Catwho wrote:
Dallie wrote:
It is technically the beginning of the sunset of this game, it's just being dragged out over the course of a couple of years. The fact they're eliminating 2/3 of the multi-platform support tells me that there will be news later this year of server merges. However, the remaining PC players will certainly see improved graphics, UI and so forth since the PS2 won't be 'holding' the game back any longer. They most certainly didn't come right out and say it, but the implication was there during the announcements that FFXI is going into modified maintenance mode.
I believe some folks were hoping for an expansion announcement to come with this press conference, though I suppose y'all might get to see some of the undiscovered parts of Vana'diel through the Rhapsodies events. At least they have made a commitment to providing new content for at least another year to two years, so that's promising that the final shutdown wouldn't even be on the horizon until 2017.
I'm not trying to be a negative nancy or anything, just how it looks from someone who no longer plays and has seen multiple MMOs' downslide and shutdown. Sad as it is, all good things must eventually come to an end.
They're ending 2/3 of the platform support, but I think at this point those two combined supplied less than 10% of the players. The remaining PS2 player base for FFXI died with the Seekers expansion (all 5 of them) and the hardware is seriously beginning to show its age. Sony, too, probably gave them a warning that PS2 support itself is going to end in the next year or two - that the PSN servers will be disconnected and no more games can be routed through it after that.
I too suspect SE's decision is in part being driven by Sony, but I'm also sure that SE have looked at the console player numbers and figured that sad it is may be they [SE] could no longer use resources to carry on.
One thing I am sure about, unlike developers such as Turbine and Zenimax, I have no cynical views of Square Enix, especially in the light of how they handled the FFXIV 1.0 debacle, so I think they're genuinely trying to plot a path where they can continue to support the game for as long as there are enough players who still want it.
Personally I've never played an MMO that came to its natural end .. one of two clearly crashed and burned .. but however long FFXI may continue after November this year SE seem to be seriously trying to make it memorable and I applaud them for that, rather than just posting the 30-day closure notice other dead MMOs have had.
Am I being naive? Possibly, FFXI was my 'first' and even though some aspects of it are the antithesis of what I enjoy in MMOs .. forced grouping simply to level, the level-capping of old, etc. .. I have continued playing since '05, with a few months break here, a couple of months break there, and will do so likely until FFXI sails off into the sunset, following the course SE have mapped today.