The reason wow does so well is it appeals to a huge market. FFXIV while a good game on its merits, has some pretty big flaws that will not appeal to the masses. While still a good game, its going to turn away a lot of folks that Wow wont simply due to its complexity and the way they chose to implement the UI.
The thing is, it really wouldnt take much effort on SE's part to fix the few minor issues with FFXIV to make it more main stream appealing, but most of the community seems dead set against it.
Did you not catch the part about this being the first final fantasy released in China?
Kind of hard to compete when you don't have any products on their market currently.
No, I know of that.
But it is an advantage that the players know about the company that makes the game. And Wow already have the market shares. As I daid, it is not impossible to get more players, China is big. But FF do have very high reqs and most computers in the world can't run it while Wow still can.
In Japan it is a no brainer, FF is well established and have a lot of console players, and Wow can't reach them. But China is more complicated than that.
So I stand by my 10-1 odds that Wow still will be largest there.
As a PC based game there is little chance in having WoW like numbers and right now I would say it will struggle to even achieve the Aion numbers. But as a console game it certainly could reach or exceed those numbers as for me it seems like the game has been designed more with consoles in mind and less with the PC.
Hit at exactly the right time to explode beyond all reason. I think most would agree WoW is subpar to many other MMOs yet it remains dominant. Remember most people work with a herd mentality and will find it hard to jump ship due to thinking every other ship is likely sinking.
Your premise is plausible though, if any MMO does outdo WoW it will be because of a massive influx from China most likely.
Nah, that was EQ. Wow is Oasis, Spice girls and Hannah Montana all in one.
As someone pointed out earlier, WoW is a freak of nature. I honestly don't see any MMO ever reaching the numbers WoW has managed to get. I remember when EQ hit 500k subs and that was BIG news. When it hit 750k it was unheard of.
Now MMO's have come a long way since then but I just don't see it happening again. As the saying goes "lightning never strikes twice".
P.S. Not a WoW fanboi in case you wondered. Cancelled my sub ages ago.
Hit at exactly the right time to explode beyond all reason. I think most would agree WoW is subpar to many other MMOs yet it remains dominant. Remember most people work with a herd mentality and will find it hard to jump ship due to thinking every other ship is likely sinking.
Your premise is plausible though, if any MMO does outdo WoW it will be because of a massive influx from China most likely.
While certain MMOs may do a particular part better than WoW, overall they end up being subpar as a whole. WoW is not spectacular, but it generally is at least average in everything. Hate the game all you want, but it offers the middle of the road better than any other game out there.
It is a game lobby, and their strength with game lobbies shows.
WoW is not the game for me, but I don't hate WoW at all
Sorry if it sounded that way, all I meant was WoW showed up at just the right time. If WoW came out now in the current market that is flooded with MMOs I am doubting it would be as big.
PS3 players will determine the game's future, because honestly, PC players are not going to be the majority at least for the first few years.
Will FFXIV in China be concidered a success if the 5.5 million playing WoW drops to 2.5 million and matches FFXIV at 2.5 million? Or does FFXIV have to actually top the record set by WoW? Reason I ask is there really aren't a lot of options for MMO game play in China, whats to say that by actually introducing 1 more to an already limited market, that you won't see a reduction in the existing subs as the base migrates.
(DISCLAIMER - The use of the word YOU in the above post is not directed at any one person in particular, but towards those who fall into the category itself - there is no personal attack here, neither intentional nor implied.)
WoW was a title that hit at the right time with the right premise; An MMO for eveyone at a time when MMOs were few and far between and aimed at a different type of player.
FFXIV is a game designed mainly for the Japanese console market with PC gamers as an after thought. FFXIV might sell well at the start, but will quickly drop down to the almost standard 100-200k playerbase range in the western market while seeing a slight surge in March 2011 when the PS3 version hits the market. Outside Japan the game will only be a moderate success as was its predecessor FFXI. The game is designed for a totally different type of MMO player than WoW. It's slower, more complex, not as intuitive and basically boring as hell to your standard WoW player.
But heres the thing.... Who cares?
Why would anyone want the game they like to be as big as WoW? Sure it might mean more money for the developers to add to the game, but it also means more headaches. Look at how WoW has slowly become a game aimed at the mouth breathing masses and then look at how other companies have done nothing but shoot themselves in the foot trying to steal a piece of the pie...
I dunno about you, and while I have no desire to play FFXIV (not my cup of tea) I am willing to bet a lot of it's fans feel like I do when I say that I would rather have a game that will maintain it's integrity with a fair population than to have a game thats willing to throw everything out the window just to keep its subscription numbers climbing.
There are 3 types of people in the world. 1.) Those who make things happen 2.) Those who watch things happen 3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
Will FFXIV in China be concidered a success if the 5.5 million playing WoW drops to 2.5 million and matches FFXIV at 2.5 million? Or does FFXIV have to actually top the record set by WoW? Reason I ask is there really aren't a lot of options for MMO game play in China, whats to say that by actually introducing 1 more to an already limited market, that you won't see a reduction in the existing subs as the base migrates.
500k players = success to me.
All I know is that... initially, subscription numbers will be quite low. In the future, who knows what the game will cap at. It depends on the developers.
I'm sure that if the game is a success globally, it will be a success in China. They're people like us in the end
Using LOL is like saying "my argument sucks but I still want to disagree".
Hit at exactly the right time to explode beyond all reason. I think most would agree WoW is subpar to many other MMOs yet it remains dominant. Remember most people work with a herd mentality and will find it hard to jump ship due to thinking every other ship is likely sinking.
Your premise is plausible though, if any MMO does outdo WoW it will be because of a massive influx from China most likely.
While certain MMOs may do a particular part better than WoW, overall they end up being subpar as a whole. WoW is not spectacular, but it generally is at least average in everything. Hate the game all you want, but it offers the middle of the road better than any other game out there.
It is a game lobby, and their strength with game lobbies shows.
WoW is not the game for me, but I don't hate WoW at all
Sorry if it sounded that way, all I meant was WoW showed up at just the right time. If WoW came out now in the current market that is flooded with MMOs I am doubting it would be as big.
The "you" was not really a you - was just a general thing. Personally, I dislike WoW. It is a muddling game that caters to a muddled crowd. Blizzard had something with Vanilla. Sure, they violated their own Lore right off the back - compromised out the wahzoo, etc... but compared to what they have done since, they had something with Vanilla.
By going with that not completely horrible buffet system, they have the far reaching appeal.
For a game to strip away WoW's subs, they do not need to be WoW - they need to go after their niche, while providing an overall average game experience. Too many do something great...but lack in other areas that people do not find acceptable.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
For a game to strip away WoW's subs, they do not need to be WoW - they need to go after their niche, while providing an overall average game experience. Too many do something great...but lack in other areas that people do not find acceptable.
WoW did not set them selves to steal subs from other MMO's.
FFXI did not steal subs from other MMO's.
Both games built their own playerbase.
That is much more healthy for the genre, I'd say. The people playing MMO's today are not the only people companies can attract to the genre.
Using LOL is like saying "my argument sucks but I still want to disagree".
It's going to be extremely difficult for any game to get eleven million subscribers... and that took a number of years for Blizzard to get with World of Warcraft. Blizzard did a lot of smart things with the game that I think will hinder the number of subscribers to Final Fantasy XIV.
First off, World of Warcraft had very low system requirements. That means people didn't have to go out and buy new systems to play the game. It was a game (like all other Blizzard products) that were able to be played on even older systems. Final Fantasy XIV doesn't have that luxury. The game looks awesome but there's a price for that and that's steep system requirements for PC owners. In a recession, that may be a tough sell here in America.
World of Warcraft was a game that anyone could jump into and it didn't require a huge time sink to see end-game content. If history tells me anything... the same won't apply for Final Fantasy XIV. But in the end, does it really matter? Final Fantasy will be a healthy game even if it only gets half the subscribers that World of Warcraft has.
Now see thats the thing, I see things a bit from the other side here, and a prediction I made back around the time Aion Launched. That we will see more and more MMO titles launched outside the US/West, and targeted towards audiances outside the US/West.
Just look at the past 2 years, anyone see any MMo titles that were targeted at the US audiance that was concidered a success?
how about in those same 2 years any MMO titles that were targeted at audiances outside the US...and brought into the US as a cash cow advance?
Aion was a successful Korean game that was broght to the west after it already had its player base secured, it came with a desire to add to thier profits, with very little concern if it lasted opast its profit margin point (6 months-1year). FFXIV is actually the same if you thin kabout it. Thier player base is most certainly Japanese, they will make a profit off thier secure player base there. Bringing it to the US is just for added profit, and if it takes off great...if not, yeah well its ok because they still have everyone else.
Lets face the facts, the US MMO market has become seen as fickle, demanding, and unreliable over the past 2 years. Our western society has given us the freedom to become exactly what we have become. Any board of directors from a foreign company that looks at thier marketing of any product has to weigh the benefit of profit versus the disadvantage of our attitudes over here. Sometimes its worth it, other times its not. If they can guarantee success of thier product and a consistant profit without us, then it becomes a kind of no brainer doesn't it. Make the success targeting the audiance you can rely on, and toss in the attitudes on the side and see how much cash you can milk from them before they drive themselves out of business. We in the west have become nothing more than a dollar to them, by our own making. We aren't even a euro anymore, at least they still try and play nice with the companies (maybe because for the past 4 years they have been the second thought on releases and they are still left wanting).
So what does that say about the WoW vs FFXIV issue, well a lot actually. FFXIV is the new way the MMO markets are headed, with the world as thier audience and the US as a passing glance. WoW is the opposite, the west is thier audience and the world is thier cash cow passing glance. But even they will change eventually, look at it this way, right now WoW has approx 11 million subscribers and of those 5.5 million are in China. What happens when you add in all the other countries together with that 5.5 million? How many are there left in the US? What happens when the US becomes the smallest percentage? How much of a care do you think Blizzard will have for the US fickle, demanding, and unreliable audience? Personally I think everyone that plays WoW in the US rigth now should be ever grateful that Blizzard hasn't already abandoned you, thier loyalty to us is about the only reason business wise they havent' yet. As long as we keep blindly dropping that dollar on thier products they will stay loyal to us, but...
(DISCLAIMER - The use of the word YOU in the above post is not directed at any one person in particular, but towards those who fall into the category itself - there is no personal attack here, neither intentional nor implied.)
World of Warcraft was a game that anyone could jump into and it didn't require a huge time sink to see end-game content. If history tells me anything... the same won't apply for Final Fantasy XIV. But in the end, does it really matter? Final Fantasy will be a healthy game even if it only gets half the subscribers that World of Warcraft has.
Actually it did require a great timesink compared to today... It wasn't always a game any 8 year old kid could get to max in a month. Wow today and Wow at release were different games and Wow at release might not have been able to get all the players it have today either, it is hard to say.
But it is hard to say where FF XIV will be in a few years too, even if I have my doubt about it having more players than Wow.
Perhaps one day FF14 may surpass WoW's subs but certainly now upon release
"A lot of work needs to be done to improve the general user experience, and I hope that Square Enix will listen to their soon-to-be consumers as in its current state Final Fantasy XIV is not worth the buying price yet alone the monthly fee. Considering the game is less than a month away from shipping, that's not a good thing."
This view is standard among the current public sites I have vistited. I figure a year or two of agressive attention to the game issues experinced in OB and a reconsideration of release may help the population some. Just a thought.
For a game to strip away WoW's subs, they do not need to be WoW - they need to go after their niche, while providing an overall average game experience. Too many do something great...but lack in other areas that people do not find acceptable.
WoW did not set them selves to steal subs from other MMO's.
FFXI did not steal subs from other MMO's.
Both games built their own playerbase.
That is much more healthy for the genre, I'd say. The people playing MMO's today are not the only people companies can attract to the genre.
Cannot say about FFXI, but to say Blizzard did not design WoW in such a fashion as to lure away players from other games is kind of a joke. You can look at the massive drops in subs from other games around the time of WoW's release. Yes, they brought in some of their RTS/Diablo folks that had never played a MMORPG before - they brought in the Warhammer people that were looking for a game close to what they were doing, etc - but generally speaking, the sub numbers that WoW already had at two months was not from building their own playerbase. At two months, they had more subs than EQ at peak.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
I have to agree with what some of the others have stated. The game may dominate in Japan and overall asia but I don't know if it can conqure the western market. See western MMOers want differnt things than eastern MMOers. If SE does a good job of balancing the western version and making it aim at our desires t hen yes it has a strong chance. I've noticed these days though what makes for a "wow" killer isn't a game that sells millions of copies but one that can keep millions of subscribers. I doubt anything can "kill" wow... save wow2, or Starcraft MMO, perhaps biowares SW:TOR if its supppppeeeerrr good but it remains to be seen if they can make the leap from RPG to MMORPG. So perhaps over a year or two FF14 could build up a huge enough following to be "wow-like" as in millions of subs, but I doubt blizzard is trembling in their boots right now.
Cannot say about FFXI, but to say Blizzard did not design WoW in such a fashion as to lure away players from other games is kind of a joke. You can look at the massive drops in subs from other games around the time of WoW's release. Yes, they brought in some of their RTS/Diablo folks that had never played a MMORPG before - they brought in the Warhammer people that were looking for a game close to what they were doing, etc - but generally speaking, the sub numbers that WoW already had at two months was not from building their own playerbase. At two months, they had more subs than EQ at peak.
It's more of a side-effect, not the underlying reason. Hell, I'm sure FFXI stole some subs from EQ or even SWG. But to say that was their primary plan? No way.
Using LOL is like saying "my argument sucks but I still want to disagree".
For a game to strip away WoW's subs, they do not need to be WoW - they need to go after their niche, while providing an overall average game experience. Too many do something great...but lack in other areas that people do not find acceptable.
WoW did not set them selves to steal subs from other MMO's.
FFXI did not steal subs from other MMO's.
Both games built their own playerbase.
That is much more healthy for the genre, I'd say. The people playing MMO's today are not the only people companies can attract to the genre.
Cannot say about FFXI, but to say Blizzard did not design WoW in such a fashion as to lure away players from other games is kind of a joke. You can look at the massive drops in subs from other games around the time of WoW's release. Yes, they brought in some of their RTS/Diablo folks that had never played a MMORPG before - they brought in the Warhammer people that were looking for a game close to what they were doing, etc - but generally speaking, the sub numbers that WoW already had at two months was not from building their own playerbase. At two months, they had more subs than EQ at peak.
Your statement appears to run on a version of intent, that is, "Cannot say about FFXI, but to say Blizzard did not design WoW in such a fashion as to lure away players from other games is kind of a joke. " Who is to state that Blizzard made a game to grab players from other games and FF14 intends not to? So, which game is it that is NOT designed to lure in customers from ANY other game? Unless your point is that FF14 is such designed to NOT Lure any players from other games and is intended for those who do not play any other MMORPG or any game thereof? To wit; indicating that any developer will focus on players who never played games is a joke.
For a game to strip away WoW's subs, they do not need to be WoW - they need to go after their niche, while providing an overall average game experience. Too many do something great...but lack in other areas that people do not find acceptable.
WoW did not set them selves to steal subs from other MMO's.
FFXI did not steal subs from other MMO's.
Both games built their own playerbase.
That is much more healthy for the genre, I'd say. The people playing MMO's today are not the only people companies can attract to the genre.
Cannot say about FFXI, but to say Blizzard did not design WoW in such a fashion as to lure away players from other games is kind of a joke. You can look at the massive drops in subs from other games around the time of WoW's release. Yes, they brought in some of their RTS/Diablo folks that had never played a MMORPG before - they brought in the Warhammer people that were looking for a game close to what they were doing, etc - but generally speaking, the sub numbers that WoW already had at two months was not from building their own playerbase. At two months, they had more subs than EQ at peak.
I think what he meant was that Blizzard didn't aim specifically at converting people from other games. They didn't set out with the plan of 'We will do this and that and take half of EQ's population' or 'What can we add to our game that will appeal to those who play DAoC?'
Blizzard basically made a game that, while borrowing heavily from other games, was aimed at being a game for people who never really played or enjoyed the MMOs that were already out there. And sure, a lot of people left their game for WoW because it was something new (by the time WoW launched, most of the big MMOs were already at or older than 4 years old.
After WoW launched is when we started to see other developers trying to compete directly with another game. That or they tried hard to emulate WoW in hopes that people would jump ship.
There are 3 types of people in the world. 1.) Those who make things happen 2.) Those who watch things happen 3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
Cannot say about FFXI, but to say Blizzard did not design WoW in such a fashion as to lure away players from other games is kind of a joke. You can look at the massive drops in subs from other games around the time of WoW's release. Yes, they brought in some of their RTS/Diablo folks that had never played a MMORPG before - they brought in the Warhammer people that were looking for a game close to what they were doing, etc - but generally speaking, the sub numbers that WoW already had at two months was not from building their own playerbase. At two months, they had more subs than EQ at peak.
It's more of a side-effect, not the underlying reason. Hell, I'm sure FFXI stole some subs from EQ or even SWG. But to say that was their primary plan? No way.
It is not a case of stating that Blizzard set out to destroy the MMORPG industry by stealing the subscribers of all other games out there. But in the design of their game, they set out to design a game that would leech as many subs as possible to sustain their financial success. Not sure how anybody could say otherwise.
WoW was not the first MMORPG. It is simple business that if you are coming to a market with limited consumers, you are going to be looking to get consumers from your competitors. If you're eating breakfast at Burger King, you're not eating breakfast at McDonalds.
From the design of WoW, lacking much in the way of originality or innovation - it is obvious that their development team researched the current games and their subscribers.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Comments
funny post......realy nothing to do then laugh at the OP......are you bored or somthing?
The reason wow does so well is it appeals to a huge market. FFXIV while a good game on its merits, has some pretty big flaws that will not appeal to the masses. While still a good game, its going to turn away a lot of folks that Wow wont simply due to its complexity and the way they chose to implement the UI.
The thing is, it really wouldnt take much effort on SE's part to fix the few minor issues with FFXIV to make it more main stream appealing, but most of the community seems dead set against it.
No, I know of that.
But it is an advantage that the players know about the company that makes the game. And Wow already have the market shares. As I daid, it is not impossible to get more players, China is big. But FF do have very high reqs and most computers in the world can't run it while Wow still can.
In Japan it is a no brainer, FF is well established and have a lot of console players, and Wow can't reach them. But China is more complicated than that.
So I stand by my 10-1 odds that Wow still will be largest there.
As a PC based game there is little chance in having WoW like numbers and right now I would say it will struggle to even achieve the Aion numbers. But as a console game it certainly could reach or exceed those numbers as for me it seems like the game has been designed more with consoles in mind and less with the PC.
Nah, that was EQ. Wow is Oasis, Spice girls and Hannah Montana all in one.
As someone pointed out earlier, WoW is a freak of nature. I honestly don't see any MMO ever reaching the numbers WoW has managed to get. I remember when EQ hit 500k subs and that was BIG news. When it hit 750k it was unheard of.
Now MMO's have come a long way since then but I just don't see it happening again. As the saying goes "lightning never strikes twice".
P.S. Not a WoW fanboi in case you wondered. Cancelled my sub ages ago.
WoW is not the game for me, but I don't hate WoW at all
Sorry if it sounded that way, all I meant was WoW showed up at just the right time. If WoW came out now in the current market that is flooded with MMOs I am doubting it would be as big.
XIV isn't suited to be player in internet café's.
So, no chance in hell it'll beat 6 million.
PS3 players will determine the game's future, because honestly, PC players are not going to be the majority at least for the first few years.
Will FFXIV in China be concidered a success if the 5.5 million playing WoW drops to 2.5 million and matches FFXIV at 2.5 million? Or does FFXIV have to actually top the record set by WoW? Reason I ask is there really aren't a lot of options for MMO game play in China, whats to say that by actually introducing 1 more to an already limited market, that you won't see a reduction in the existing subs as the base migrates.
(DISCLAIMER - The use of the word YOU in the above post is not directed at any one person in particular, but towards those who fall into the category itself - there is no personal attack here, neither intentional nor implied.)
Short answer: Highly doubtful.
WoW was a title that hit at the right time with the right premise; An MMO for eveyone at a time when MMOs were few and far between and aimed at a different type of player.
FFXIV is a game designed mainly for the Japanese console market with PC gamers as an after thought. FFXIV might sell well at the start, but will quickly drop down to the almost standard 100-200k playerbase range in the western market while seeing a slight surge in March 2011 when the PS3 version hits the market. Outside Japan the game will only be a moderate success as was its predecessor FFXI. The game is designed for a totally different type of MMO player than WoW. It's slower, more complex, not as intuitive and basically boring as hell to your standard WoW player.
But heres the thing.... Who cares?
Why would anyone want the game they like to be as big as WoW? Sure it might mean more money for the developers to add to the game, but it also means more headaches. Look at how WoW has slowly become a game aimed at the mouth breathing masses and then look at how other companies have done nothing but shoot themselves in the foot trying to steal a piece of the pie...
I dunno about you, and while I have no desire to play FFXIV (not my cup of tea) I am willing to bet a lot of it's fans feel like I do when I say that I would rather have a game that will maintain it's integrity with a fair population than to have a game thats willing to throw everything out the window just to keep its subscription numbers climbing.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
500k players = success to me.
All I know is that... initially, subscription numbers will be quite low. In the future, who knows what the game will cap at. It depends on the developers.
I'm sure that if the game is a success globally, it will be a success in China. They're people like us in the end
The "you" was not really a you - was just a general thing. Personally, I dislike WoW. It is a muddling game that caters to a muddled crowd. Blizzard had something with Vanilla. Sure, they violated their own Lore right off the back - compromised out the wahzoo, etc... but compared to what they have done since, they had something with Vanilla.
By going with that not completely horrible buffet system, they have the far reaching appeal.
For a game to strip away WoW's subs, they do not need to be WoW - they need to go after their niche, while providing an overall average game experience. Too many do something great...but lack in other areas that people do not find acceptable.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
WoW did not set them selves to steal subs from other MMO's.
FFXI did not steal subs from other MMO's.
Both games built their own playerbase.
That is much more healthy for the genre, I'd say. The people playing MMO's today are not the only people companies can attract to the genre.
It's going to be extremely difficult for any game to get eleven million subscribers... and that took a number of years for Blizzard to get with World of Warcraft. Blizzard did a lot of smart things with the game that I think will hinder the number of subscribers to Final Fantasy XIV.
First off, World of Warcraft had very low system requirements. That means people didn't have to go out and buy new systems to play the game. It was a game (like all other Blizzard products) that were able to be played on even older systems. Final Fantasy XIV doesn't have that luxury. The game looks awesome but there's a price for that and that's steep system requirements for PC owners. In a recession, that may be a tough sell here in America.
World of Warcraft was a game that anyone could jump into and it didn't require a huge time sink to see end-game content. If history tells me anything... the same won't apply for Final Fantasy XIV. But in the end, does it really matter? Final Fantasy will be a healthy game even if it only gets half the subscribers that World of Warcraft has.
Stop using logic here, it is confusing against the other posts.
Besides, look in how great MJ and Barnetts plan of stealing Wows subs went, WAR is the top game now, right?
Now see thats the thing, I see things a bit from the other side here, and a prediction I made back around the time Aion Launched. That we will see more and more MMO titles launched outside the US/West, and targeted towards audiances outside the US/West.
Just look at the past 2 years, anyone see any MMo titles that were targeted at the US audiance that was concidered a success?
how about in those same 2 years any MMO titles that were targeted at audiances outside the US...and brought into the US as a cash cow advance?
Aion was a successful Korean game that was broght to the west after it already had its player base secured, it came with a desire to add to thier profits, with very little concern if it lasted opast its profit margin point (6 months-1year). FFXIV is actually the same if you thin kabout it. Thier player base is most certainly Japanese, they will make a profit off thier secure player base there. Bringing it to the US is just for added profit, and if it takes off great...if not, yeah well its ok because they still have everyone else.
Lets face the facts, the US MMO market has become seen as fickle, demanding, and unreliable over the past 2 years. Our western society has given us the freedom to become exactly what we have become. Any board of directors from a foreign company that looks at thier marketing of any product has to weigh the benefit of profit versus the disadvantage of our attitudes over here. Sometimes its worth it, other times its not. If they can guarantee success of thier product and a consistant profit without us, then it becomes a kind of no brainer doesn't it. Make the success targeting the audiance you can rely on, and toss in the attitudes on the side and see how much cash you can milk from them before they drive themselves out of business. We in the west have become nothing more than a dollar to them, by our own making. We aren't even a euro anymore, at least they still try and play nice with the companies (maybe because for the past 4 years they have been the second thought on releases and they are still left wanting).
So what does that say about the WoW vs FFXIV issue, well a lot actually. FFXIV is the new way the MMO markets are headed, with the world as thier audience and the US as a passing glance. WoW is the opposite, the west is thier audience and the world is thier cash cow passing glance. But even they will change eventually, look at it this way, right now WoW has approx 11 million subscribers and of those 5.5 million are in China. What happens when you add in all the other countries together with that 5.5 million? How many are there left in the US? What happens when the US becomes the smallest percentage? How much of a care do you think Blizzard will have for the US fickle, demanding, and unreliable audience? Personally I think everyone that plays WoW in the US rigth now should be ever grateful that Blizzard hasn't already abandoned you, thier loyalty to us is about the only reason business wise they havent' yet. As long as we keep blindly dropping that dollar on thier products they will stay loyal to us, but...
(DISCLAIMER - The use of the word YOU in the above post is not directed at any one person in particular, but towards those who fall into the category itself - there is no personal attack here, neither intentional nor implied.)
Actually it did require a great timesink compared to today... It wasn't always a game any 8 year old kid could get to max in a month. Wow today and Wow at release were different games and Wow at release might not have been able to get all the players it have today either, it is hard to say.
But it is hard to say where FF XIV will be in a few years too, even if I have my doubt about it having more players than Wow.
Perhaps one day FF14 may surpass WoW's subs but certainly now upon release
"A lot of work needs to be done to improve the general user experience, and I hope that Square Enix will listen to their soon-to-be consumers as in its current state Final Fantasy XIV is not worth the buying price yet alone the monthly fee. Considering the game is less than a month away from shipping, that's not a good thing."
http://www.onrpg.com/MMO/Final-Fantasy-XIV/interview/Final-Fantasy-XIV-Beta-Preview-The-Game-So-Far
This view is standard among the current public sites I have vistited. I figure a year or two of agressive attention to the game issues experinced in OB and a reconsideration of release may help the population some. Just a thought.
Cannot say about FFXI, but to say Blizzard did not design WoW in such a fashion as to lure away players from other games is kind of a joke. You can look at the massive drops in subs from other games around the time of WoW's release. Yes, they brought in some of their RTS/Diablo folks that had never played a MMORPG before - they brought in the Warhammer people that were looking for a game close to what they were doing, etc - but generally speaking, the sub numbers that WoW already had at two months was not from building their own playerbase. At two months, they had more subs than EQ at peak.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
I have to agree with what some of the others have stated. The game may dominate in Japan and overall asia but I don't know if it can conqure the western market. See western MMOers want differnt things than eastern MMOers. If SE does a good job of balancing the western version and making it aim at our desires t hen yes it has a strong chance. I've noticed these days though what makes for a "wow" killer isn't a game that sells millions of copies but one that can keep millions of subscribers. I doubt anything can "kill" wow... save wow2, or Starcraft MMO, perhaps biowares SW:TOR if its supppppeeeerrr good but it remains to be seen if they can make the leap from RPG to MMORPG. So perhaps over a year or two FF14 could build up a huge enough following to be "wow-like" as in millions of subs, but I doubt blizzard is trembling in their boots right now.
It's more of a side-effect, not the underlying reason. Hell, I'm sure FFXI stole some subs from EQ or even SWG. But to say that was their primary plan? No way.
Your statement appears to run on a version of intent, that is, "Cannot say about FFXI, but to say Blizzard did not design WoW in such a fashion as to lure away players from other games is kind of a joke. " Who is to state that Blizzard made a game to grab players from other games and FF14 intends not to? So, which game is it that is NOT designed to lure in customers from ANY other game? Unless your point is that FF14 is such designed to NOT Lure any players from other games and is intended for those who do not play any other MMORPG or any game thereof? To wit; indicating that any developer will focus on players who never played games is a joke.
I think what he meant was that Blizzard didn't aim specifically at converting people from other games. They didn't set out with the plan of 'We will do this and that and take half of EQ's population' or 'What can we add to our game that will appeal to those who play DAoC?'
Blizzard basically made a game that, while borrowing heavily from other games, was aimed at being a game for people who never really played or enjoyed the MMOs that were already out there. And sure, a lot of people left their game for WoW because it was something new (by the time WoW launched, most of the big MMOs were already at or older than 4 years old.
After WoW launched is when we started to see other developers trying to compete directly with another game. That or they tried hard to emulate WoW in hopes that people would jump ship.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
Uh, I think it's clear that as-is the game is not going to become the next WoW. If it does, it'll become so as time passes.
It's a good thing SE is thinking long-term. But also a bad thing because that gives them the excuse to release the game unfinished.
It is not a case of stating that Blizzard set out to destroy the MMORPG industry by stealing the subscribers of all other games out there. But in the design of their game, they set out to design a game that would leech as many subs as possible to sustain their financial success. Not sure how anybody could say otherwise.
WoW was not the first MMORPG. It is simple business that if you are coming to a market with limited consumers, you are going to be looking to get consumers from your competitors. If you're eating breakfast at Burger King, you're not eating breakfast at McDonalds.
From the design of WoW, lacking much in the way of originality or innovation - it is obvious that their development team researched the current games and their subscribers.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%