Square Enix – Page 19

Final Fantasy XIV: Not Satisfactory

dawww — Financial reports are for investors.

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.

Looking Back, Moving Forward: October ’10

Better-Business-Bureau-torch — A BBB Month

If you woke up with a strange urge to gorge yourself on meat stuffed with other meats, it must be November…or just another Monday morning. With November coming, and the holiday season right around the corner, we take a look back on what October brought us: Halloween events, particularly in the hat trading simulator formerly known as…I believe it was called Team Forts. Yes, while we were busy killing all the demons (only to find out we were the demons), it was business as usual in the land of MMOs and the developers who create them.

Naturally the Better Business Bureau makes number one on our list. Now, most of the companies remained unchanged with their scores since July, except for Cryptic Studios who apparently took my advice and started replying to complaints. Their score now sits at an A- from its original C. The “Checking In With The BBB” will be back in January.

DC Universe Online was delayed. Sorry, Joker! Those who preorder before November 15th get guaranteed access to the beta, however. Those who didn’t preorder get jack squat. Although there is no set date, DC Universe Online is set to go live sometime in early 2011.

Square Enix announced an embargo…I mean a voluntary request that reviewers hold off for thirty days, a threat I would like to see enforced through practically every gaming website/magazine in existence losing their free swag, because the grand majority completely ignored this request. You can still send us swag, Square, we love you for your need to smother your customers, not in spite of it.

And speaking of Final Fantasy XIV, the game bombed on Amazon.jp. Final Fantasy XIV on Amazon’s Japanese website still carries a 1.5 star rating, with 137 one-star ratings to five one-star ratings. Square Enix would later reward early adopters with a free extra month of the game. My apologies to the owners of Gizzard Blendtertainment for any confusion that the article caused.

Lord of the Rings Online in Europe…what a saga. Through October, MMO Fallout brought you weekly updates on the situation regarding LOTRO’s release in Europe under Codemasters, as well as our own speculations (that turned out to be correct) on whether or not the issues were really technical. Codemasters announced that Lord of the Rings Online Europe will make the free to play transition on November 2nd.

Speaking of cash shops, Eve Online is getting one. Don’t worry, kids, it’s only vanity items. In the same interview, CCP’s own Tori Olafsson denied any claims that the developer was working on an Eve Online 2, or reboot of Eve, noting that such options had “no purpose.”

Oh don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming! With the launch of the new Everquest II Extended, Sony announced that Everquest II servers would be merging, shutting down a total of six servers.

All Points Bulletin joins the ranks of Earth Eternal in games that are dead, but not really dead because someone might be buying them, but they aren’t playable. Neither game is online, and though we know there is a buyer for Earth Eternal, and likely one for All Points Bulletin, we still don’t know who it is yet.

And finally, likely the biggest double-take of October, the announcement that Champions Online would be going free to play. Yes, Cryptic wants to take their thumb out of the pie and shove their entire fist into it as Champions Online goes partially Turbine this coming Q1 2011. More on the Champions Online transition…soon.

Looking Back, Moving Forward: October '10

Oh don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming! With the launch of the new Everquest II Extended, Sony announced that Everquest II servers would be merging, shutting down a total of six servers.

Square Enix Lowers Sales Expectations

Being a business oriented website just wouldn’t be business oriented without the fun task of, what else, reading financial reports, and even more so reporting on those figures when they are released. The most fun one can have on a Monday afternoon.

In Square Enix’s latest earnings forecast for 2010, the company lowered its expected sales by 10.5%, or $99 million USD. Net income, a fancy term for what you got after costs and taxes are factored, dropped by almost 30%, or by $8.7 million USD. This forecast, dated for April to September months, is lower than 2009’s figures for the same period.

Despite what several Final Fantasy fanboys may tell you, from behind the barrel of a pistol, the past few games have sold exceptionally well, with Final Fantasy XII being one of the fastest selling games in the UK of 2010. Granted, Final Fantasy XIV received about as equally negative praise as entering a PETA conference dressed in Lady Gaga’s meat outfit, but the financial report cited a loss on sale of property and equipment as being part of the revision as well as slower growth in sales.

And…cue the claims that Final Fantasy XIV is going to bankrupt Square Enix!

Square Enix Giving Out Free Month of FFXIV

I’m here to pick up my free month.

Final Fantasy XIV launched last month, and depending on who you ask the game has either been well received, moderately received, or has crashed so hard that only the hand of God himself can stop Square Enix from going bankrupt next month. If you ask me, however, Square Enix is just another company that generates serious cash by making early adopters out of people who have neither the patience, nor the foresight, to be making reasonable purchasing decisions.

“Considering the nature of much of the feedback we received, however, and the current state of the game, we have decided to extend the free trial period for all users. Please continue reading for further details.”

If you purchase and register Final Fantasy XIV by October 25th, you’ll receive an extra 30 days, completely free! That’s two months of free game time, for the price of none…well, aside from the game.

For what it’s worth, Square Enix appears to be committed to fixing Final Fantasy XIV, and there is a hint of shame in how the game launched, in Square’s postings. This is less of an appeal to the whiners, and more of a “Hey, so the game didn’t launch that great. Have another month on us and we’ll see how it goes.” This isn’t the first time a developer has done this after launch, and one of those companies rhymes with Gizzard Blendtertainment.

Or maybe the trolls are right and this is Square Enix going into panic mode. Or, it might be picnic mode, the spelling was rather questionable.

FFXIV: Amazon Bombed In Japan?

xiv — もしこれを理解していれば、あなたは日本人〔日本語〕を読むことができます！

私の時は広場Enixについて話してください　私が　通常　言及して　ファイナルファンタジーXIVが多分どのように日本で素晴らしいことをするかに. Sorry, I left my translator on. That being said, however, Japan has always been the primary consumer of Final Fantasy-based goods, and holds a considerable stake in the Final Fantasy XI community. So when I say Final Fantasy XIV will do great…in Japan, I don’t mean to imply that the title will do poorly here in the West, but that there will be a considerable divide in purchases.

You can imagine my surprise when I was tipped off that Amazon.co.jp already has Final Fantasy XIV listed at 28% off. Not only that, but the reviews put the title at a 1.5 star rating, with 78 out of 98 reviews being a one star. Eighty reviewers, a public opinion does not make, but from the information I could scrape off of Google’s poor translation, the sentiments were very similar in each.

So either Amazon.jp has been blitzed by a wave of disgruntled early adopters, or my sentiment that Japanese players would be more willing to put up with Square Enix’s square wheel methodology was incorrect. As a reminder, the Square Wheel methodology is how I imagine Square’s development techniques. They take a square wheel and innovate on it, making it one of the best looking wheels on the market, the craftsmanship is just stunning, and you would buy it in an instant, but it is a wheel…that is square. It could have the best traction in the world, and it is still a square wheel. Driving becomes so much of a pain in the rear that it ruins the rest of the experience. The wheel is square because square wheels are different, but not different in a good way, different in an “I’m going ten miles an hour, tops, and the bumping is causing the rest of my car to fall apart, but otherwise my car is a sex machine,” different.

I like Final Fantasy XIV, and I would love it if they would change some unfriendly mechanics. Square Enix is like the friend with a great personality that you don’t hang out with because he pierced his nose with a giant metal rod, just to be different, in complete opposition to the rest of his personality. He needs to be taught that there are more relevant ways for him to be different.

More Final Fantasy XIV analogies as they pop up. Big thanks to Wiezard over on the MMORPG.com forums for the tip.

Square Enix: Embargo On Your Reviews! Thirty Days!

As I’ve stated before, it has become standard in our culture of gaming for companies to hold swag over a company’s head, in return for more favorable reviews. Ask any developer with loads of cash, and they’ll tell you it’s not technically bribery for, say, Eidos to purchase a major full page advertising space on Gamespot for Kane and Lynch, and then have a reviewer fired for giving the game a poor rating. Or when a company puts an embargo on reviews for their game, where the publishers can probably expect not to get any preview copies if they break that embargo.

So Square Enix has put out a polite request to reviewers to hold back their reviews for three to four weeks after launch, much in the same way Clint Eastwood holds a gun to your head and asks if you feel lucky, punk. Sure, there’s a chance that all six rounds were expended, but do you really want to take the risk and miss out on the Final Fantasy XV preview copy? I didn’t think so.

The real question will remain in how Square Enix responds to those who do not listen to the embargo, especially those that publish poor reviews, like Gamespot (4.0). Will there be an embargo on Square Enix sending swag to said publisher? Will Square take the Realtime Worlds method and try to laugh off the bad reviews by saying they were expected? Personally, I’m against reviewing MMOs at all, in favor of getting players into free trials.

Square asking for a few weeks to fully review the game really isn’t a terrible idea, what will make the difference is how they respond to those who go against their request.

More on FFXIV as it appears, which could be a while due to the slow patcher.

Final Fantasy XIV: No, Subscriptions Should Not Be Convenient…

Playing Final Fantasy XIV requires a base $9.99 monthly fee plus $3 per character, leaving you with a $12.99 monthly cost assuming you only create one character (and with the ability to be all classes, there is no need for a second character, quite frankly). Assuming most of the visitors to MMO Fallout have played a subscription based MMO before, many of you are likely assuming “well, I’ll just put in my credit card info, and set myself up for the monthly charges.” You would be completely wrong.

Rather than going for a traditional subscription system, Square is instead running a Square-Bucks system, also known as Crysta, that is used for everything from account services, to planned cash shop items, to your subscription. Of course, proprietary cash system means what else, but forced increment purchases. In this case, you can only purchase Crysta in $5, $10, $20, $30, $50, or $100 purchases, making you fork over fifteen dollars for a twelve dollar subscription, so that three of it may go to…consider it a savings account. Your alternative is to pay through a company called Click and Buy, although depending on who you ask, the company’s reputation is rather dubious for unauthorized charges.

Those of you who played Final Fantasy XI and are returning for XIV are likely asking, since when was Square Enix ever about convenience for their customers? If the lack of an auction house, non-functioning patcher, fatigue system, and leve limits, weren’t a clue, all one has to do is look at the twenty hour bosses in Final Fantasy XI.

Don’t get me wrong, Final Fantasy XIV will do great…in Japan, where Final Fantasy sells like Fanta in the Sahara, but will likely remain a niche title in the West. The problem doesn’t stem from bad gameplay, but from lack of user friendliness that doesn’t even come close to “hold my hand, Square.” More importantly, however, is that Square has shown some quick movement in the past couple weeks to make the game more user friendly. After a large number of complaints by players, Square finally added in hardware mouse support.

At the end of the day, Final Fantasy XIV is like a fine wine, one that you can’t reach because the company put it on the top shelf, you are five foot three, and the only staff on the floor who can get it for you is currently texting his girlfriend in the frozen food aisle, and will be with you “in just a minute.”

More on Final Fantasy XIV as it appears.

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Nothing Says Loving Like A Non-Functioning Patcher

Under normal circumstances, I could chalk this up to Final Fantasy XIV having just launched yesterday (for the head start) but at some point I would be injecting rationale and patience into an area of the system where people have historically rejected both. If you haven’t participated in Square Enix’s foray into the newest generation of Massively Multiplayer titles, Final Fantasy XIV has among the least user friendly patch downloading tools on the market. In open beta, I was assured by several vehement defenders that my infinity-estimated waiting time for this nine gigabyte patch would be fixed by the time the game launched. Granted, I was also called a “trolling d-bag” for my discontent that a fifteen megabyte patch should have a six hour waiting time, so take with it what you will.

Those of you who, like myself, managed to get into the open beta likely accomplished this task by using the Megaupload links on FFXIVcore, or managed to find the patches using someone else’s torrent system. As a number of people pointed out on unofficial forums (as the open beta testers weren’t allowed into the Square Enix forums), nothing kills interest in a game like being forced to jump through hoops just to install the damned thing.

Of course, this isn’t me just pulling “the general consensus” out of my rear end and presenting it as the majority opinion. A couple years ago, when NCsoft was putting forth plans to move Dungeon Runners to a web-client system, they noted that around one third of their users never even got past downloading the game. Of course people who plucked down fifty bucks on a game are going to try a lot harder to get in, but consider early discontent as a playing factor when Square Enix’s post 1-month figures come back.

Remember, a guy who says “I hated the game, there’s lag/performance issues” convinces few, as lag is subjective and based on time, location, and the person’s computer/internet. On the other hand, a person who says “I can’t really give an opinion, I never got the game working,” stands to convince many more not to go through the hassle of even giving the game a chance. Opinions on a game vary from person to person, but barriers of entry are universal.

So is Final Fantasy XIV doomed to head down the All Points Bulletin route and crash by this December? Not a snowball’s chance in hell. Owing to the Square Enix community, there are more than enough people willing to embrace the patcher, with its faults, and deal with it to cover those who will quit after the first month’s free time. If anything, one might consider the patcher a test of patience. If you’re patient enough to get download and move all the patches, then some of the facets of the game itself will be a breeze (not getting into that here, however). Of course, there is still plenty of time for Square to streamline the patcher once the population has gone down to its core populace.

More on Final Fantasy XIV as it appears.

Absolutely Brilliant! Episode #1: Final Fantasy XIV

brilliant_medium — I'm legally required to remind you to game responsibly.

Here at MMO Fallout, I try to offer my help to companies more in the form of business decisions, rather than what I might feel that the game needs. I only play a handful of MMOs, and honestly am not the best person to go to in order to find out what your game needs tweaking. Sure, I know that All Points Bulletin needs better shooting and driving, and I know that Blizzard needs to severely crack down on mobile authenticators being used as a free way to manipulate stolen accounts, but I couldn’t tell you how the latest expansion affected drop rates in Lineage 2, or how players in Guild Wars might react if a certain update was implemented.

Absolutely Brilliant! is a new category devoted to people clearly smarter than myself. In this section, I highlight ideas that, even if the company the game is directed at won’t take notice, other companies with similar models could definitely benefit from grabbing up this person’s idea.

Final Fantasy XIV goes into open beta soon, and the closed beta members are throwing suggestions left and right. Our first idea comes from MMORPG.com user ProfRed, who has an idea to make the market system a lot more streamlined. Seeing as how Square Enix is not gracing Final Fantasy XIV with an auction house (at least not for now), players are trying to find new ways to make the retainer system (a character who sits in market areas selling your items for you) as easy to use as possible. Rather than just a simple search engine, ProfRed (or The Professor, as I’ve taken to calling him) suggested:

“They simply need to add a way to browse items in one of the market wards. Say search for an item and it lists what market wards it exists in. Not even prices just where. Something akin to standing at the entrance and yelling, “I NEED A PINK MAGE HAT OF DOOM”, and vendors yelling back, “GET IT HERE!!!”.

Personal trade/merchanting is a great thing. I am sick of MMO’s making everything easy mode and catering to the anti social.”

Having a system like this would be a little shaky at the start, having to type the name of the item out exactly, but if Square Enix would implement this, such a system would do wonders more than some of the other suggestions (holding up signs, descriptions above names, etc), be less cumbersome if only the player speaking could see the feedback, and would remove the prospect of walking through a thousand retainers looking for your pink mage hat of doom, the idea of which sends me back to my years of playing games like ROSE Online, and the myriad of other free Korean games, most of which featured some form of private shop.

So that’s episode 1 of Absolutely Brilliant! For the record, I won’t be accepting direct submissions by email to this category, but if you see someone’s idea on a forum feel free to link me to it, either here or through my email. Special thanks to ProfRed, and all of the people who will eventually spite me for indirectly associating them with this webiste.

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