FFXIV Under New Managment?

Hmmm....

From SE-

While more than two months have passed since the official launch of FINAL FANTASY XIV service, we deeply regret that the game has yet to achieve the level of enjoyability that FINAL FANTASY fans have come to expect from the franchise, and for this we offer our sincerest of apologies.

To realize this vision, and in doing so, provide our customers with a better game experience, we have assembled our company's top talent and resources.

We realize time is of the essence and are fully determined to provide our customers with quality service. It is because of this that we ask our customers to be patient until we are able to confidently present them with a concrete plan outlining FINAL FANTASY XIV's new direction.

The free trial period will be extended until that time.

Full Article

Hopefully, this is a good thing...

happy to see they got one of Vagrant Story Team in there.... this maybe the right way to improve the game by changing the team and showing the players that they are willing to do everything to get their trust back and Hard luck Hiromichi Tanaka

That's a pretty intense thing to do.. just like openly shitcan people.

Who are these new guys, who were the old guys?

I think the problem was Wada personally. The problems with XIV were that it was too ambitious and it was rushed to market. That's the decision for the CEO.

The thing I hope is that this doesn't become the nail in the coffin of XIV because I personally liked where it was going (once I seen what they actually had planned.) Changing direction like this may lead to further problems..

Did Wada *** us again?

I kinda liked Tanaka...but he completely screwed up with 14. Let's hope the "new guy" will do better. Priorities are key here. There is a lot riding on this new staff change and a couple of reputations are at stake. I don't think Wada would *** us intentionally....but who knows.

Glad to see Komoto gone as the director, and it was a good call in my opinion to remove Tanaka as producer given the state of the current game.. All and all, I'm very happy with this decision.

I kind of figured they were going to end up extending the trial period further. A lot of people would be gone today, if SE announced tomorrow they are going to start charging with the game in it's current state. As of right now, they really can't afford to lose too many potential customers, the population of the game is (at least IMO) dangerously low as is.

However, this new decision raises one question for me.. Is it too little, too late? At this point is it even feasible that this game will ever develop a large (in MMO standards) player population? At least the PS3 release has been pushed back, I was afraid they would make the same mistake with PS3 release that they did with PC, which is provide a game devoid of depth or content.

All the things they mentioned before were a step in the right direction, but it was still a long shot from a complete game, and releasing the PS3 version, even with those planned updates, it would have still essentially been the same game, just fewer bugs and a marginal amount more of added content.

I don't thing many will come back till they hear ps3 review. That is just the way it seems to me.

The only think I know is that I'm playing for free until the ps3 release and now we are getting 2 updates in December instead of 1 8). This the best 14 news I herd yet I'm sticking with it for sure although I'm not going to play like I did 11 meaning devoting all my free time to it yet, but I'll definitely sticking with it. I can't wait to see what the future brings.








-

lets hope for the best!

I'm just pretty much holding off on playing all together. I wanted to be at the top of the pack in crafting, so I wasn't stuck being broke most of the time like I was in XI, but since that's not really a problem AND I've already amassed a small fortune, I'm just going to wait around until there's more content and ***to do.

But from what it sounds like... the game might not even be "the same" by the time they're done with it. This could mean character wipes? Not saying it absolutely WILL happen, but I wouldn't rule it out as impossible.

Glad to hear the free trial is remaining indefinitely. I feel happy they're doing that.

Indeed, delaying PS3 version was the best thing they could do, it's easier to pull people back when reviewers and media say "Hey they indeed fixed the game and it's fun" than they sending emails to people trying to convince their clients they fixed it.

Other games have done it with success by launching the same game in other console with improvements and bonus stuff.

Na I don't see this happening they are encouraging people to keep playing that's why the sub is free and they are continuing with updates. This is not beta people still purchased the game initially just the sub is free atm. If they wiped characters they would loose all the players they currently have in turn the game fails and they would loose so wipes is not happening. They still need us to play or else they would not be continuing updates and free subs ect...they are doing this so people will continue to play through the bull ***. If every one quits now and waits until the ps3 its game over and the end of 14 no ps3 release or nothing.

When I saw the FFXIV e-mail this morning, I figured it was just a "Hey, we're extending the trial again! Merry Christmas!"

I didn't expect an indefinite free trial extension, PS3 release push back, and a personnel switch. However, I give major kudos to SE for doing this.

Exactly.

It sounds like the current PC players are now playing a free "beta" (aside from the software purchase) as the new developers overhaul FFXIV into a game that more people will enjoy. I can definitely see them relaunching the game if/when they fix it. Sacking the old dev team and delaying the PS3 launch is SE's best course of action.

It better work. You *** just took FFXI's god-mode director. We only had Akihiko Matsui for a few months, but he was a fantastic director. I'll give the new guy a chance though. As long as Tanaka stays the hell away from FFXI, everything might turn out alright.

Well they already lost me. If I could get a refund for the game I purchased I would. I've told everyone who has ever asked me about FFXIV that the graphics are spectacular... and... that's... about... it..., not to buy it.

I also wanted to start early, get a head start on everyone and be max level for endgame. An endgame that never was implemented and doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon. The game play was so horrendous that even playing for "free" (I still paid $50 for this) isn't worth my time. If they reinvent the entire game it would only seems fair to people who have quit and people who have not bought the game that they restart everyone at a "relaunch" of the game. Especially if the entire game mechanics have changed to the point where its a completely different game. However, I do see how the loyal fans who have convinced themselves into continuing playing would be upset about it.

I don't know, I guess I can't see anyone ever playing FFXIV for any length of time. The adventure, exploration, fun and magic just isn't there. It was only after the "newness" of the game wore off that I saw this and decided enough was enough. Apparently a lot of people feel the same way and SE has publicly acknowledged this. For this I am grateful.

I want to see FFXIV be a worthy successor to XI and the Final Fantasy series in general. I hope they can make this game into what it should have been, no matter how long it takes them. I just won't lie to myself and pretend that this game is worth playing until that day arrives.

Cool story man. I've been playing since beta and am still enjoying it. I guess in your opinion they need to do character wipes after every update because something in the game was changed?

I didn't say the need to, nor did I say it will happen. I did say if they change the game so much that it is a completely different game at that point it should be considered. I know every single one of you who have been trying to get Lv.50 or already have will hate me until your face turns blue for even mentioning it. I'm fine with that. Just throwing a thought out there.

It would make absolutely no sense at all to do a character to wipe. They are giving you free months to play the game and level up, so if you get behind, it's your own fault.

They won't change the basic things... such as combat, they can however improve it, tweak the clases, add new clases, but the core of the game will be the same, relaunching a game makes no sense. What most people is complaining about is the content not the core itself of the game, if you don't like the core of the game you will never like it regardless of what they do to it.

If you read closely, what people was complaining about the combat was the slow response times. Obviously ignoring the people that complains "zomg no auto attack" when I remember back in FFXI they were all like "Auto attack sucks, it's boring" but now they complain for the lack of it, regardless of what they do, some people will never be happy with anything and always find reasons to complain about.

See ya bro...shitty lolWOW cata is out now go play that crap sounds like the game for you!

It's worth noting that a good number of the development team is gone as well.

They're trying to fix the clusterf#&! that they released, and delaying the release of the PS3 version is the right thing to do until they figure out what the hecks going on. They should've done it with the PC release. The updates they've done have improved the game, but there are still a ton of things that need to be changed to make the game even better. Think they're making the right moves in this regard. lol @Tanaka and Sundi losing their jobs!

Pretty funny that whenever someone talks about FFXIV in a poor light that the default response is "go play wow". I have never liked wow and never will. Nice try, though.

This is catastrophically bad, PR-wise. The mea culpa is the honorable thing to do, but this indicates to everyone that were it not a numbered title with the potential to sink the FF franchise as collateral damage, the game would have already been canceled.

It will be extraordinarily hard to convince the media, etc to give the game another look when it's essentially gone free-to-play. It's very difficult to convince already dubious players to start paying for something they will have grown to expect for free. If anything, the bar will be higher than it was at release.

As for the developers, no one wants to work on a failed product. There is less glory in "turning a game around" once it's gotten bad press than pumping out something new that earns you a good Metacritic score. I expect this was not just a senior management departure, but a good number of the development team as well.

I find this news disappointing. FF14 was not an isolated disaster. It happened due to cultural pressures from the very top of SE to sacrifice quality for short-term gain, and damn the consequences. It's been going on for many years now. If anything, President Wada should be writing out his resignation letter, not finding who among the FF14 team can take the blame for him.

Sometimes changes needs to be made. The game engine dosent work as good as it should. The game was not finished (*ready) for that relaase in September. Definetly not.
I loved playing FFXI, loved partying with buddies and random parties.
Loved leveling my character when I wanted to - all I had to do was go on seek or start my own party. And in short time, I would be slaughtering beasts and having fun.

Playing on Kashuan and searching for a party that is recruiting players is more of a suffer than it is an enjoyment.

Looking for 1 item in retainers for hours and hours is a suffer.

So why do I play? I played FFXI for 6 years and decided to have a 1 year break until FFXIV came out. That way I would be "hungry" again to play a MMO hardcore and what do I get......
Synth and do levequests, synth and do levequests, synth and do levequests, synth and do levequests......

With the new development team, changes will be made I hope. It is nice to see people with experience from XI sitting in the lead game design now, trying to solve the mess (or lack of same). Hopefully new ideas for questing, party seek and in general rewards to us players trying to enjoy the game, will come.

I alway found it funny the players who say they left and not playing FFXIV are still around talking ***about it. It's like find you don't like the game but don't be rude and talk ***about it when some players do. Everywhere you go to look up some info about the game you hear ppl takling ***.