We’re about to cross the 10th anniversary of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, which originally launched on PC and PlayStation 3 on August 27, 2013. That was the true beginning of the fan-favorite MMO we all love. But to get to that point, the MMO had to go through the failed original release of FFXIV, which launched on September 30, 2010.
In an interview with GameSpot, FFXIV lead producer Naoki Yoshida acknowledged that the original failure taught the team at Creative Business Unit III a great deal. First and foremost, it’s a matter of being honest and open with your community.
“Because the project had failed and we had failed our audience, we lost the trust of that audience,” Yoshida explained. “We lost the trust of the media, and the first thing we had to do was regain that trust before we could rebuild the game. We learned that the best way to rebuild that trust is by being honest and straightforward with what we can do, what we can’t do, why we can’t do it, why we can do it. It’s all about that communication, being open and being honest and showing the player and the fanbase and the media that we can be trusted.”
That is something that FFXIV fans appreciate about the team. They are open about forthcoming changes and the reasons behind them. Between the Lodestone and Live Letters, the FFXIV keeps players apprised of the direction of the game. And that’s before you get into the sheer consistency of FFXIV’s expansions and major patches.
“Learning how important that was in Final Fantasy XIV, we’re able to bring that over into Final Fantasy XVI. We’re trying to be honest with what we’re creating with Final Fantasy XVI, for example, right out of the gate. We could’ve just said, yeah, this game is great, it’s everything you imagined, and try to promote it that way,” said Yoshida.
“But we came out and said, ‘Okay, we’re not an open world.’ That’s one of the first things we said, knowing that a lot of players would be like, ‘What? It’s not an open world?’ But by explaining why we’re not an open world, why we made these decisions and what they bring to the game, hopefully that shows the player that we’re being honest with them and so that they can go into the experience knowing what we are aiming for,” he added. “So when they do get in the game and they try it for themselves, they won’t be surprised. They’ll know exactly what they’re getting.”
FFXIV’s next release will likely be Patch 6.35, which will add the latest Deep Dungeon, Eureka Orthos, and the next set of Tribal Quests. Final Fantasy XVI is planned for release on June 22, 2023 for PlayStation 5.
