Final Fantasy XIV Then...

[InvisibleKid]

I wouldn't be suprised if they haven't been working on the PS3 version at all though

They were quoted as saying that the PS3 is up and running - it's merely an issue of the fact that the game isn't ideal at the moment.

I imagine maintaining the PS3 build wouldn't be that hard for them to do - they're used to it by now.

[Rep]

Given the quality with the PC version though, you'd be surprised if they could program Hello World. You have to wonder what the PS3 version will be like when It hits Beta.

[Rep]

The development and management teams would like to make an announcement regarding personnel changes.

[Organizational Changes to the Development Team]
To improve the service of FINAL FANTASY XIV, Square Enix has made the following changes to the development team:

Managerial Changes

Producer/Director
Naoki Yoshida

Section Leader Changes

Assistant Director
Shintaro Tamai (FINAL FANTASY X, Front Mission 5: Scars of the War)

Lead Game Designer
Nobuaki Komoto (FINAL FANTASY IX, FINAL FANTASY XI)

Lead Combat System Designer
Akihiko Matsui (FINAL FANTASY XI)

Technical Advisor
Yoshihisa Hashimoto (Next Generation Game Engine Development)

Lead Programmer
Hideyuki Kasuga (FINAL FANTASY XI, DIRGE OF CERBERUS -FINAL FANTASY VII-)

Senior Concept Artist
Akihiko Yoshida (FINAL FANTASY XII, Vagrant Story)

Lead Artist
Hiroshi Takai (FINAL FANTASY XI, THE LAST REMNANT)

Lead UI Designer/Lead Web Designer
Hiroshi Minagawa (FINAL FANTASY XII, Vagrant Story)

These members will make up the development team's new core-a core dedicated to ensuring we achieve a level of enjoyability that will more than satisfy our customers. Under a schedule of more frequent version updates, the new leaders and their respective sections will strive for continued improvements to FINAL FANTASY XIV service operation and development.

[Extension of the Free Trial Period]
As stated above, the newly restructured team's top priority is to bring about improvements to the game's enjoyability, and therefore we have decided to extend the free trial period until we can provide a plan that outlines a level of enjoyment that will satisfy both us and our customers. When we are confident that we have reached that goal, we will notify our customers immediately.

[Future Version Updates]
At present, the development team is putting the finishing touches on the previously announced version update, which is still slated for release in mid-December. In addition, there is one more version update scheduled for release before year's end. Details on the content and dates of these updates will be released in the near future.

[Delay of the PlayStation 3 Version Release]
Although the release date for the PlayStation 3 version of the game was previously announced as late March of 2011, we regret to inform that this date has been changed.

The PlayStation 3 release will be delayed until we are confident that the game has reached the level of enjoyability and service befitting the FINAL FANTASY name for users on all supported platforms. We offer our sincerest apologies to any fans anticipating the PlayStation 3 release, and humbly ask for your continued patience and understanding as both the development team and Square Enix as a whole strive towards making FINAL FANTASY XIV a truly enjoyable and unforgettable adventure.

[New Development Team Policy]
I would like to take this opportunity to greet all of you—those currently playing FINAL FANTASY XIV, those who have taken a respite from playing, and those awaiting the PlayStation 3 release—and offer a brief word by way of an introduction.

No doubt there are very few, if any, among you who have ever heard the name Naoki Yoshida. To be sure, I have never been in the fore on any of the titles I have worked on in the past. I am, however, honored and privileged to work alongside many talented and inspiring colleagues, and with their support have enjoyed making games for a number of years. I am aware that a great many people will think the responsibility of leading FINAL FANTASY XIV is far too large a task for someone so unknown. After all, even my very best may seem no more than a drop in the bucket when considering the sheer scope of FINAL FANTASY XIV. But working together with me are the very talented and very capable development and management teams, whose dedication and motivation are unwavering. I would like to ask you to please put to rest uncertainties that you may have.

Now, more than ever, myself, the development team, and Square Enix as a whole, are committed to furthering our efforts to provide a quality service.

Everything we do will be for our players and customers.

FINAL FANTASY XIV Producer/Director, Naoki Yoshida

First of all, I would like to apologize for our inability to fully satisfy our users with the initial release of FINAL FANTASY XIV. I take full responsibility for the game's current situation, and have therefore made the decision to step down from my role as producer. A number of concerns that have been voiced by users, such as the design of the user interface, availability of tutorials and game content, and battle system functionality, represent key issues that must be addressed. While improvements are already well underway in many areas, we were unfortunately not able to incorporate player feedback as quickly as we would have liked. We are aware, however, that in many cases, addressing these issues will call for a reworking of game elements. As these changes are our first priority, they will be commanding our full attention and efforts. It is to that end that we have put a new organizational structure into place for the development team. Under this new system, FINAL FANTASY XIV will see changes and additions in line with the desires and expectations of players. Though no longer producer, I will be continuing to support the development team in other capacities, and personally hope that you will continue your adventures in the realm of Eorzea.

Hiromichi Tanaka

Couple of XI names in there too.

[Tobal]

been readinf BG, seems they took the the new recent director of 11 and put him on 14 and replaced him with the guys working on the abyssea stuff, just as long and Tanaka stays the **** away from 11 we should be ok.

14 a blacksheep now not matter what they do they've lost support for it, there better of just scrapping it and use the tech to come up with something better, just the entire direction of 14 is wrong something a dev member won't have much say in so it better to blame the useless Tanaka who stubboness along with a few others turn 14 it a lifeless mess it is.

[mikewl]

To be honest I like this, there was no way FFXIV was going to quitely fade away into obscurity and SE have the money and resources to pull it back and turn things around, had it been by a usual dev company the game would probably have had its dev team downscaled to work on something else.

Although after all is said the game is getting there already, I reckon once PS3 version launches the game is gonna be great, one thing is for certain its a second chance for them to get the word out about the game, re-reviews in magazines etc, so its very important they wait until its ready to score well and get positive scores.

Thing is though, lately i've really been enjoying the game, yesterday I only logged on briefly but I came away feeling positivly about the game.

We have a nice LS now, 45+ members who are mostly all working together to help each other, crafting is going well LS wide, people are more than happy to craft stuff for each other for no profit, I did a batch of carpentry items for a LS member yesterday and then said member repaired a bunch of my gear for me, the game has to be approached with community effort to get things done efficiently and i'm liking that aspect.

New NM's look like they'll be good, we're now seeing lvl cap gear to work towards, there are now reasons to rank up.

The game does need alot of work but i'm still enjoying it in the mean time.

I spent most the evening yesterday playing WoW... it was ok but I personally think FFXIV has the potential to be a far superior game and i'm sure it will be by PS3 launch.

I'd advise anyone not feeling the game yet to hold off and view the PS3 as a relaunch, wait until then and come into it with a fresh perspective and see how it goes then, as in FFXI no one really gets left behind as there's always new jobs to level and lower end capped content will surely make its way in sometime.

[Rep]

been readinf BG, seems they took the the new recent director of 11 and put him on 14 and replaced him with the guys working on the abyssea stuff, just as long and Tanaka stays the **** away from 11 we should be ok.

http://www.playonline.com/pcd/topics/ff11us/detail/6064/detail.html

XI is probably the real winner in all this, far more likely to get a new expansion with this guy at the helm.

[abigsmurf]

Square Enix will almost certainly be hoping that they can turn it into a quality MMO in time for the PS3 launch so that Famitsu and co will give it high marks (wanna bet Squeenix have lots of double page adverts that issue?).

It's the only thing that makes keeping it free for so long make sense. It can't be cheap running the servers and doing support.

But still... polished graphics and low bug count aside, the game feels like it needs a solid year of work getting it up to scratch.

[Rep]

But still... polished graphics and low bug count aside, the game feels like it needs a solid year of work getting it up to scratch.

That's bit unfair though isn't it? I'm surprised at today's announcements, the game has received a lot of changes in the last month and it's a much more enjoyable experience. Unless you're basing your comment on that initial release two/three months ago.

[C']

The timing of this I find incredibly bizarre.

A month ago, an announcement like this would not have surprised me at all. But since then we've had the impressive November patch which made massive strides in fixing 99% of the technical issues the game has and we are on the brink of the game's first content update. Things seemed to be turning a corner.

Not only that, the development team were incredibly proactive in keeping us informed of their plans for the game and were far more communicative in the early days than the XI dev team were back when I started that.

Comments here that the dev team have been publically in denial about the state of the game is incredibly far off the mark. In fact, I've found their posts on the Lodestone incredibly refreshing in terms of recognising the problems in the game and describing their plans to fix them. And they have been like this since a few weeks after launch (when they made the first announcement about the free trialextension) although in reality they had to be,such was the negative reception the game had received. They've done everything but bury their head in the sand over this.

As for the "aimless" comments, I accept that in terms of content things may seem light but I do wonder why people find that an issue now but had no problems with a low amount of content in XI back at launch. Thinking back to when I started XI in November 2003 (and this was 18 months after the game launched in Japan) what did we really have to do? A series of missions, Expidtionary Forces (which no one ever did) some worthless quests, crafting,EXPing and BCNM battles (which at that time only became available at level40).

I wonder if we've been spoiled by the sheer amount of content that got added in XI's later years but you could never expect a new MMO to match that.

I'm actually fearful at what this decision may mean for XI. The new dev team seemed fully understand how to approach it in its later years. Screw balance, just chuck a load of stuff in there and let the players have as much fun as possible. Seems to be working as reactions to XI now are as high as I ever remember them. If it was a single player FF title,it would be at the stage after you've defeated the final boss and just running around the map with your max level characters overpowering everything you face.

[C']

Still the upside of this is that those of us who enjoy the game for what it is, and appreciate its differences with XI, can keep playing for free indefinitely.

Awesome!

[Rep]

I joked about the free period earlier. It's going to end up having a negative effect, where the faithful end up not wanting to pay for a "free" game

[mikewl]

Details on The Starlight Celerbration, starts 17th Dec

http://lodestone.finalfantasyxiv.com...789f148180e6f2

I'll be trying to get the complete set, it'll be something to do, also I would imagine this will coincide with the next big update which is mostly about NM's.

[Rep]

Mmmm Roast Dodo Gnom nom nom

[mikewl]

December Version Updates (12/14/2010)

As promised in the Topics post of December 10, we would today like to announce the date and content details of the forthcoming mid-December version update.

◆Date & Times
Wednesday, December 15, 2010 from 3:00 p.m. to Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 12:00 a.m.
◆Contents

* New enemies, including notorious monsters
* New guildleves
* Many new recipes
* Further improvements to the naming and organization of market wards
* An additional free retainer slot
* Improved response times on the retainer exchange interface
* Further improvements to the user interface
* Increased text limit for chat log input

For a complete list of changes, please see the comprehensive details posted on the day of the version update.

◆Second December Version Update
The development team is continuing to take player feedback to heart concerning the item search feature of the market wards. We are currently aiming to introduce the first of several changes by year's end, and assure you that additional improvements will be ongoing in order to make a more intuitive and functional system.

Details regarding the date and content of the second December version update will be announced in a future Topics post.

Until then, we hope that you continue to enjoy your adventures in Eorzea!

[C']

* An additional free retainer slot

Now that was unexpected. Appreciated though. It almost feels like S-E are paying me now to keep playing.