Final Fantasy XIV's Last Days, Rebirth, And Move Toward Profitability Exclusive

In October, Square Enix announced that it plans to work toward a "version 2.0" of its troubled 2010 MMO Final Fantasy XIV -- a game that the president of Square Enix, Yoichi Wada, said "greatly damaged" the Final Fantasy brand after its disastrous launch.

The launch was so problematic, in fact, that Square Enix has yet to
begin charging for what was meant to be a premium game over a year since
its launch, and will begin to do so "around December", when patch 1.20
launches, bringing key missing features to the title.

Did FFXIV greatly damage the brand?

"What we consider more critical is the feeling that we betrayed the
trust of our players," says Naoki Yoshida, producer of the game.

"Final Fantasy XIV, at the time of its launch, greatly
disappointed our customers who had high hopes, and failed to live up to
the standards of the Final Fantasy series. As a result, we lost our customers' trust in a big way."

To win that trust back, Yoshida has been working closely with the
international player community -- a process he outlined to Gamasutra in a
feature interview published in April.

"The first thing I did when I became the producer and director of Final Fantasy XIV
last December was to ask myself, 'What kind of service system, game
content, and community content would be necessary if we were to continue
to offer this service 10 years into the future?'" says Yoshida, now. He
looked at successful Western premium MMOs such as World of Warcraft and Rift for clues.

Once he came on board a year ago, "I came to the quick conclusion that
we would have to redesign the user interface, graphics engine, map
system and the resource itself, and the servers," says Yoshida.

The version 2.0 launch, which is set to take place in 2013 -- and
results in the long-delayed PlayStation 3 launch for the game, which so
far has only shipped on PC -- will be built on a new engine "which we
are building from the ground up," Yoshida says.

"We are taking steps to conduct detailed design and cost analysis in
advance on areas that require fundamental revisions, and then jump right
into coding in order to ensure a very efficient and productive
development process."

"As it turned out, our company had already gathered specialists from the
game industry to help us build new engines, and we were able to borrow
many of them to work specifically on this new graphics engine.
Therefore, the development process is moving at a relatively fast pace,"
Yoshida says.

What 2.0 Means

It's not just new tech, says Yoshida, that 2.0 entails. The entire world
of the game will "change greatly" in a cataclysmic event that marks the
break between the two versions of the game. Players who want on board
for that scenario will have to begin to play before the 2.0 launch. "All
the events that take place from here on out will tie into the big bang
that is FFXIV 2.0," says Yoshida.

"Players, community websites, and the gaming media may see the roadmap
we have provided and take it as, 'Oh, they’re creating a completely
different game,' but this is not the case. FFXIV will always be FFXIV
and nothing else. In fact, the updates from the past 10 months are all
part of the upcoming version 2.0, and its quality will only increase as
we incorporate the scores of valuable feedback we receive from the
players," he says.

Meanwhile, Yoshida feels that the time until the launch of 2.0 is not a
problem, as he's strongly tied into the community and the developers are
continually updating the current version of the game with patches and
gameplay changes to address player concerns.

Will Players Come... Or Come Back?

"We have already lost the players’ trust once, so we believe that the
basis of judgment for players lies solely in the gameplay. We would like
the players to form their opinions by playing the game and listening to
the opinions of other players playing the game," says Yoshida.

"The reason we decided to announce the fact that we would begin billing
two months before the actual start was to let our customers know early
on that they would be able to cancel unwanted subscriptions," says
Yoshida of the unusual roadmap that the company has laid: starting to
charge more than a year past the game's initial launch, and a year prior to its announced relaunch.

"I think that there is a risk involved in beginning billing, which is
true for any MMORPG," he says. "We believe that it is necessary to begin
charging in order to provide our best service in operating the game at a
high level and offering 24 hour GM services."

"I do believe that there will be players who will be reluctant to pay for the game," he does admit.

But the goal is this: bringing the game to profitability. "That is our plan, including FFXIV 2.0," says Yoshida.

in summary ffxiv 2.0 which will begin charging sub cost monthly soon is just the beginning.

they are basically aiming to redo the whole game which they target 2013 as year of completion.

so one should take it smart and start the game again when 2013 version is here with brand new engine and graphics and storyline/features

or u can pay for 1 year playing a game that will most likely get wipe later on.even if they don't get wipe i am pretty sure most new players will head for new server instead of going to old ones with max lvl players with vast exp heh

i will join ffxiv again when 2013 version is here.maybe earlier if they can speed up the process.

hope they don't disappoint again.think if they mess up again that will spell the end of FF Series for mmorpg pffft

Still playing very casually, maxed gladiator last month and almost finished marauder. Probably halt once SWTOR starts though.

ya no point playing atm.but i am not removing it from my desktop.still enjoy my time at ffxiv at the starting with u guys hehe

just need to wait till 2013...unless the world end at 2012 then too bad T_T