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Zekkyou on 25 June 2017
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outlawauron said:
Zekkyou said:

Anyone demanding that lacks even a basic understanding of what they're actually asking for :p

Outside of effectively remaking the game (which would run counter to the lessons they learnt from 1.0), FF14's technical base has been set. That's why the PC version's shift from DX9 to DX11 only got us a few extra graphical options, and 4.0 dropping support for an entire generation only resulted in minimal technical changes for the PS4 and PC. All dragging the minimum specs to above the PS4 will accomplish is wiping out the majority of the player base (all PS4 players, and a good chunk of PC players).

Regardless, i'm not saying whether they will or should support the Switch, just that i don't believe it'd effect the game much. FF14's biggest design limitation right now is its server structure, not specs.

Well, I'm a fairly hardcore player so obviously I get exposed a lot to people who want the end game content to be far larger in scale.

I don't think they should drop PS4 by next expansion, but it will and should be dropped at 6.0.

As for the "technical base" argument, I think that's not correct. We've already seen Blizzard redo so much of the earlier parts of the game to make it all look so much better.

I'd say WoW actually backs the argument up. It's one of the most successful video games ever created, it's over a decade old, and yet it's still using effectively the same engine. It's seen some nice improvements, but they're been gradual and highly linear.  In 13~ years they've upgraded by about half a console generation.

FF14's technical base isn't just a matter of its engine though, i'd argue it's in largest part because of design philosophy. The 1.0 shitshow lead to a huge shift in technical design targets for FF14, resulting in its current 'make it look nice, then stop and move on to more content' way of doing things. If they really wanted to make significant technical changes, they already can. That they think a Switch version is even worth discussing should highlight how much breathing room they have left on the PS4. But they don't, because their technical base has been set and the work required to dramatically shift it would go against their design philosophy of the last 4~ years. They will make more improvements over time, but i expect only when it's either easy (such as POM on the DX11 version), or when they think it's necessary (maybe once the PS5/XBwhatever is out and established).

The PS4 version will inevitably be dropped, but i don't think it'll be down to inherent technical limitations. I think it'll be a repeat of the current DX9 situation.