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Why FF14 had to be released unfinished
Clywd
Member UncommonPosts: 261
I see here many posts that call FF14 unfinished, boring, broken etc. But Squenix simply was right to release it in the current state. Here is why:
Management does not care about fun or customers, they are paid for making money. One part of their job was to find the right release date. At the moment there is a big bunch of people looking for new games, as WoW/LotRO/EQ2/FF11/AoC are now becoming boring and start loosing subscribers. On the other hand there are many new games coming next year that cater exactly to these type of gamers (Rift, Tera, GW2, etc.).
So the management just looked in their book "management for beginners" and read:
Having a competitor with a product in an unknown state you may get:
1. Product A good state and earlier released - A wins 95% - 5% against Product B bad state and later released
2. Product A bad state and earlier released - A wins 50% - 50% against Product B bad state and later released
3. Product A bad state and earlier released - A wins 20% - 80% against Product B good state and later released
4. Product A bad state and later released - A wins 5% - 95% against Product B good state and earlier released
(numbers taken from the book "Softskills for IT managers". percentage numbers are market share of both products combined)
The management very well knew about the state of the game, and that they would fall into option 4 if they would have waited longer. So to avoid the worst case scenario they just through it to the market to be at least the first of the new triple A games, and to get those 20% ripped of unpatient customers.
Currently playing: EverQuest
Waiting for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen
Comments
Nah, wasn't a good decision because it was detrimental to the games longevity. FFXIV needed a good start because coming up here soon are games that won't allow it the 6 months to recover and improve. TOR, GW2, Rift, Tera are all going to be heavy hitters and FFXIV needed a decent sized player base and a stable one at that to pull through fine. What has happened instead is that it's had a fairly poor launch and the time frame they have to improve the game enough to hope to bring people back and generate that interest is fairly small compared to the norm because competition will be pretty fierce soon.
To top it all off Cataclysm is around the corner as well.
Releasing the game in this state was a huge mistake because now it's going to be a mad dash to recover and the hits to the sub count are going to start in December. Then they have all the little niche games coming out as well.
If FFXIV had released in a state that had been well received by the majority it would likely be in good enough shape to weather the storm.
They made less initial money than they could have and will also make less long term money than they could have. From a business perspective this was an extremely bad move no matter how you look at it.
I'm of the opinion that getting the PC release out of the way was intentional so that issues could be resolved for when the console version gets released. Going up against Cata and TOR, they're going to get pounded in the USA and very likely Europe. At least this way, they made some bucks and have people paying them to beta test the patches.
I can see the point that it hurt reputation. I guess that wasn't really a priority.
I agree with the theory that the PC release was just a training run for the console, where SE stands to make the most money as all of those other titles won't be released on it.
This was just a great beta test, chance to get everything fleshed out and stabilized and make a little cash from the desparate PC MMO market, where we've seen numerous examples of people buying the game even though they knew it wouldn't be much to their liking.
No, Cataclysm won't hurt this game much, if you like FFXIV, WOW's not going to impress you, at least not for very long, and once the Console release comes out, the state of the PC version will be nothing but a distant memory.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
I must agree.
This game has had a good start. All the information so far points to it being succesfull in the long run.
"Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game."-Guybrush Threepwood
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."-Hunter S. Thompson
Makes sense to me as well.
I'm curious to see how the PS3 players will review the game when it comes out. I bet they'lle be happy with it.
As to cataclysm hurting FF14, I think people know by now whether they like WoW or not. Cataclysm will bring some old players back (me including) due to Blizzard trying to steer the game back to the old days (vanilla, if you will). But I doubt it will hurt FF14. It's just a totally different style of game.
Wow, could you be any more delusional. This game has had bad reviews, bad word of mouth and is plain bad. Ill fix your statement for you since you are clearly medicated or something.
This game could of had a good start. All the information so far points to it should of been succesfull in the long run
First off no official reviews have been made, secondly for every one bad player review and bad word of mouth there is one good review and one good word of mouth. If anything has been demonstrated about this game is that it polarizes people; either you love it or you hate it, but it has been 50/50. So, I can say that for 50% (which is a conservative number) of the people are enjoying the game and believe it to be a success.
"Never pay more than 20 bucks for a computer game."-Guybrush Threepwood
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me."-Hunter S. Thompson
Well i totally agree with the OP,they or i should say the people in charge came up with a predetermined release date and the game was going to be released no matter what condition it was in.When i saw Tanaka mention thta it took 5 years before FFXI could turn a profit,i right away knew that this game was going tobe the same oir worse,so they needed to rush it out the door.
Nothing is really a secret anyhow,they released the game without the PS3,so that alone proves they needed to start making money,why else would they lie about a simultaneous release?Also there is the fact that Square wanted Beta feedback,but the release date was already set,so it is obvious they had no intention what so ever of acting on any of the feedback until after release.
My opinion of a Beta test is to open up to a large user base and get FEEDBACK,this is what devs claim they are doing.Then you need ttime to look at all the feedback and act appropiately,you do NOT go ahead and just release anyhow just because you said you would.
I saw a couple things posted by Tanaka that really confirmed how i feel about PR BS........
DO: The company system was not in place during the beta version, so it’s the system that most people are wondering about…
PT: We can’t tell you about it yet since it will be introduced in a patch after the retail version is out (he laughs). First we’d like people to get into their linkshells, and then start getting more people under the same flags, working like a guild or clan system.
There were ideas to add a male Mithra and a female Galka, but, unfortunately, due to developmental limitations, we had to throw those ideas in a vault for now. We may be able to see them later, when the time is right.
Umm here are two perfect examples,he's trying to say the company system wasn't in place because they want people to get large shells going first,and then the models were not done because of "developmental limitations",c'mon it's all not there because there was a timed release setup and it wasn't going to be missed no matter what.No question at all,this game was pushed out the door because it had to be.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Even though I quit WOW 5 months ago and wont be playing Cataclysm....................you are DEAD right. It will draw a lot of people away from a lot of games.............If GW2 plays its cards right they will release 3-6 months laters and get all the people bored of WOW or people who need a break as it is a Buy to play / No sub alternative, and as it stands its looking like a real nice game.
Even shit sometimes has corn in it. That's content.
Sometimes poo is soft and other times it's rock hard, that's variety.
Actually the only thing FFXIV even has in common with crap is that it stinks.
but the music's good For 5 minutes - "theartist"
I think people over estimate the amount people the console version is going to pull in. MMOs are historically a genre targeted for PCs and most MMO players don't think about waiting for console version since they play on PC already. It might be different in Japan, but I think that is true for us westerners, the people who were gonna try and play for the most part will or already have for the PC.
An MMO only gets one initial first impression, every single fail MMO that has come out people talked forever on the forums about waiting and waiting for the game to get polished and finished because the game had promise. I don't want to be a negative nancy but I've heard this same thing over and over and the results have been the same. MMO players are finicky and don't give second chances for the most part, you can't release unfinished games with the intention of patching it later anymore. I don't know how many failed MMOs it will take before developers realize this.
FFXIV will probably see a pretty big chunk of the current player base quit and servers start merging before the population stabilizes. It will be enough to keep content being developed and a tighter knit community the fanboys seem to want but if you are looking for next big next gen MMO title this isn't it.