current reality of MMO market or they know and just doing it to keep the brand name. when FF11 launched things were very different, and final fantasy name meant something too.
 

Eusis

Member
Serious question: Is there any possibility at all for a major MMO in today's market to exist on a subscription model and remain popular and profitable? Even WoW seems to be winding down, and that's the juggernaut which cannot be compared to anything else.
I'm sure some surprise can happen, and if not that then maybe Blizzard's next MMO. Either way I don't see more than one other game succeeding there, and not another until a few more years pass.
 

Auto_aim1

MeisaMcCaffrey
Turn 10 has the same amount of employees plus they outsource a lot. So technically Square Enix's Japanese output should be 1 game every 2 years (and that's what they were aiming too). It will be sad to see FFXIV fail again after so much time and effort invested to revive it. But it's not surprising to see them try considering FF11 was their most profitable FF game.
 

duckroll

Member
I'm sure some surprise can happen, and if not that then maybe Blizzard's next MMO. Either way I don't see more than one other game succeeding there, and not another until a few more years pass.

Do you think Blizzard's next MMO will be subscription based though?
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
By next generation FFXIV should be dead. I don't think they can continue with this farce post-2.0. The relaunch of FFXIV will either be somewhat successful and profitable for S-E (hahahahaahahahhaahahahhahaha no) or the project will be killed and all losses absorbed for good. I can't see them continuing with this face saving campaign beyond this year because ultimately S-E is a listed company with shareholders.

I imagine they will at least keep it alive under an f2p model, even if they're barely updating the game.

What are the numbers on that like, and how are they making it work? I'm not really familiar with current MMOs these days.

Well, MMOData isn't perfect, but they do dig through as many financial and PR statements as possible when they try to construct their charts:

subs-2b0bb9.png
 
What are the numbers on that like, and how are they making it work? I'm not really familiar with current MMOs these days.

I heard that they either broke or approached two million at some point in the last year. It's really hard to find reliable numbers for the game, but the fact that it has managed to maintain a subscription system for over a year now is better than most recent MMOs seem to have managed.

EDIT: Yeah, I guess the two million number may be way off.
 

urfe

Member
I have mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I have zero interest in online RPGs, and won't be playing this game (there's a chance I'll cave for DQX and play it by myself online).

On the other hand, in the last few generations, I think Square and Enix (especially since the merge) have put out not only way too many games, but way too many poorly made games. If this is the start of proper quality assurance, and the beginning of masterpieces being the norm for Square Enix.

I'm probably being way too hopeful.
 
Why does it seem like every decision SE has made this generation is made to piss me off? They've lost site of the fans that have supported them for so many years. It seems they no longer care about the fans(oh you want FF7 remake, well heres FFX HD that no one asked for!), but instead spill all there time and resources into an MMO that already failed and a bunch of FF13 spin offs that most people dont want either. They obviously believe FF14 is going to be this non stop never ending cash flow for them and are to stubborn to give up on it. There blinded by the success of FFXI, and are obsessed to one up it. In the process there pissing off everyone that wants to buy there future games(if they ever release).
 

2San

Member
Come on they can't be that stupid right? Damn I'm actually worried about their future now. I was even feeling SE these last few months(mostly because of Eidos and SE as publisher).

SE's way of handling things:
4ZGA0.gif


With that man power they could make 3 "AAA" games.
 

duckroll

Member
I heard that they either broke or approached two million at some point in the last year. It's really hard to find reliable numbers for the game, but the fact that it has managed to maintain a subscription system for over a year now is better than most recent MMOs seem to have managed.

EDIT: Yeah, I guess the two million number may be way off.

I'm just wondering because I think FFXIV would need to be more successful than something like Rift, on a subscription model, for it to be worth S-E's time at this point. They have sunk so much money, time, and manpower into the game that if their plan for getting returns is entirely from subscriptions, they're going to need a pretty large user base....

Someone should help us crunch some numbers to see how unrealistic FFXIV surviving on a subscription model would be.

Not necessarily, but if anyone can do it without seeming insane or out of touch at this point it's them.

True, but if the market keeps moving in the freeium direction, I don't see Blizzard staying still without a good reason. If they know they can make more money from a f2p model, they'll take it.
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
I don't know how to feel, it's a pretty big dedication though. But it's so risky.
 
I guess this explains the lack of versus13.

That team might only consist of Nomura right now LOL.


Pouring all that in a MMO is very questionable imo
 
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