Forum Settings
       
« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Reply To Thread

Wada ResignsFollow

#1 Mar 26 2013 at 4:32 AM Rating: Excellent
Avatar
***
1,570 posts
http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/26/4148094/square-enix-ceo-yoichi-wada-resigns

Seems our regular for the producer letters who had taken Hildibrand's theme for himself will be leaving us.

The big concern is more the mentioned shake up of management in the article (more like a blurb). A similar shakeup is what has put TOR on life support, and while it may be seen as sensationalist, this might be worth keeping an eye on as far as how it may affect the game (emphasis on may with a ton of salt on top).

Edited, Mar 26th 2013 6:33am by Ruisu
____________________________
Products of boredom: 1 2 3 4 5
Besieged
Hopes for FFXIV: Fencer | Red Mage
#2 Mar 26 2013 at 5:08 AM Rating: Decent
**
554 posts
There is a part of me that want's to "jump for joy" at seeing this. But... then again this is a guy that prolly put his his heart and soul into SE, a guy that has a family to think about. In the end, SE really needs some fresh blood in their management. Imo too many guys at the top held onto an old school type of thinking. Mabye I am just a Yoshi fanboy, but I like what he is saying.
#3 Mar 26 2013 at 5:41 AM Rating: Excellent
Avatar
**
599 posts
Given the earnings report and the shake-up this could really put some pressure on the development team to release FFXIV 'before it is ready'. I for one hope they have the courage to stick to their guns. I for one think Yoshi has made a great looking game that I plan to play for a while. It is not all I had hoped for but it will be good.
____________________________
"The next time you have the urge to stab me in the back have the guts to do it to my face." - Malcolm Reynolds
#4 Mar 26 2013 at 6:15 AM Rating: Decent
*
164 posts
Honestly, this might be good news. Square Enix having financial troubles? Okay, just make game #1, #2 and #3 for us... or you could just ignore us. Maybe things will change now (probably not). Then there's the Square Enix conference at PS4 *shakes head*. Please be excited for E3. Umm thanks I guess I will?

Come on guys...
#5 Mar 26 2013 at 6:37 AM Rating: Good
Avatar
****
4,780 posts
Matsudo Isn't necessarily the person in staff that needs to shake up and revitalize the company, in my opinion. He's as much old school as Wada is. However, if that means SE will still stand behind FFXIV ARR until it's out, that's fine by me.

At that point, if Yoshida could pick a worthy successor, I'd like to prop him up there and see what he does to the company as a whole - unless he can find someone who mirrors his views to do it for him and he can stay on FFXIV.
#6 Mar 26 2013 at 8:03 AM Rating: Decent
***
2,153 posts
Asahi Shinbun also covered this news ( http://www.asahi.com/business/update/0326/TKY201303260364.html ). Honestly, I am a little concerned for the future of SE as a whole at the moment. The last fiscal year saw the launch of some very high profile triple A titles (e.g. Tomb Raider and the excellent Sleeping Dogs) which nonetheless, somehow, mysteriously, failed to make the expected impact.

Since most of the red numbers can be traced back to below-average sales in the US, the natural reflex now is to accomodate products more to the western market; which is the route Yoshi seems to take with FFXIV. I just contemplate whether this approach will really pay off in the long run. Of course it's necessary to go with the times; I just hope this doesn't mean SE sells out its own core competencies in favor of a broader appeal to the masses. Because there's already a lot of companies who try to appeal to the masses.

Sometimes it might be better to stick to a reasonably sized niche. It's all a matter of balance...
#7 Mar 26 2013 at 8:06 AM Rating: Decent
Hyrist wrote:
Matsudo Isn't necessarily the person in staff that needs to shake up and revitalize the company, in my opinion. He's as much old school as Wada is. However, if that means SE will still stand behind FFXIV ARR until it's out, that's fine by me.

At that point, if Yoshida could pick a worthy successor, I'd like to prop him up there and see what he does to the company as a whole - unless he can find someone who mirrors his views to do it for him and he can stay on FFXIV.


Did you just suggest that Yoshi-P take over Square Enix?

Developing for a few games doesn't make you qualified to run a giant company. Square Enix does western and Japanese games, anime, manga, toys, etc.

Edited, Mar 26th 2013 10:06am by Killua125
#8 Mar 26 2013 at 8:07 AM Rating: Excellent
Rinsui wrote:
Asahi Shinbun also covered this news ( http://www.asahi.com/business/update/0326/TKY201303260364.html ). Honestly, I am a little concerned for the future of SE as a whole at the moment. The last fiscal year saw the launch of some very high profile triple A titles (e.g. Tomb Raider and the excellent Sleeping Dogs) which nonetheless, somehow, mysteriously, failed to make the expected impact.

Since most of the red numbers can be traced back to below-average sales in the US, the natural reflex now is to accomodate products more to the western market; which is the route Yoshi seems to take with FFXIV. I just contemplate whether this approach will really pay off in the long run. Of course it's necessary to go with the times; I just hope this doesn't mean SE sells out its own core competencies in favor of a broader appeal to the masses. Because there's already a lot of companies who try to appeal to the masses.

Sometimes it might be better to stick to a reasonably sized niche. It's all a matter of balance...


Tomb Raider launched this year I thought Smiley: confused
#9 Mar 26 2013 at 8:08 AM Rating: Decent
Tomb Raider came out a couple of weeks ago. It was quite good. I don't think there are any accurate sales figures available.
#10 Mar 26 2013 at 8:17 AM Rating: Decent
They honestly spent way too much money on FFXIV ARR. I think the timing for him leaving, before ARR launches is telling.

I'm sure they can recover and do just fine but I still think they spent far too much on a game which simply does not have the promise of being a massive success. Free to play and the cash fountain that goes with that seems closer than ever.
#11 Mar 26 2013 at 8:18 AM Rating: Excellent
preludes wrote:
They honestly spent way too much money on FFXIV ARR. I think the timing for him leaving, before ARR launches is telling.

I'm sure they can recover and do just fine but I still think they spent far too much on a game which simply does not have the promise of being a massive success. Free to play and the cash fountain that goes with that seems closer than ever.


Smiley: rolleyes
#12 Mar 26 2013 at 8:25 AM Rating: Excellent
**
837 posts
Yea i heard really good comments for Tomb rider so i believe they have a win there.
#13 Mar 26 2013 at 8:36 AM Rating: Default
I agree with him. ARR is surely costing Square Enix a lot of money, and it's seeming unlikely to ever be a financial success.

Even if ARR manages to bring the game up to par for Final Fantasy fans, I just don't see a whole ton of people subscribing for it.

Since Square Enix is reporting catastrophic financial losses, I don't think Final Fantasy XIV has any other option but a free-to-play cash shop model.

Re-releasing the game as buy-to-play and pay-to-play for the second time would be an awful gamble with bad odds... and I don't think Square Enix is in a position to make that gamble. A free-to-play Final Fantasy MMO is more guaranteed to be successful.
#14 Mar 26 2013 at 8:38 AM Rating: Excellent
Killua125 wrote:
I agree with him. ARR is surely costing Square Enix a lot of money, and it's seeming unlikely to ever be a financial success.

Even if ARR manages to bring the game up to par for Final Fantasy fans, I just don't see a whole ton of people subscribing for it.

Since Square Enix is reporting catastrophic financial losses, I don't think Final Fantasy XIV has any other option but a free-to-play cash shop model.

Re-releasing the game as buy-to-play and pay-to-play for the second time would be an awful gamble with bad odds... and I don't think Square Enix is in a position to make that gamble. A free-to-play Final Fantasy MMO is more guaranteed to be successful.


No, it's not. We've been over this ad nauseum in other threads.
#15 Mar 26 2013 at 8:42 AM Rating: Default
Care to explain?

I'm seeing the top Square Enix bigwigs having their salaries cut in half, and the President and CEO resigning.

I just don't know if Square Enix can afford to gamble with XIV if the situation is that dire.

Edited, Mar 26th 2013 10:44am by Killua125
#16 Mar 26 2013 at 8:55 AM Rating: Good
**
837 posts
It is true this thread is becoming the same with others. Even after all this threads none from the ops really answered me. If ARR seems its gonna be such a fail game why do you even bother with it?

While SE would love to have an MMO with the success wow has we and they know that wont happen. With that been said if the MMO is well done and SE learned from the mistakes they did with 1.0 i don't see why they wont have a decent number of subscribers.

What makes you so sure that SE didn't learn from their mistakes and the player won't respond to that?

I know i am gonna give them a chance and actually try the game before condemn it to oblivion.
#17 Mar 26 2013 at 8:58 AM Rating: Excellent
Killua125 wrote:
Care to explain?

I'm seeing the top Square Enix bigwigs having their salaries cut in half, and the President and CEO resigning.

I just don't know if Square Enix can afford to gamble with XIV if the situation is that dire.

Edited, Mar 26th 2013 10:44am by Killua125


Not really, I don't want to do the F2P vs. P2P argument again, it's all over most of the threads on the first page. There is nothing out there to say definitively that a F2P model makes more money. Frankly I think most people agree that it's the opposite, that a F2P model is the swan song for any game that was once P2P. The difference between FFXIV and other games that attempted P2P is that XIV is already paid for. There are no investors they have to pay back, and therefore a F2P cash grab before sunsetting the game is not necessary.

Have you even looked at SE's financials? The media is a bit sensationalist when it comes to reporting losses. Yes $130 million is a decent chunk of change, but if you actually read their financial report they aren't doing that badly. This is a tightening of the belt because of past performance, this doesn't indicate they have one foot in the grave already.
#18 Mar 26 2013 at 9:15 AM Rating: Default
I think Final Fantasy XIV is long past the point of having a 'swan song'. It's desperately clawing its way out of the grave.

The name of the game is tainted in the eyes of the typical gamer. It's unlikely that people will be coming out in droves to re-subscribe for the game.

Keep in mind a couple of factors... Nobody but XIV fans really know or care what's going on with XIV right now. Nobody in the west knows who Yoshi-P is.
Keep in mind the typical gamer will see "Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn" and assume it's an expansion (for a game they either did not like, or heard tons of negative things about).

When you consider things like that, free-to-play seems like the safest bet to bring people in (or back in) and get this whole project to start making some cash.

Edited, Mar 26th 2013 11:15am by Killua125
#19 Mar 26 2013 at 9:20 AM Rating: Excellent
You seem to think that F2P is a sustainable model though, when really I think it would turn off most of the fans who have stuck around. I know it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Regardless, when I spoke with Yoshi he is adamant this game will be subscription based, end of story. You can wish for F2P for XIV in one hand and **** in your other and I imagine you know which hand will be full first. I'm tired of this argument popping up in every thread.
#20 Mar 26 2013 at 9:24 AM Rating: Default
It's not my wish that the game goes F2P, it's just my expectation. That is, I would be perfectly content with paying for FFXIV: ARR monthly if it's good enough (and I won't play it even for free if it isn't good enough). The thing is that I just don't know if the average gamer will even give ARR a chance to begin with, and if Square is taking drastic steps to turn their financial situation around, I think we should at least consider the likelihood of a free-to-play model.
#21 Mar 26 2013 at 9:26 AM Rating: Excellent
***
2,153 posts
Killua125 wrote:
Care to explain?
I'm seeing the top Square Enix bigwigs having their salaries cut in half, and the President and CEO resigning.
I just don't know if Square Enix can afford to gamble with XIV if the situation is that dire.
Edited, Mar 26th 2013 10:44am by Killua125

Another cost efficient approach would be to scrap all language versions except for the Japanese one. ^.^/
Your vehement insistance that the "free to try and play a little but fork out major cash as soon as you want
to enjoy features that would be included in a subscription model
" (FtP) approach would bring in more money
in the long run is just a baseless assumption. In FtP games, some players pay triple, while others leech and pay
nothing. Since I would like to enjoy all the features a game has to offer, and since I would not like to be a second
class citizen of the game world, I would have to pay triple. Since I do not want to pay triple, I would not play a FtP
game. And I think my opinion is shared by a significant number of players. Success with an FtP model is just as
much a gamble as with a subscription model.

(...)

Say, did you ever think about how nonsensical it would be for a company to listen to the wishes of players
who want to play for free? I mean, from an economic standpoint that's completely idiotic, isn't it?
#22 Mar 26 2013 at 9:28 AM Rating: Excellent
Problem is a F2P model will get you some cash up front, but it isn't a long term solution. The impression I got is that they are going to keep refining the game after launch to attract new players as well as retain their old ones. Nothing is sacred or off limits in terms of changing, if the fanbase yells loud enough. Not to mention anyone who wants to try the game will get a free few weeks during beta 4, when they will accept anyone who wants to take the time to apply. I don't think you need F2P when you're giving everyone a shot at it up front.
#23 Mar 26 2013 at 9:28 AM Rating: Default
I did not say that I like or want a free-to-play model. I think it can potentially lower the quality of the game. I was simply saying that it's a huge possibility for financial reasons.
#24 Mar 26 2013 at 9:32 AM Rating: Decent
***
2,153 posts
Killua125 wrote:
I did not say that I like or want a free-to-play model. I think it can potentially lower the quality of the game. I was simply saying that it's a huge possibility gamble for financial reasons.

Fair enough.
#25 Mar 26 2013 at 9:43 AM Rating: Excellent
Yoshi P has stated repeatedly that the game will not be F2P on release. He did not discount the possibility at some point in the future, but SE is taking a "wait and see" approach with the more traditional P2P version.

The issue with F2P is that you need extra server resources up front to handle the massive wave of leeches who will never give you a single dime. With modern day scalable cloud architecture it's not as big a deal, but they'd still need to hand over a million dollars to Amazon that first month to avoid a catastrophe like EA's SimCity, only to watch the server population drop in half in two months as the leeches go "oooh shiny" and switch their attention to the newest toy of the month. Little social games from Zynga don't take up much by way of server resources and they're always recycling and redoing the games in the span of 2 years (the average life of a F2P game), so they just keep re-using their servers. SE doesn't have that option and would have to rent server resources to handle the influx.

Forcing people to pay for the game means they're paying for the server space, the server maintenance, and the electricity to run the data center. The cloud is not magic, and the cloud is not free. Even Zynga games toss advertisements at you, something that would be anathema to an immersive MMO game.
#26 Mar 26 2013 at 9:45 AM Rating: Excellent
Honestly I really like Catwho's idea of a F2P model based upon amount of time allowed to be logged in. That way you don't have to rewrite game code to lock down aspects of the game, you really just need to implement a timer Smiley: laugh
« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Reply To Thread

Colors Smileys Quote OriginalQuote Checked Help

 

Recent Visitors: 302 All times are in CST
Anonymous Guests (302)