Final Fantasy XIV - Going Free To Play Up To Level 60, and Other Notes From LIVE Letter

System · July 2020

Final Fantasy XIV - Going Free To Play Up To Level 60, and Other Notes From LIVE Letter

In the latest Letter from the Producer Live for FFXIV a whole host of information was brought to the forefront regarding the next big content patch titled, Reflections in a Crystal. While the live stream was in Japanese, an extensive summary of features is available which includes a lot of the content and features players can look forward to.

Read the full story here

velimirius · July 2020

woah madness, loads of free content especially heavensward which is great.

lahnmir · July 2020

Panzerbeorne39 said:

Stupid writers. It’s not going free to play. The free trial is getting a higher level cap. That’s it.

Well, technically the game is going free to play, excluding the last two expansions. That is about half of the entire game up till now. So going free to play might not exactly do it justice but neither does expanded free trial.

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

Tiller · July 2020

remsleep said:

And fanboys said F2P would never happen to FF14.... hahaha

Remember those who said - only a matter of time

It's a new way to get people hooked. Playing up to 30 for free didn't give anyone even the slightest idea what the game has to offer as far as content. I know it didn't for me. Heavensward is a good expansion. After I made it to that part of the story I thought "ahhh so this is why people like this game".

I made thread a few years ago (which someone just necroed) about the game going F2P and got pretty much shot over the idea lol. With that being said, after playing it through all expansions, all dungeons to 80 I can say it's worth the sub. But... I also feel the new trial is a fair way to get new folks interested.

lahnmir · July 2020

remsleep said:

lahnmir said:

Panzerbeorne39 said:

Stupid writers. It’s not going free to play. The free trial is getting a higher level cap. That’s it.

Well, technically the game is going free to play, excluding the last two expansions. That is about half of the entire game up till now. So going free to play might not exactly do it justice but neither does expanded free trial.

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

Double speak at its best

"Pre-emptive strike" instead of "unprovoked attack"

"Negative cash flow" instead of "broke"

"Enhanced interrogation" instead of "torture"

and finally

"Expanded free trial" instead of "F2P"

Oh - and there are 56 different names for "sugar", food industry loves that shit!

You mean:

Glass half full instead of half empty. Since you are, literally, getting half the game for free.

Only on MMORPG.com can people whine about getting more stuff for free, its embarrassing.

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

Jamar870 · July 2020

To me F2P means they would be offering ALL THE CONTENT. That goes for every game that claims to be F2P. Like the others said this is a trial that lets you have access to half of the game's current content. Also I wonder if they still restrict trading with players while you are on a free trial and if there are other restrictions like maybe no retainers or none beyond the 2 players get with the game. Extra retainers(bank space) can be obtain by subscribers for and extra fee to their monthly sub.

Xatsh · July 2020

It is the trial portion of the game. If you want to play the current game, last expansion, or play any of it without major restrictions you have to buy the box and sub.

Thier goal ia to get people hooked so the buy the full version. HW is where the game gets really good... arr is average mmo game at the best.

FFXIV is not going f2p they have no reason to. They announced record sales in the live stream lol.

FrodoFragins · July 2020

Hmm. I'll have to give it a go but probably not until next year. I'm going to play on a new WOTLK private server and try ESO which I got on sale from steam first. But I like gaps between playing MMOs.

Indahole · July 2020

Well this is certainly welcome news!

timeraider · July 2020

This really is just a trial. And i must say thats a lot better for them.
The FFXIV community is the entire thing keeping the game together and the hurdle of having a subscription fee keeps it very clean.

(Not saying the game isnt great, because i absolutely loved the hell out of it for a very long time. But noone can deny that the best part about the endgame is doing it together with people that you enjoy playing with... just the entire tactical teamplay part of it makes it so much better)

Albatroes · July 2020

Wow, this is actually a massive move since ARR was the main reason why people quit the game anyway. ARR experience getting revamped now this. Pretty damn good job Yoshida.

inmysights · July 2020

Want to put this out there, the free trial is just that, you cannot even chat in the trial, you cannot follow, you cannot give anything to anyone , so if you play with a friend which is what I tried, we could not even give each other items to help us out. It is VERY limiting trial for sure.

Albatroes · July 2020

inmysights said:

Want to put this out there, the free trial is just that, you cannot even chat in the trial, you cannot follow, you cannot give anything to anyone , so if you play with a friend which is what I tried, we could not even give each other items to help us out. It is VERY limiting trial for sure.

Pretty basic for most trials tbh. WoW has done this for 10+ years. That said though, the issue will probably be space in the long run since you can't have retainers (which is also linked to the "auction house" system) as a trial account. But people who've played for a while already know space really only becomes an issue when you try to collect glamor or if you're a hardcore crafter.

Warlyx · July 2020

The A Realm Reborn Revamp will include the ability to fly in A Realm Reborn zones.

HOLY !$!!

dekkion1 · July 2020

yoshi i bet you got black friends huh cause you think u slick....
you know dam well..having a free trial to lvl 60 will get more people hooked like crack for sure lol.
there's no way u can play this to lvl 60 and not want to do the rest..smart move i say bro. and if you can get another 10 million hooked i say bravo dude.

Nasa · July 2020

You do what you can to attract new players to a game that looks dated.

Azaron_Nightblade · July 2020

Tiller said:

remsleep said:

And fanboys said F2P would never happen to FF14.... hahaha

Remember those who said - only a matter of time

It's a new way to get people hooked. Playing up to 30 for free didn't give anyone even the slightest idea what the game has to offer as far as content. I know it didn't for me. Heavensward is a good expansion. After I made it to that part of the story I thought "ahhh so this is why people like this game".

I made thread a few years ago (which someone just necroed) about the game going F2P and got pretty much shot over the idea lol. With that being said, after playing it through all expansions, all dungeons to 80 I can say it's worth the sub. But... I also feel the new trial is a fair way to get new folks interested.

LOL yep, this is far from F2P.
This will get you about half the game, given that the expansions are pretty big.
Plus, you probably still have chat restrictions and can't invite anyone to a party until you become a sub. Definitely more of an extended trial than a F2P conversion.

IceAge · July 2020

remsleep said:

And fanboys said F2P would never happen to FF14.... hahaha

Remember those who said - only a matter of time

Oh, back to your usual .. "rant". I missed it

But no, you are wrong. Is not F2P. Not even close.

hyllyh · July 2020

as swotor just release on steam, i feel the exact same effect.
F2p written on front page but with a lot of limitation so it's more "an extended trial"

anyway, it's still good for new players or to spend some hours on it if you never tried

Yaevindusk · July 2020

lahnmir said:

Panzerbeorne39 said:

Stupid writers. It’s not going free to play. The free trial is getting a higher level cap. That’s it.

Well, technically the game is going free to play, excluding the last two expansions. That is about half of the entire game up till now. So going free to play might not exactly do it justice but neither does expanded free trial.
/Cheers,
Lahnmir

This is actually the feedback I've been giving to them on questionnaires and other outlets. Reduce or remake ARR, merge Heavensward into the Trial version and let it speak for itself. Though I also put in making jobs more entertaining 15-60 in some way. Preferably allowing unlocked abilities to be used while sync'd, but at a lower potency. We already blast through the old stuff with maxed out gear and seeing amazing looking abilities will only encourage people to try and unlock them.

Though ultimately the free trial is still a free trial with all the restrictions, lack of features and so on and so forth. Would be interesting if they got rid of chat restrictions, tell restrictions, FC restrictions, friend restrictions, trade restrictions and auction house restrictions as well.

remsleep said:

And fanboys said F2P would never happen to FF14.... hahaha

Remember those who said - only a matter of time :)

With this new information, I'm going to tell my friends that still play Dragon Quest Builders 2 that I have the full free game, since I downloaded that massive trail they have. I can't wait to play with them without any restrictions or lack of content. That is, unless a Free Trial is still, in fact, a Free trial and I'm being lied to.

Still have to create an entirely new account for the free trial as well, since you can't play at all if you don't have a subscription on a main account.

It is very telling that the fact that something is never going to happen is so prevalent (especially with the knowledge that FFXI still isn't, and Yoshi-P reiterated again that he would rather shut the game down than go F2P) that people hoping for F2P have to take a free trial as a victory just to validated and forget about it.

Yaevindusk · July 2020

lahnmir said:

Panzerbeorne39 said:

Stupid writers. It’s not going free to play. The free trial is getting a higher level cap. That’s it.

Well, technically the game is going free to play, excluding the last two expansions. That is about half of the entire game up till now. So going free to play might not exactly do it justice but neither does expanded free trial.
/Cheers,
Lahnmir

This is actually the feedback I've been giving to them on questionnaires and other outlets. Reduce or remake ARR, merge Heavensward into the Trial version and let it speak for itself. Though I also put in making jobs more entertaining 15-60 in some way. Preferably allowing unlocked abilities to be used while sync'd, but at a lower potency. We already blast through the old stuff with maxed out gear and seeing amazing looking abilities will only encourage people to try and unlock them.

Though ultimately the free trial is still a free trial with all the restrictions, lack of features and so on and so forth. Would be interesting if they got rid of chat restrictions, tell restrictions, FC restrictions, friend restrictions, trade restrictions and auction house restrictions as well.

remsleep said:

And fanboys said F2P would never happen to FF14.... hahaha

Remember those who said - only a matter of time :)

With this new information, I'm going to tell my friends that still play Dragon Quest Builders 2 that I have the full free game, since I downloaded that massive trail they have. I can't wait to play with them without any restrictions or lack of content. That is, unless a Free Trial is still, in fact, a Free trial and I'm being lied to.

Still have to create an entirely new account for the free trial as well, since you can't play at all if you don't have a subscription on a main account.

It is very telling that the fact that something is never going to happen is so prevalent (especially with the knowledge that FFXI still isn't, and Yoshi-P reiterated again that he would rather shut the game down than go F2P) that people hoping for F2P have to take a free trial as a victory just to validated and forget about it.

lahnmir · July 2020

Yaevindusk said:

lahnmir said:

Panzerbeorne39 said:

Stupid writers. It’s not going free to play. The free trial is getting a higher level cap. That’s it.

Well, technically the game is going free to play, excluding the last two expansions. That is about half of the entire game up till now. So going free to play might not exactly do it justice but neither does expanded free trial.
/Cheers,
Lahnmir

This is actually the feedback I've been giving to them on questionnaires and other outlets. Reduce or remake ARR, merge Heavensward into the Trial version and let it speak for itself. Though I also put in making jobs more entertaining 15-60 in some way. Preferably allowing unlocked abilities to be used while sync'd, but at a lower potency. We already blast through the old stuff with maxed out gear and seeing amazing looking abilities will only encourage people to try and unlock them.

Though ultimately the free trial is still a free trial with all the restrictions, lack of features and so on and so forth. Would be interesting if they got rid of chat restrictions, tell restrictions, FC restrictions, friend restrictions, trade restrictions and auction house restrictions as well.

remsleep said:

And fanboys said F2P would never happen to FF14.... hahaha

Remember those who said - only a matter of time

With this new information, I'm going to tell my friends that still play Dragon Quest Builders 2 that I have the full free game, since I downloaded that massive trail they have. I can't wait to play with them without any restrictions or lack of content. That is, unless a Free Trial is still, in fact, a Free trial and I'm being lied to.

Still have to create an entirely new account for the free trial as well, since you can't play at all if you don't have a subscription on a main account.

It is very telling that the fact that something is never going to happen is so prevalent (especially with the knowledge that FFXI still isn't, and Yoshi-P reiterated again that he would rather shut the game down than go F2P) that people hoping for F2P have to take a free trial as a victory just to validated and forget about it.

I don’t think F2P means what you think it does. I guess LotRO and SWtOR aren’t F2P either since you have to buy some content to get it all.

F2P, not having to pay money to get access to a game and play it, nothing more (like everything included).

Also, calling 60+ hours of content a trial is really pushing it.

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

IceAge · July 2020

remsleep said:

IceAge said:

remsleep said:

And fanboys said F2P would never happen to FF14.... hahaha

Remember those who said - only a matter of time

Oh, back to your usual .. "rant". I missed it

But no, you are wrong. Is not F2P. Not even close.

Oh but it is my friend, it is.

"extended trial" - go ahead and enjoy your euphemisms

You know what hospitals call surgery deaths? "negative patient outcome"

If you enjoy that sort of language - yep call it an "extended trial", the rest of us will call it what it is.

So, if WoW keeps the "F2P", which you like to call, to level 20 when Shadowlands releases, that means ..will WoW be F2P ?!

Writer_Man · July 2020

lahnmir said:
I don’t think F2P means what you think it does. I guess LotRO and SWtOR aren’t F2P either since you have to buy some content to get it all.

F2P, not having to pay money to get access to a game and play it, nothing more (like everything included).

Also, calling 60+ hours of content a trial is really pushing it.

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

If you actually paid attention, you'd realize that the only way to play a "free version" is to sign up for a restrictive trial that the moment you buy the game and register it, you can NEVER use it again with that account. You can't lapse your sub and play ARR and Heavensward for free on an alt. If you own the game, you still have to pay a sub even if you are in ARR and Heavensward.

It's a trial.

Your definition makes all trials F2P.

Writer_Man · July 2020

remsleep said:

Writer_Man said:

lahnmir said:
I don’t think F2P means what you think it does. I guess LotRO and SWtOR aren’t F2P either since you have to buy some content to get it all.

F2P, not having to pay money to get access to a game and play it, nothing more (like everything included).

Also, calling 60+ hours of content a trial is really pushing it.

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

If you actually paid attention, you'd realize that the only way to play a "free version" is to sign up for a restrictive trial that the moment you buy the game and register it, you can NEVER use it again with that account. You can't lapse your sub and play ARR and Heavensward for free on an alt. If you own the game, you still have to pay a sub even if you are in ARR and Heavensward.

It's a trial.

Your definition makes all trials F2P.

Not true - there are timed trials where you can play for 3 days or 2 weeks or a month, after that you gotta pay.

There are trials that only allow for like 5 levels of content which might take an hour of total time - that's clearly a trial.

Being able to create a new account, and play 60 levels of content free forever, without any time restrictions, yeah that's no longer a trial anymore.

His definition clearly doesn't make all trials F2P

Time is not the only restriction nor amount of content that makes something a trial. What makes this a trial is that the moment you purchase the game, you cannot go back.

Beyond that, there are heavy restrictions to what you can do.

You cannot:

- trade
- use the market board
- send tells
- join a Free Company
- form a party

Also, does this mean you consider the current setup for the trial (getting to level 35 and having indefinite time) as meaning FFXIV is already F2P?

Scorchien · July 2020

Lvl 60 in FF14 these days is barley scratching the surface , it really is an extended Tutorial(Trial) And very easy to achiveve

Howdy, Stranger!

Final Fantasy XIV - Going Free To Play Up To Level 60, and Other Notes From LIVE Letter

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

Final Fantasy XIV - Going Free To Play Up To Level 60, and Other Notes From LIVE Letter

Comments