| twesterm said: And it's so easy for you to say oh, FFXIV will be profitable because it's powered by sunshine and puppy farts!, good thing you're not in charge either.
FFXIV needs one major thing in order to survive-- players. It doesn't have that. As I pointed out earlier, it only had 350k active players in October and it probably has never gone over that number. You're right that FFXIV dos not need to like other MMO's but it does need players. It doesn't have many players at all and what little players it does have will start leaving in mass when they actually start charging for it.
You keep saying FFXIV will make money but I'm still not sure if you realize it's losing an insane amount of money every day it's operational and bringing in no money. Remember, this game was supposed to be making money since last September. Not only have they not been making monthly fees but they're basically remaking the game. In order for that game to make money it will need near WoW-like numbers and stay around for a long time. The game is a massive money pit. It's funny how you can sit there and tell me it's so easy to say it will fail but I'm the person that has all the facts and not just hopes on their side. I know FFXIV cost a lot of money to produce, I know FFXIV cost a lot of money to fix in its current state, I know FFXIV cost a lot to maintain, I know FFXIV has brought in no subscription fees, I know it has a horrible reputation, I know there are 600k copies out there and there aren't even half of that playing it, and I know it's an awful game. What do you know?
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Think you could talk a little bit more about Square's costs and losses involved with FFXIV? I know you work in the industry, and would like to hear about how much Square is hemorraging from XIV. I'd imagine that development costs on the game were likely between $70-$100m USD and with current sales, are nowhere near that kind of revenue (much less the monthly fees of upkeep - and thats what Im interested in learning about).
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
