FF XI going PC only in North America?

[zurich]

http://www.rpgamer.com/news/Q4-2002/101402a.html

Having recently surpassed the 60% point (120,000 subscribers) on the road to breaking even, Square's Final Fantasy XI seems to be picking up steam. A PC version is set for release in Japan on November 7, and recently, Yoichi Wada, president of Square, has confirmed the game will be available in the United States. Wada did not, however, state exactly where the game would appear, or when.

This vagueness has led to speculation that the game may not end up coming out in North America on the PlayStation 2 at all, but would rather see a PC-exclusive release. This would make sense from a number of standpoints for Square. For one, the company experienced no end of grief upon the game's release when there was insufficient supply of PlayStation 2 broadband adapters to accomodate the market for FFXI. A repeat of this scenario would likely be a costly one for Square, and using pre-existing PC structures would likely be much less of a headache. Secondly, Square has lined up promotions and sponsorships with nVidia and Dell in recent weeks, deals with two of the biggest names in the PC market. While both arrangements remain exclusive to Japan at this point, it will be interesting to see if this decided PC influence has any bearing on the game's North American release.

Whatever the case, nothing aside from what Mr. Wada's general statement offers has been revealed yet. Even though Square showed Final Fantasy XI at E3 this year, it did not state that the game would be coming to North America, at least not officially. In this light, Mr. Wada's comments should be viewed as good news. According to GamePro.com, Square president Yoichi Wada stated that the PC version of their MMORPG Final Fantasy XI, which releases in Japan on November 7th, will be coming to the U.S. However, no concrete plans were laid for a U.S. release. The game originated on the PlayStation 2; it's been available in Japan since March. FFXI appeared at May's E3 show in L.A. -- on display in Sony's booth -- but no plans were ever announced to bring the game to the U.S. As time passes, the release of the PS2 version seems ever more unlikely.

This is a very compelling argument which I'm pretty much in agreement with. Sony's American HD strategy is non-existant, and unless Square drastically recodes the game or requires 2 32 meg memory cards, I dont see it happening here.

From what I understand, the game itself is far from special too. Pretty much MMORPG cookie-cutter with Moogles and Chocobos. I never could figure out how Square planned to take their story & character driven epics online in a persistent world. Sort of a contradiction

PCs fine for me I spose. Makes reading text easier anyway

zurich

 

[Mr. Angry Pants]

Even though I don't give two craps about this game, Microsoft should go for the jugular and get this puppy Xboxed.

 

[zurich]

Square would rather die than run it under anything but PlayOnline

zurich

 

[Mr. Angry Pants]

You mean they would rather not make money than run it on anything but PlayOnline. I smell Japanese nationalism...

 

[Johnny Awesome]

The fiasco continues.

The funny thing is that FFXI probably would have sold about 100,000 copies on Xbox in Japan, and that's IF they didn't move some hardware in the process. Square has really missed their opportunity I think.

 

[marconelly!]

Square has really missed their opportunity I think

So you don't think they will get over 200K users with the PC release in Japan, USA and Europe (that is, even if they don't release it on PS2)?

Btw, I think Sony execs would rather die than allow FF series to be ported to Xbox, but I guess that should have been clear to everyone by now.

 

[Logan Leonhart]

The fiasco continues.

The funny thing is that FFXI probably would have sold about 100,000 copies on Xbox in Japan, and that's IF they didn't move some hardware in the process. Square has really missed their opportunity I think.

Well, you do know that FFXI would take up about 4 gigs of the tiny HDD inside Xbox?

 

[zurich]

Logan,

I think that the ENTIRE game needs to be RW, I'm sure a good chunk of it can happily live on the DVD. The PS2 HD is 40 gigs, so I expect Square thought "what the hell...".

Still, the Xbox would have been the best platform for FF XI, no doubt. HD, voice chat, broadband... PC aint a bad 2nd ;P

zurich

 

[V3]

FFXI, is bad, don't waste your money on it.

 

[archie4oz]

Microsoft should go for the jugular and get this puppy Xboxed.

How would they go about doing that? It's not like it's their decision to make...

You mean they would rather not make money than run it on anything but PlayOnline. I smell Japanese nationalism...

As opposed to American nationalism?

The funny thing is that FFXI probably would have sold about 100,000 copies on Xbox in Japan, and that's IF they didn't move some hardware in the process. Square has really missed their opportunity I think.

Please tell me you're joking!

Still, the Xbox would have been the best platform for FF XI, no doubt. HD, voice chat, broadband...

HD, voice chat, broadband...? How does that make Xbox the 'best' platform considering the PS2 has already been doing that for a while now (instead of RSN)...?

 

[Mr. Angry Pants]

How would they go about doing that? It's not like it's their decision to make...

Gee, I don't know. I was thinking maybe Bill Gates could perform sexual favors for the Squaresoft board of investors. What do you think?

...Money. Money... More money. Got it?

As opposed to American nationalism?

Maybe it's just the sleep deprivation, but where did that even come from? It's no secret that the Japanese hold some animosity towards the Xbox for being a foreign made product. But I don't see where American nationalism comes into the equation.

 

[marconelly!]

...Money. Money... More money. Got it?

Well, it's not like they didn't tried.

I mean, come on, Sony owns part of that company, and it's not like they got in against's Square's will.

 

[archie4oz]

Maybe it's just the sleep deprivation, but where did that even come from? It's no secret that the Japanese hold some animosity towards the Xbox for being a foreign made product.

Japanese holding animosity against Xbox for being a foreign made product (hence the Japanese nationalism?) just sounds like a poor excuse by somebody who wants to push the blame away from Xbox or MS itself for it's poor sales (in Japan that is).

The fact is that there's thousands of 'foreign' products that do well in Japan, and there's thousands that do not. Xbox is just one of those that isn't doing so hot (relative to expectations, and necessities).

But I don't see where American nationalism comes into the equation.

Silly excuses deserve silly responses...

I mean, come on, Sony owns part of that company, and it's not like they got in against's Square's will.

Well it's not quite that simple... After all, even I own part of the company (and so did Nintendo at one time), but that doesn't mean they're going to dictate where you develop.

 

[zurich]

HD, voice chat, broadband...? How does that make Xbox the 'best' platform considering the PS2 has already been doing that for a while now (instead of RSN)...?

Not in North America (which was the point)

zurich

 

[Mr. Angry Pants]

Japanese holding animosity against Xbox for being a foreign made product (hence the Japanese nationalism?) just sounds like a poor excuse by somebody who wants to push the blame away from Xbox or MS itself for it's poor sales (in Japan that is).

\

Ah, but I never said anything about sales of hardware did I? I'm actually one of the few people who's taken notice of the spikes in sales of Xbox hardware every time a half decent game is released for it.

Specificly about Japanese animosity/apathy (perhaps a more fitting word) towards the Xbox for being foreign, that is straight from the horse's mouth in a review of Tekki made by a Japanese member of IGN.

Microsoft KK (Japanese division) is mostly to blame for the Xbox's struggeling sales, but after decades of seeing how Japanese developers look down their noses at the American gaming public, I can't help but to pull the nationalistic card.

Notions of Racial and Cultural Superiority, I choose you!

 

[bbot]

The sales of Xboxes is HORRIBLE, I mean like 1000 to 3000 units sold per week, with the best being about 5000. I mean, something definitely worng is going on there. It could be that there so little titles available for the Xbox in Japan. I actually looked at the Japanese Xbox website, and was horrified the how little titles there were. I suspect for Japanese consumers to want to buy Xboxes, there has to alot of games to choose from. But the developers must be willing to make games for the platorm. And that's where the problem, I think lies. From what I have read, Microsoft has thrown around alot of money to get developers to write games for the Japanese market. But developers are still reluctant. Probably because Microsoft is a PC software company, they are skeptical. I honestly don't know how MS will overcome this skepticism.

 

[zurich]

Hmm, another thought. How the heck is Verant going to pull off SWG on PS2 without a hard disk? I mean, just the nature of an MMORPG kind of warrants one, let alone a VERANT MMORPG (ie: buggy, constant patching, etc).

Anyone have any ideas?

zurich

 

[Johnny Awesome]

It'll probably get cancelled for PS2.

 

[zurich]

You mean that the game is dependent on the PS2 HD, and if the HD gets cancelled then all MMORPGs get cancelled?

That'll piss quite a few developers off.

zurich

 

[Mr. Angry Pants]

It's not going to be exactly like the original Everquest. Isn't it more of an action/RPG now?

Maybe they'll rip-off PSO.