Square Enix Apologies for Final Fantasy XIV [19/10]

[王 Yoshida]

Square Enix have at last admitted that Final Fantasy XIV is a broken game. So much so that anyone who brought the game before the 25th of October will have 60 days free trial instead of 30.

To anyone who has tried to play Final Fantasy XIV the fact that the game is broken is not a surprise but Square Enix admitting it, was unexpected, but very much welcome.

"We would like to assure players that the world of FINAL FANTASY XIV is constantly growing and evolving, and the voices of the community are essential to that process. The development and management teams are carefully considering all player feedback, and working diligently to implement whatever changes and additions will serve to make Eorzea a better home for adventurers. We humbly ask for your continued support to this end."

Free Trial Extension Details

- Eligibility
Only customers who have registered FINAL FANTASY XIV service account and purchased a character by Oct. 25, 2010 will be eligible for the extension of the free trial period. Customers purchasing their first character after that date will be entitled to the standard 30 day free trial period only.

* Character purchase must be done by 23:59 (GMT) on Oct. 25, 2010 / 00:59 BST on Oct.26, 2010.
* Accounts that have been terminated due to violation of the User Agreement are not eligible.
* If multiple service accounts are registered, all service accounts will be eligible.

- Extended Period
The free trial period will be extended by 30 Days (By combining with the initial free trial period, the total will be 60 days.)

* Both the end date of free trial period and billing start date will be extended automatically. There is no change or update that needs to be done manually. A Reminder Notice will be issued before the billing start date.
* Despite the length of the contract period that was selected, whether it be 30 days, 60 days, or 180 days, the extended period will remain 30 days for all eligible players.
After the extended free trial period has come to an end, billing will be processed based on the selected contract period.
* Even in cases where auto-renewable options have been disabled, the free trial period will be extended and players will be allowed to play FINAL FANTASY XIV until the new end date of free trial period.
* Even if you have already received the notification mail on the end of free trial period and the schedule on monthly fee billing, the extension of free trial period will apply.
* The process of extension of the free trial period within the Square Enix Account Management System is scheduled to take place on Oct. 19, 2010. An announcement will be made once the process is complete.
* After the free trial period is extended, the new billing start date will become available on the Square Enix Account Management System.


-Add Because of Fleur request!-
Here is the source
http://www.incgamers.com/News/25624/square-enix-apologies-for-final-fantasy-xiv

 

[Hatifnatten]

just dump that online shit and develop normal games.

 

[Ayen]

Well you know what they say, admitting you have a problem is the first step to fixing it. Maybe they can start turning things around from here on out. I can't really say much about Final Fantasy XIV because I haven't played it, and won't because I'm just not interested in MMO, but the company that made the game saying it's a broken game does speak volumes to me.

 

[Demon]

Well you know what they say, admitting you have a problem is the first step to fixing it. Maybe they can start turning things around from here on out. I can't really say much about Final Fantasy XIV because I haven't played it, and won't because I'm just not interested in MMO, but the company that made the game saying it's a broken game does speak volumes to me.

I disagree. I think that Square thought that their games were probably good before releasing them, and then started to see the reception. XIV's being particularly hard to ignore.

So if Square thought they made a great product, they should just try to stick up for it. The problem is that you'll have a whole bunch of people taking their business away if you don't follow their wishes.

Other than that, I don't have much to say. I'm not really sticking up for Square either, I'm just offering an alternative point of view because you know, a game like XIII I personally loved, and then I see Square themselves not being able to stick up for it.

 

[Ayen]

I disagree. I think that Square thought that their games were probably good before releasing them, and then started to see the reception. XIV's being particularly hard to ignore.

So if Square thought they made a great product, they should just try to stick up for it. The problem is that you'll have a whole bunch of people taking their business away if you don't follow their wishes.

Other than that, I don't have much to say. I'm not really sticking up for Square either, I'm just offering an alternative point of view because you know, a game like XIII I personally loved, and then I see Square themselves not being able to stick up for it.

I'm not entirely sure which part of my post you were disagreeing with, but let me clarify: what I meant was if Square Enix actually finds themselves carefully considering fans criticism then something must be up with the game (hence: problem) they produced to cause so many people to hate it in the first place. So now I'm hoping whatever the problem is they can turn things around and make a going of it because the last thing I want to see is Final Fantasy going down the toilet because for whatever reason the majority of people are finding something they hate about the recent installments.

That said I actually thought the reception of Final Fantasy XIV was somewhat divided unless there have been developments I missed.

 

[Demon]

I'm not entirely sure which part of my post you were disagreeing with

Now that you mention it, I guess I was just reading between the lines.

what I meant was if Square Enix actually finds themselves carefully considering fans criticism then something must be up with the game (hence: problem) they produced to cause so many people to hate it in the first place.

Not necessarily. Though a good motto might be "the customer is always right", sometimes they aren't. For example, someone might not know how to use an electronic and they'll take it to customer service and have to tell them it's broken, when it's not.

So now I'm hoping whatever the problem is they can turn things around and make a going of it because the last thing I want to see is Final Fantasy going down the toilet because for whatever reason the majority of people are finding something they hate about the recent installments.

I assume you're talking about, at the very least, XIV and XIII. So:

1. Well yeah, XIV got bad reception.

2. XIII, I think, is generally liked. I think the number of people who dislike it is still the minority. It's just not really "as liked" as previous games.

 

[王 Yoshida]

I think its good what they doing,by fixing up things,because thats just the launch of the PC version ,the real launch fer me will be the PS3 launch!So they can take their time by fixing up things !

 

[Gingerbread Lesbian]

I no longer have any intention of purchasing Final Fantasy XIV, if they can't even churn out a decent game on the PC, which should comfortably be the superior system, especially for a MMORPG then they haven't got a chance in hell of me buying it on the PS3.

To me it just seems like Square-Enix have no direction whatsoever, they've had to apologise for their last two major releases, and rightfully so. I'm not surprised in the slightest FFXIV mucked up, there were far too many people having problems with the beta and that was like 3/4 weeks before the release. What I do like about Final Fantasy XIV however is that pretty graphics have fucked Square-Enix over, they already limited numbers due to the specs needed and the ones who can run it can't run it properly or just hate the game.

Again, they rightfully had to apologise for Final Fantasy XIII. Their first current-gen main IP title and first main IP title for 4 years and they cocked it up. Before the game was released Wada said they could have done better then in the recently announced interview they basically said "Hey, we got all these western players to give us feedback who didn't like certain aspects of the game but we included it anyway!!" and "Oh, by the way gaiz, we didn't have a specific direction so we patched the game together!!!"

Final Fantasy Versus XIII is essentially a do or die game.

 

[Martel]

Well, that is considerate of them. Can we have an apology for FFXIII now?

In any case, it was doubtful I was going to buy FFXIV anyway, because I'm not keen on paying a subscription for games...plus its on PC, with the PS3 version being massively delayed. I may consider getting the PS3 version - I'd hope they'd have sufficient time between now and March to fix the bugs. Although given their recent performance, this seems rather unlikely...

 

[Rey]

Now that final fantasy XIV failed for PC ike Ryan said I dont think they have a chance at all to make the ps3 version a different or better game. In general here the pc might be more superior for MMORPG's. Therefore the ps3 version will fail. Do not think I will be buying it at all anymore. But hey lets see the ps3 version first. I know it will fail but I am curious to look.

 

[Amizon]

How can you exactly say that FFXIV will fail on the PS3 when it hasn't even been released yet? Besides, Square-Enix can dish out all the apologies they want and yet still produce some pretty good games. So it might not be perfect on the PC, but you can't turn around and say it'll be the same on PS3.

 

[Linnaete]

SE still have a chance (though a very slim one) of turning things round for the PS3 version and try and get some of the most annoying aspects of the PC version's interface worked out and ironed, but they're not going to manage to sort out the more serious of FFXIV's problems at all. We don't know for certain whether or not the PS3 version will also be as negatively received, but it's rather likely that it will. There's only so much SE can do between now and March and it could take a lot to sufficiently improve this. Bear in mind also that the PC version should be the better indicator of the quality of this game as an MMO should logically work better on a PC than a console.

The way I see it, FFXIV could have likely been a rushed job. I can't know this for certain, but it's the way I see it so far. The team had experience behind FFXI already as well as experience developing for these two formats - or were supposed to. How wrong could it go? WoW: Cataclysm is on the horizon and it's possible they were pushing to release it quickly before Blizzard gets another big grip at the (already oversaturated) MMO market. It's also a similar story to FFXIII. Pretty visuals masking a gameplay with limitations in gameplay, except that FFXIII actually lacks the various interface problems that FFXIV has based on the implications I get from many of the reviews. I also get the impression of some laziness in some areas. The copy and paste landscape features and the races being some of them.

Oh, and Yoshida - where is the source on this?

 

[Alexis Malaware]

I find the amount of fanboy hate on the new Final Fantasy games in general to be astounding. Final Fantasy 14 is having a rocky start, so did 11 and that have been entertaining players for the past nine years. It's true that every week Final Fantasy 14 sales are going down but one bad game is hardly anything to apologize for. Unless we forget just how much money Final Fantasy 13, irregardless of all the hate hardcore fanboys are giving it, made. $$$$ > bad reviews This is afterall how Michael Bay is staying in business.

 

[B-l-ackstage]

FLOP FF and flop apologizes, they thought the fans could just eat any shit they would come out with.

 

[Gingerbread Lesbian]

Unless we forget just how much money Final Fantasy 13, irregardless of all the hate hardcore fanboys are giving it, made. $$$$ > bad reviews

This is exactly the problem. This is exactly why Square-Enix have gone from being one of the most well respected developers to where there are now. This is why the Japanese market is dying and this is why western titles are now far more established in the current market.

Square-Enix are about money and style of substance.

 

[Abstract Debauchery]

How can you exactly say that FFXIV will fail on the PS3 when it hasn't even been released yet? Besides, Square-Enix can dish out all the apologies they want and yet still produce some pretty good games. So it might not be perfect on the PC, but you can't turn around and say it'll be the same on PS3.

Because it's going to be the same exact game. However, with the PS3, you're going to experience inferior graphics, inferior performance, and quite possibly inferior gameplay. If PC owners and PS3 owners are going to be playing on the same server, PS3 players will never be able to win in PvP.

The only thing that I will say will probably be better on the PS3 is the interface, and even then, I wouldn't put money on it. If they can fuck up the interface that badly in the PC version, I can't imagine just how bad it will be on the PS3.

 

[Steve-O]

i have just found out why i don't play final fantasy mmo's

square enix stick to making single player rpg's your much better at making them

when you do....... kingdom hearts 3 please

 

[Tmoo]

I find the amount of fanboy hate on the new Final Fantasy games in general to be astounding.

Thank you for saying what I was thinking. The amount of bias-induced rage I see is almost comical. XIV has a ton of flaws if what I've read is correct, but the hate on it is disproportionately larger than if it were another IP. SE is even apologizing, giving benefits to those who've bought the game and have said they will make an effort to fix said problems and what's the response? More hate, cynicism, and slander.

 

[ANGRYWOLF]

People have lost faith in Square.

I am not sure what could bring it back.Maybe is they rehired Matsuno and Sakaguichi it might help.
shrugs.But even that might not be enough.They need a tour de force, a can't miss game, a home run of a game.
Maybe Versus will be it.

 

[coffeecup]

That's what happens when your beta test is two weeks long. They should have just pushed back the release date and extended the beta period.