MMOs are a bit like children in that eventually we have to ask when the babying has to stop and the real growth must begin. At what point do we start saying “no, don’t pull the cat’s tail, what the hell is wrong with you?” instead of “he doesn’t know any better.” No doubt this is what players have been asking themselves with Final Fantasy XIV, launched back in late September, now approaching the two month mark, and there is no doubt that a lot of players are not happy with the state of Final Fantasy XIV, which Square Enix’s Yoichi Wada summed up nicely:
“Currently, the service isn’t satisfactory,”
Just last month, we noted that Square Enix has given out another free month of game time to anyone who ordered Final Fantasy XIV before October 25th. In that post, I noted my observation that Square Enix sounded somewhat ashamed in their announcement, but that the move was a sign of good faith that the company was asking for another month to clean up the title, and was willing to extend the player’s free time in order to make up for it. Like getting a free milk shake because your chicken fingers are taking longer than expected…there I go with food analogies again.
This also comes after Square Enix lowered their forecast sales and net income for this quarter which, given that the figures are for the month ending in September, was not caused by Final Fantasy XIV, but rather will drive Square to work harder to sell more copies of Final Fantasy XIV, as well as retaining subscribers past the free period. Of course, while speaking to investors, Wada was dutifully optimistic in his “if we build it, they will come,” approach.
“The players who left will return if we satisfy them,”
Final Fantasy XIV has sold 630,000 copies worldwide, a formidable number although one that won’t exactly stand up to Warhammer or Age of Conan’s preorder numbers (granted, it also won’t hold a candle to either title’s free-fall exodus post launch). If Square Enix can dust themselves off and get back to the core of what made Final Fantasy so popular, then more power to them.
More on Final Fantasy XIV as it appears.
MMO Fallout 