Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada says the poorly received Final Fantasy XIV has done a lot of damage to the famous series' reputation.
Back in May, Square Enix published a lengthy list of planned updates to improve the game following its bug-riddled launch last September.
Wada said today on the subject: "We'll continue with our reform work, which basically amounts to fully redoing the game, and hope to revive the FFXIV that should have been released."
The Final Fantasy series hit 100 million unit sales worldwide earlier this year.
Comments
17 comments so far...
justforkicks101 on 27 Sep '11 said:
true
Willypiggy on 27 Sep '11 said:
I actually bought this for £4 on amazon a few days ago, I played the beta and the only thing that really annoyed me is how everything is so over complicated. That and the fact you couldn't keybind stuff like open inventory you had to open a menu then click inventory but they've fixed that, it seems they are working to make it loads better than it was at launch but it's still 6+ months away from competing with anything else on the market.
flash501 on 27 Sep '11 said:
XIII hasn't done it any favours either!
Skarfester on 27 Sep '11 said:
Make XI or XIV free to play and i'll come back and play them again.
robertboekee on 27 Sep '11 said:
If they need to redeem themselves then they should remake VII, it could be incredible!
ChongShin on 27 Sep '11 said:
this series hasn't been very good since 7 or 8. you're a little slow, square.
boonattack on 27 Sep '11 said:
the series dropped its standards after 10 in my eyes, x-2 was an abomination, 11 was online so i ignored it like all other mmos, 12 was too much like an online game for my liking... finally 13... was ok, but we all know it had major flaws. The idea of making 14 online, IMO, was borderline idiotic. Sure, MMOs are a excellent money maker, but in a series which desperately needed a breath of fresh air, Square chose the wrong time for a 2nd online outing.
XIII-2 looks alright, but despite enjoying XIII, it didnt make me want a sequel or anything else to do with the characters, leading me to believe that the execs at square have well and truly lost the plot.
They should know where the money is waiting, they have remade all of them up to 6 i believe? 7 needs a strong remake - but, like many fans of 7 - i dont believe they could pull it off well. However, FF15, unless somehow it becomes an amazing game with something new and especially appealing (perhaps a cross-over of some of the previous games?) it will not do anything to revive what can now only be described as a dying series.
Therefore, I say go for it, do the best damn job on a 7 remake they can, wether it lives up to expectations (unlikely as we all have very high ones) or not, they still make a huge profit. If its succesful, hey the interest in the series may be renewed, if its unsuccesful - then let FF be for a while, take it back to the drawing board and spend around 5 years putting together the next.
lordirongut on 27 Sep '11 said:
XIV had a very rough start, but that Square has kept at it and not just switched it off outright is pretty admirable in and of itself - and the game now compared to launch is so much improved that it's barely even the same game at all. I still maintain the belief that if they keep improving it then it can be one of the best MMOs on the market.
I don't think that XIII was as bad as people make out, either. While there are genuine grievances (the relentless linearity, the marmite characters &c), much of the hate aimed at it is bandwagon hate or token hate from the old-timers who don't like change. XII also, was, in terms of gameplay, one of the best Final Fantasies, but people loathed it when it came out with a passion. It also had one of the best plotlines - it took some following but it was one of the deepest and most epic Final Fantasies, even if its main character was pointless.
XIII-2 is Square's way of putting together some money at minimal risk. They can reuse textures, models and whatnot from the original and make a new, epic game without the spectacular cost of XIII. If they're lucky, Type-0 and Versus XIII will do well, too. Square know they need to play it safe for the moment and they are - finishing current projects and making use of what is already there. A big-budget FFVII remake wouldn't be the way to go.
budge on 27 Sep '11 said:
I'm just about to play what i think is one of the best Final Fantasies, FFXII. Now if i can just remember what casks not to open for that prized Zodiac Spear....
sweatyBallacks on 27 Sep '11 said:
I agree with this completely.
It seems the guys at the top at Square exist in a mad world, as the company goes to hell with plummeting profits each year.
It's clear to everyone that a re-make of FF7 would lift them out the mire. Seeing as they want to appeal to the Western gamer, I can't think of a better idea than to remake 7, as it was the game that introduced a whole generation of Western gamers to FF, including myself, so could be hugely popular.
Any more sequels are likely to see mediocre sales worldwide, as gamers just see the name Final Fantasy and another obscure Roman numeral at the end of it. A remake of 7 is all that is needed.
We've all become bloody confused. Not least with them releasing single player and mmo Final Fantasy's using the same bloody name. Marketing disaster. What was the last single player FF? FF11?? And why do they continue this confusion with making sequels to sequels, like 'X-2'. WHAT??
Mad world of Square Japan.
lordirongut on 27 Sep '11 said:
A VII remake would be an enormous risk, one which they could not possibly win with. If they remade it totally with new mechanics and gameplay, then the best-case scenario would be that they p**sed off their entire fanbase. That's if they made it well, and there'd be no guarantee of that. If they took a thoroughly traditionalist approach, touching nothing but the graphics (the route I'd certainly want them to take), then the fans would be happy but it would be too retro to actually make money, especially if they made it to the graphical standard of XIII. A VII remake is a bad idea whichever way you cut it.
Everyone also vastly overestimates the hate on Final Fantasy at the moment. Look at XIII - it's considered even by people who like the game to be at best a middling Final Fantasy but withing two months of its European and American launches it had sold 6.2 million worldwide, and that figure doesn't count whoever bought it afterwards. The people who complain on the internet represent probably less than a percent of the people who played that game. XIII-2 will sell at least as well as XIII. Plus, consider the positive press it's getting - it's very clear to anyone that the developers have addressed the concerns of the original and fixed them.
I agree that XI and XIV should not have been numbered but X-2 and XIII-2 make sense. You can't have years of naming tradition by making new worlds with each numeral and no continuity besides Chocobos and then screw it over by making a numeral the sequel to a numeral. THAT would confuse everyone.
Sammy_bham on 27 Sep '11 said:
You'll find though
not many people want a COMPLETE ff7 remake, just an upgraded, HD version.
thats all
I dont want voice acting (all recent voice actng has been terrible anyway), dont want 3d backgrounds, dont want new things added, and definitly dont want anything taken away.
just improve the graphics / make it HD.
IT will sell more then any FF since 9. Guranteed.
Its almost such an obvious super money maker, its stupid they havent done it yet.
and as per the article, the ff fan base has dwindled. and squar enix's reputation has taken a big knock, this could be the thing to win back the hardcore and new fans.
im sure a lot of people are with me on this.
Beetle Bum on 28 Sep '11 said:
THE DAMAGE BEGAN WITH FINAL FANTASY 10
budge on 28 Sep '11 said:
In your opinion and one that i vastly disagree with. I thought that FFX was a bloody marvellous game to play.
Volomon on 28 Sep '11 said:
Damn right, they haven't been doing good period.
ladycroft142 on 30 Sep '11 said:
Final Fantasy X was really Square Enix's last warmly received title with X-2 coming under fire for being too girly, I enjoyed it but I can see why gamers expecting something along the lines of X would be disappointed. XI was understandably less appealing due to the series unfamiliarity with the MMORPG formula while XII and XIII lacked the crucial element of fun due to their passive combat system. They really should have held back the release of XIV until they were able to release a game both they and their fans would be happy with. All we can hope for is that their future releases will live up to the lofty heights of the Final Fantasy’s of old or that Square will give those old titles, namely VII and VIII, the remake treatment and give everybody what they really want.
tebian on 10 Oct '11 said:
Not true at all. Wada is blaming the new online game for all the delays of 13 ? or that Versus is 6 years in the making ? No Square has serious problems and they start with that man and not some MMO that most of the fans would not have played nor cared about, just like FF11. Square's problems start from the top and the long time fans have had it with lies. Wada how many Japanese sent you nasty notes when you lied about ff13 "never being on the 360" in your own country ?
Final Fantasy 14 could have been a good game if they had not had the beta and listen to all the whiners from FF11 who wanted just an update HD version of their game. Had they left 14 semi turned based and many other innovative things it had as one project it would not have been the Frankenstein that ppl got. Later after the game was in its original form it could have been changed, but no we listen to whiners and now WADA has become the chief of the waaa waa club.