The Final Fantasy XIV team got fired

[masterg]

Thank you for your continued interest in and support of FINAL FANTASY XIV.

While more than two months have passed since the official launch of FINAL FANTASY XIV service, we deeply regret that the game has yet to achieve the level of enjoyability that FINAL FANTASY fans have come to expect from the franchise, and for this we offer our sincerest of apologies.

After thorough deliberation on how to meet those expectations, it was decided that the most viable step was to approach improvements under new leadership and with a restructured team.

To realize this vision, and in doing so, provide our customers with a better game experience, we have assembled our company’s top talent and resources. Taking over the role of producer and director is Naoki Yoshida, a passionate individual for whom customer satisfaction has always taken top priority. Not only is he one of our Group’s most accomplished and experienced members, Naoki Yoshida is also a charismatic leader possessing the skill to bring together and effectively helm a team which encompasses a wide range of responsibilities. We also welcome several new leaders handpicked from other projects to work with the existing talent on FINAL FANTASY XIV.

We realize time is of the essence and are fully determined to provide our customers with quality service. It is because of this that we ask our customers to be patient until we are able to confidently present them with a concrete plan outlining FINAL FANTASY XIV’s new direction. The free trial period will be extended until that time.

Regarding the PlayStation 3, it is not our wish to release a simple conversion of the Windows version in its current state, but rather an update that includes all the improvements we have planned. For that reason, we have made the difficult decision to delay the release of the PlayStation 3 version beyond the originally announced date of March 2011.

The FINAL FANTASY XIV team is working hard to bring our customers an unparalleled adventure, and we ask for your continued understanding and support as we march ever diligently towards that goal.

President and CEO, Yoichi Wada

its about time

[zalbard]

Awesome. They deserved it.
Now it might turn into something in a year or two. Guess I will keep an eye on it.
Now if they did the same to Everquest II... Then again it is probably too old to recover.

[El Mano]

This can only happen in Japan.
Can you imagine the CEO of DICE, EA or Ubisoft saying something like this? Not to say Activision/Blizzard.

[Telo]

We realize time is of the essence and are fully determined to provide our customers with quality service. It is because of this that we ask our customers to be patient until we are able to confidently present them with a concrete plan outlining FINAL FANTASY XIV’s new direction. The free trial period will be extended until that time.

Does that mean that we [current paying players] get to play for free now?

[zalbard]

Does that mean that we [current paying players] get to play for free now?

Yes, for a few months by now.

[masterg]

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

PS3 version has been delayed until a good version of ff14 can be created. majority of the new guys are from the ffxi team that just did abyssea iirc. subscription is suspended until ff14 is deemed worthy.

[zanzabar]

i dont see how they even shipped the game, the beta was terrible on everything but story and maybe the combat system. the locations, questing and cities were basically broken, and the game tried to get behind and limit the hard core by limiting xp and questing but all it ended with was making it even harder.

[masterg]

probably because they were like "this game sucks, but we are SE. We are a big company and stand behind what we make and we dont want to delay the game so people dont think theres issues"

or

"we are SE. This is ff14. love it now."

[Telo]

Yes, for a few months by now.

Ahh. Haven't logged on in like 2 months [been too busy at work and school].

[Buckeye]

If they are going to delay the PS3 release for how ever long then get rid of the stupid console control setup and make it a PC UI.

I was in the Beta and thought the game was pretty nice, except for the controls which I really hated and the huge computer requirements to play with graphics turned up.

Later people in my gaming guild who actually started playing passed on how really bad the payment system was for this game.

Then out of those poeple who actually started playing many left as the grinding was just to much.

[masterg]

i havent dealt with the payment system at all yet ^^b i activated got my 30days free then after that its been free free free. hasnt asked for info yet

[FlawleZ]

How do the visuals compare with FFXIII on PS3? I saw XIV at Best Buy the other day and thought about picking it up at the time, but didn't. I really haven't heard much about it since its release.

[Kunaak]

so far its a massive waste of time, all jokes aside, that blahblahblah MMO gaming is always a waste of time, yada yada... no, this, as is, is a massive waste of time.
unless your stuck on a deserted island, any only have this too keep you occupied, you should be able to find a million other ways to do something entertaining.
FF14, in its current state, it makes the Conan MMO seem good.

heres how I would simply describe the game - imagine being in hawaii - mid august, beautiful summer afternoon, your gonna run a marathon there - the winds at your back and all feels perfect.
but your shows are made of metal, and your climbing up a hill thats coverd in butter.

looks great, but everythings just wrong.

[Erdrick1980]

Bring Dragon Warrior online please!!! haha!

[Piotrsama]

Gotta love this quote:

To realize this vision, and in doing so, provide our customers with a better game experience, we have assembled our company’s top talent and resources.

So basically, they accept that they have put some so-so guys on the project until now (in their special-PR-way-of-saying-things)

[NEOAethyr]

Square is very close to going bankrupt.
And I good thing I think, they haven't made a decent game in over 10 years.

[RPGWiZaRD]

They should just stick to doing what they do best, oldschool console rpgs. I've played a FF7 hardtype mod a friend of mine and myself have modded, this game is from 1997 but still entertaining, a shame it's not very mod-friendly though (quickly corrupting when modding using existing tools).

I don't think I've played a great turn-based RPG that's newer than 10 years old now. :s Loved snes and ps1 rpgs. They could at least make up great stories, characters and environments back then, look at what we have now... all RPGs are shallow with no depth in it whatsoever.

[zalbard]

Square is very close to going bankrupt.
And I good thing I think, they haven't made a decent game in over 10 years.

No way, they made a lot of money with their recent titles.

[NEOAethyr]

I recently got my hands on the international, japanese copy of ff7.
SLPS-01057, SLPS-01058, SLPS-01059, SLPS-01060.

The last disk is a bonus disk.
Kind of reminds me of the vhs tape they sent out to certain fans when ff7 came out.
I don't know what happened to mine :\, I remember it being around 40mins long I think.
I do remember getting drunk and puking on the case..., :|, I must of tossed it then lmao (idiot me).

Seems like after that tape came out there were no more fan promo's letters or anything.
I remmember in one of the promo's they talked about a ff game for the snes cdrom, I guess that ended up being secret of mana, so I've heard anyways.

One of the last letters I can remember was about the 1st breath of fire game.
The very last thing they sent to me was that ff7 vhs tape.
I had been getting stuff in the mail from them since ff2 came out in the us on the snes (ff4 with diff end boss compared to the japanese ver).

I haven't really liked them since after ff7.

ff8 I played to the 2nd disk, never beat it, I plan on beating that game someday.
It's not really a good game though as far as I could tell.
Was fun to hack with a gs pro though.

Ff9 I played for 20mins, I won't play that again.
Ffx, I beat, ok story but lame char's and moves, just not enough to that game.

Ff11, I don't like that game at all.
Never played it, but I've watched a few buddies of mine waste a few years of there life on it.
I'de go over a buddies and it would be like, no you can't use the internet(routed setup), waiting for a party, 4 hours later they got there party.
48hrs later they are done with the mission.
Screw that ^^.

ff12, never played.
ff13 I think is on the ps3, my brother has a ps3.
I've heard on that game you can hammer on a single button through the entier game with no strategy at all.
Dont' have that game.

I don't like the style in there games these days anyways.

The last rpg I liked were the xenosaga's, namco games.
Xenogears was bad @ss for the ps1 though, square game.
I want the japanese demo disk for it, I got the us ver and the japanese ver of that game.


Anyways I've read that there stocks are down to 10%.

[FlawleZ]

I bet if Square-Enix just reproduced a replica FFVII on XIII's engine with the updated graphics that it would sell quite well. However we all know that won't happen. Especially seeing as how they've already commented so directly on the issue:

You both worked on Final Fantasy VII, a game very close to my heart! There are always rumours of a possible Final Fantasy VII remake, but would you personally like to see it happen? Do you think a remake is even necessary?

YK: IF it were possible that we had all the right facilities and the right environment to be able to make and prepare a Final Fantasy VII remake within a year, we'd very much like a go at it! But even Final Fantasy XIII has taken over three and a half years to create. If we were to recreate final Fantasy VII with the same level of graphical detail as you see in Final Fantasy XIII, we'd imagine that that would take as much as three or four times longer than the three and a half years it has taken to put this Final Fantasy together! So it's looking pretty unrealistic! But if any such situation came about by any remote chance, then yes, we'd do it!

[NEOAethyr]

FF7 they wouldn't have to change the game up much, port it (better graphics and everything), but not much to the actual gameplay.
If they added a ton of new things story, diff status effect, materia, weapons and enemies, battle commands.
And new maps(towns, caves and whatever).
It would make for awesome game, I'de actually buy it.
Put it on the ps3 where it can be better then the the 360 if done right, plus it would be on the same console as ff13 or whatever it's called.

For people that baught both, well...
Plus there that new online game of ff they are working on, even though I guess most people hate it.

I think the ff legends and whatever they were called in japan, the ones on gb (1st on wsc as well but only in japan and no translation patch).
It would be cool if all 3 of these were totally remade for the ds in english...

They could do quite well if they re-hashed some stuff.


As for there current line up.
I'm not at all interested :\.

I'de rather look at say, konomi, namco, or whataver, heck even snk/playmore could put out a more promising rpg probably even though they haven't done so in a very long time.

Sega is another that can't make good rpg's anymore, I personally think..
I don't like any of the online ones, they have single player modes.
But the games suck, nothing like ps4.

Edit:
Would be nice to see multiplayer battle's on the re-hashed games.
But they did remake anything of any sort, it would likely be some crapy none-rpg side story, something that's probably not even as good as say legacy of kain.
I don't understand why though.
Heck if they re-did ff1 correctly it would sell.
Ps1 ports of the older games were lame I thaught, good idea but bad ports (they had movie scenes but stuff cut out of the code for ff6 at least I know, and nothing new to the actual games).

[Johnny87au]

About time, i use to love playing final fantasy hours on end, always achieving to finish the full 6 disks it seems like the game has gone down hill majorly..

[NEOAethyr]

Square Enix is reporting profits for fiscal 2010 to date are down 76% to a mere $22 million, a change it blames on “more discerning consumers.”

Sales are also down 27.5% to $120 million, with a 58% decrease in operating profit.

Announcing the disastrous figures, Square Enix offered this excuse:

“Consumers have become relentlessly discerning, and the gap between titles which sell and those which don’t is widening. We’ll recover by investing in quality products which will appeal to consumers.”

Needless to say, its stock price is now at the lowest ever in the company’s history.

With a succession of handheld and mobile games all it has scheduled for release, and the poor reception of such “new IP” as NieR and Mindjack, to say nothing of the disaster which is Final Fantasy XIV, it is hard to see any imminent improvement in the company’s financial position.

With the last decade a succession of increasingly dire failures, and that decade also strangely coinciding with the tenure of Yoichi Wada as CEO, it seems increasingly clear only his departure is likely to restore the company to growth.

Sooner or later they're not even gonna have enough money to make a game, let alone host the servers for any type of online experience.
I don't think they have enough to make one of there pre-rendererd movies anymore...

Edit:
And of course nier was gonna fail, it would of as soon as the people found out the game's main char was a trap lol...