The OFFICIAL "Wings of the Goddess" @ E3 2007 Thread!

[Animeangel77]

Re: The OFFICIAL "Wings of the Goddess" @ E3 2007 Thread!

FF XI Developer Keynoting Austin GDC

Hiromichi Tanaka will be on hand to share his multiplatform insights

The CMP Game Group today announced that Hiromichi Tanaka will give the International Keynote for this year's Austin Game Developers Conference. He is an Executive Officer at Square Enix and is known for being the lead developer on Final Fantasy XI. Tanaka will speak about his experience creating a multiplatform MMO in his keynote.

"We are honored to have Hiromichi Tanaka, a leading figure in the online game developer community deliver the International Keynote at this year's event," said Jane Pinckard, Content Manager for Austin GDC. "Tanaka's presence at our conference is indicative of the event's global appeal. The Austin GDC attracts both national and international attendees due to its historically laid back and intimate environment, and specialized industry topics covered via the show program."

Austin GDC will place September 5 - 7, 2007 at the Austin Convention Center.

Link:http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/news/?id=16863

[Animeangel77]

Re: The OFFICIAL "Wings of the Goddess" @ E3 2007 Thread!

does anyone think WotG would be the last expantion?

[Akashimo]

Re: The OFFICIAL "Wings of the Goddess" @ E3 2007 Thread!

I hope not!

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: The OFFICIAL "Wings of the Goddess" @ E3 2007 Thread!

does anyone think WotG would be the last expantion?

Not if the population continues to hover at ~500k...

There are over 1,700,000 characters spread over 500,000 accounts; you calculate how much money that is a year from subscriptions. S-E would have to be crazy to abandon a large revenue stream like FFXI.

Nothing makes players as excited as expansion packs. Not even sobbing programmers in fetal position muttering "But there is no more memory! No more!" over and over can stop S-E from releasing more expansion packs.

* * *

I'll be nice and do the calculation--not guaranteeing if it's right, but they come out to be a minimum of $7,675,000 a month, or $92,100,000 a year using The 6th Vana'diel Census figures.

Using The 5th Vana'diel Census figures, it's $7,525,000 a month, or $90,300,000 a year. Yes, FFXI is apparently a (slowly) growing revenue srouce for S-E--well, at least it's keeping up with inflation.

[Malacite]

Re: The OFFICIAL "Wings of the Goddess" @ E3 2007 Thread!

Hell no. SE has said as long as people continue to play they will put out new content and that they have a lot of expansions planned already ^^


We have so much to explore still.

The Far East, The Far West, the Northern Lands (Orcish Empire + Gigas), The Mithra homelands to the south... and whatever else SE decides to throw at us.


Personally I'd like to see the Zilart make some kind of come back, or be able to go around Vana'diel in their time, before their civilization was destroyed (Fauregandi used to be all green and pretty)

EDIT: Dear god that's a lot of money. And they won't spend the time and resources to upgrade the game into next gen graphics and sound? Come on SE...

[Raydeus]

Re: The OFFICIAL "Wings of the Goddess" @ E3 2007 Thread!

does anyone think WotG would be the last expantion?

Even if this was indeed the last expansion service would continue for years and years after (till subscriber number fell to like 30k players). And they could still add many more features and content without the need for new areas, so it's all good either way.

Just maxing 1 job is time consuming enough to keep me busy for a long time without worrying about new content.


PS > Although the Far East and the Mithran homeland could easily become an expansion(s) I guess.

[Feba]

Re: The OFFICIAL "Wings of the Goddess" @ E3 2007 Thread!

Not even sobbing programmers in fetal position muttering "But there is no more memory! No more!" over and over can stop S-E from releasing more expansion packs.

I love you.

Anyway, considering EQ released an expansion, what, a year ago? I highly doubt WoTG will be our last.

Hell, UO has been out for a decade, and it's still got a 140k subscriber base.

And UO looks like this AT BEST:



FFXI will have PLENTY of expansions to come.

[Malacite]

Re: The OFFICIAL "Wings of the Goddess" @ E3 2007 Thread!

I just can't stand SE's BS stance of not wanting to upgrade FFXI's graphics. Not when FFXI is racking in that kind of money. Not having enough staff? I can sorta buy that. Not being worth the money though? Total BS.

Screw the PS2 and keeping it the same on all consoles... - _ - I want my next gen graphics. I can only imagine how stunning Tu'Lia, Al'teiu, Wajoam or the Promyvions would look in next gen graphics.


Not only would it enhance the over all game, but it would also nab potential players who shun the game for it's dated looks (though at the same time I ask myself; do we want those people anyway?)

[Feba]

Re: The OFFICIAL "Wings of the Goddess" @ E3 2007 Thread!

yep, it would be awesome, but it won't happen.

I personally would rather see FFXI ported to more consoles than get a graphics upgrade. Mac, Wii, PS3, linux, even make a simplified version for DS. A boy can dream...

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: The OFFICIAL "Wings of the Goddess" @ E3 2007 Thread!

I just can't stand SE's BS stance of not wanting to upgrade FFXI's graphics. Not when FFXI is racking in that kind of money. Not having enough staff? I can sorta buy that. Not being worth the money though? Total BS.

... Upgrading graphics won't be cheap, you know.

New engines. New ("revamped") art assets (for the original game and every expansion pack). Plus, big risk of alienating PS2 players (that's two-thirds of the Japanese players, BTW) and low-end PC users. Projects like this also have tendency to go over monetary and time budgets. I'd be very surprised if it's not a $50 million plus project which will drain all (human) resources and delay future expansion packs for a few years.

The smart money is on concentrating and investing in project what they can confidently deliver and please the crowd with: more new, involving contents on the existing engines.

It is not "BS stance"--it's a matter of weighing the risks properly.

While both "stay the course" and "revamp graphics" have legitimate, solid arguments for them, ultimately, I don't see see much growth potential for FFXI in the crowded MMORPG field. And, I suspect S-E would agree with me--throwing in the money and human beings and time at FFXI on that magnitude of a project which may very well alienate a large portion of the existing player base would be foolish.

* * *

Screw the PS2

Until PS2 players abandon FFXI en mass, any call to S-E to ditch them first is financially unrealistic--and rather unkind to your fellow players.

* * *

Note those who want to add to the thread with sentiments like "It's high time to get rid of PS2!":

Don't bother with anecdotal tales: read here on percentages of PC vs. PS2 platform users and for my source of info. And, here's evidence that introduction of xBox360 in NA didn't knock out PS2 from the #2 spot in North America:

Tanaka: In North America, most players use Windows. After that is not Xbox but still the PS2. I don't think that many people bought the Xbox version.

If you want to argue why PS2 isn't important to FFXI/S-E's financial health, don't write about how you feel about PS2 or their users. It's not about your feelings, their feelings, or my feelings; S-E's accountants don't (and shouldn't) care how you feel about PS2, and neither do the company's shareholders.

If you think it'd would be better for S-E to drop PS2 support, construct an argument, cite some real evidences, and use logic. Please. >_<

[Malacite]

Re: The OFFICIAL &quot;Wings of the Goddess&quot; @ E3 2007 Thread!

I'm well aware of the user base on PS2. I'm just sick of it holding back what the game could have been =/


Would it be practical for SE to do a major graphics update? probably not, but I'd still like to see it =/

[ItazuraNhomango]

Re: The OFFICIAL &quot;Wings of the Goddess&quot; @ E3 2007 Thread!

I just can't stand SE's BS stance of not wanting to upgrade FFXI's graphics. Not when FFXI is racking in that kind of money. Not having enough staff? I can sorta buy that. Not being worth the money though? Total BS.

Would it be practical for SE to do a major graphics update? probably not, but I'd still like to see it =/

>_> Major contradictions there.

One post it's "BS stance" and "money" isn't the reason for not having major graphic update, and the next post says such an revamp would "probably not" be practical.

Assuming "BS" means bad reasoning and/or lies, you can't call the company's unwillingness to update the graphics both "BS" and still claim you think it'd be impractical for them to implement such an update.

* * *

Edit:
What the game "could have been without PS2" is exactly this: nowhere.

This game needed the Final Fantasy franchise's luster to get launched. It was designed around FF's iconic concepts and images. FF (at the time) was mostly about PS2. (Plus, you can't exactly run FFXI scale of a game on GameBoy Advance--not to mention GBA didn't even exist during development of FFXI.)

Not targeting PS2 would have meant no FFXI.


* * *

Back on topic (kinda): I hope we can get a full transcript of that speech at Austin GDC. ^_^ I very much would like to see what has changed since this 2006 Gamasutra article.

[Feba]

Re: The OFFICIAL &quot;Wings of the Goddess&quot; @ E3 2007 Thread!

Plus, big risk of alienating

I doubt that. Look at EVE online, they're upgrading their graphic engine from DX8 to DX10, it's a huge change and it looks very pretty. At the same time, they're porting to Mac AND Linux, AND maintaining their DX8 client. Surely if a relatively young startup company can afford to do this, a relative giant like SE can.

I don't think anyone would be angry at a better looking version of FFXI than they've got being out, as long as they could still play happily.

I agree with Malacite1 that SE should put at least some effort into upgrading the graphics. But then, with a switch to DX9, they might just be doing that in secret... but then given what we've seen of WOTG, I doubt it.

Hell, imagine how FFXI could if SE changed it


This is a comparison of the Unreal Engines, 1, 2, and 3 respectively of course. the first one is from the late 90s, 98 or 99. The second one is from around the time FFXI was released, 02-04ish. The last one is the most recent, from the past year or so

Imagine what FFXI could be like if we went from the second to the third, which would be what an upgrade could easily be like. Try not to imagine characters though- Imagine Promyvion, Tu'lia, and Xarcabard.

Hell, imagine how great FFXI could look if SE would just raise the maximum amount of draw distance. If SE added an "advanced config" tool like so many registry editors and windower users have already played with.


I do agree that the PS2 needs to be chucked, but I don't think we're quite ready for it. The Ps2 should kill itself off- it's not very reliable in my experience, the hard drive is nearly out of space, and people will be upgrading their consoles. Which is why I'd still kinda like to see FFXI ported to DS, that could really help. I know I would consider coming back to FFXI on DS, just to see what it's like, and it's certainly possible, the DS has everything needed for an MMO, there's already keyboard games and stuff for it. A huge step backwards in graphics and performance for DS and a massive step forward for PC could really help FFXI capture the DS-rave Japan has going, and the "OMGraphics" crowd in NA PC users.

it also wouldn't hurt to advertise in the states though... I don't know about you all, but I've only ever seen ONE FFXI ad, and that wasn't until the 360 version came out. A few advertisements for a graphics upgrade and an expansion could really help.

[Clever Ninja]

Re: The OFFICIAL &quot;Wings of the Goddess&quot; @ E3 2007 Thread!

Just gimme a good storyline, some new jobs and leveling spots that are alright so I don't have to only level in TAoU zones and I'm happy.

[Malacite]

Re: The OFFICIAL &quot;Wings of the Goddess&quot; @ E3 2007 Thread!

It wouldn't be practical in the sense that they'd be pissing off a lot of their fanbase by cutting out the PS2 or releasing exclusive upgrades for PC (and possibly 360) users.

That said, I still don't see how it could be all that costly to them when they're raking in over $60 Million a month.


And thank you Feba for that demonstration ^^b


FFXI on DirectX 10.... I can only dream.