I Know We Said This Game Was Dying Before But....

They did multiple times make it clear no major updates soon. Then again common sense would tell you something this old and the population not as big as before the end times in major updates will happen no matter what. Who knows maybe it will be free to play once they stop major updates all together. It's like getting mad at runescape or anything that is 10 years plus. Let alone as much as 14 is meh it's making them money so clearly SE will be focused on the money maker. At the same time I wish SE would make this free to play because updates are finally slowing down. But they want to extend this out as much as possible because I'm sure they do not want this to be free to play.

I'm reminded of this thread.

New battles would be cool and all, but the biggest issues are job imbalance, unfinished pieces (Job Points, Monstrosity) and shrinking inventory.

If more than a small handful of jobs were worthwhile/fun, we'd have far more to do with what already exists than we do right now.
And if we had more inventory, we could pursue all of these jobs.

We don't know all of the barriers that exist between SE and a great FFXI, but I suspect the two biggest are incompetence and disinterest. Time and money aren't, yet.

I am one of those lol I'll still be playing without new ***

I agree with most of this but from a corporate stand point 14 makes them more money.

I don't have direct insight, but I'd wager it also costs them more. And the ebb and flow of subscription cancellations between expansions seems more extreme from what I've read of 14.

But, more importantly, a restaurant doesn't say:
We're making more selling cheeseburgers than chicken sandwiches. Clearly, we would make more money if we just made cheeseburgers.

Diversifying revenue streams is important for any budget. Putting all of one's eggs into one basket is unwise.

If you were correct we would be seeing much more things in place and obvious major updates to help improve and keep people going. Possibly even a new expansion hence requires money.

idk man the most popular burger places don't sell chicken sandwiches and have actually rather small menus

There aren't many articles written about SE as an investment. The most recent I could find was from January.

Three points of particular interest:

• Compared to peers, relative underperformance over the last year is in contrast with the more recent outperformance.

• Over the last five years, SQNXF-US‘s return on assets has improved from median to better than the median among its peers, suggesting the company has found relative operating advantages.

• The company’s capital investment program suggests it is under-investing in a business that is producing peer median returns.

What this says to me is, at least as of 6mo ago, SE was looking to improve its profits by cutting back on spending. Success through less investment is a short-term game. True of a company as a whole, or a game in particular.

I'm not saying I'm all that and a bag of chips, but my opinions aren't without thought.

Yeah, I thought about that too, before submitting. We have this fantastic place here called Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Amazing burgers. But, if anyone in the group doesn't want a burger, this place isn't even in the running for that day.
On the flip side, we have Wendy's... My son loves their chicken nuggets. My wife likes their burgers. I like their chicken sandwiches. And I've been told their salads are good, too.

I can't say which of these are strongest now, as far as profits go. But, looking into the future, Wendy's has a far greater position for continued success.
If something happens to make burgers fall out of favor, the singular menu sinks the ship.

True and if they were focused on improving and making something last like this we would see something. Even if it wasn't released for 6 months. The point of something to last is keep them coming for more not little once a month campaigns. I understand you want to think and believe they are sitting everyday with a group working hard on this game to bring new exciting things. But the evidence with their actions tell a much different story and truth.

Totally agree with you.

Agree with everything except star wars. Its a RIP off a new hope

YES!!!!

In N Out also is expanding much faster than any of the mixed places.

Also have to remember specialization has benefits as well. Also this is murica burger >>>> chicken

I'm not quite sure why we're looking at my example so closely as to why SE shouldn't be choking XI out of oxygen, but...

Chick-fil-A

Chicken is incredibly popular, even in the most 'murica parts of America. This is a chain focused solely on chicken items, but the perspective you carry illustrates why a singular menu can quickly become a weakness.

To quote one of my favorite movies of all time, Thank You for Smoking:

Nick Naylor: OK, let's say that you're defending chocolate, and I'm defending vanilla. Now if I were to say to you: 'Vanilla is the best flavour ice-cream', you'd say...
Joey Naylor: No, chocolate is.
Nick Naylor: Exactly, but you can't win that argument... so, I'll ask you: so you think chocolate is the end all and the all of ice-cream, do you?
Joey Naylor: It's the best ice-cream, I wouldn't order any other.
Nick Naylor: Oh! So it's all chocolate for you is it?
Joey Naylor: Yes, chocolate is all I need.
Nick Naylor: Well, I need more than chocolate, and for that matter I need more than vanilla. I believe that we need freedom. And choice when it comes to our ice-cream, and that Joey Naylor, that is the defintion of liberty.

And just because I'm curious, I looked up some data on In-N-Out.

It isn't expanding East...

But only because it doesn't want to burn out its brand.

To me, this shows that if you are really keyed-in to your customer base, you can certainly be wildly successful because you can provide exactly what they want precisely where they are.
Considering the customer experience shared at the Offical Forums, we know SE will never achieve this.

Hey man, how did we go from discussing things to do in FFXI to successful fast food chains?

Fine, I'll post a relevant pic then. Real life Final Fantasy XI food!

Even if you hated the movie, that review was one of the most painfully awful series of fail arguments I've ever seen.

Anything is better than the three whatevers Lucas released prior to admitting he didn't know what he was doing and sold out to Disney. I totally understand that the most recent release was very similar in form and scope of New Hope, but I think that was the point.
It literally is a new hope for Star Wars fans, a victory lap of nostalgia and a strong foundation for what must be original ideas going forward. I encourage anyone that took offense to The Force Awakens to withhold final judgement until the next film comes out.

After all, Rogue One was awesome.

Oh I wasn't meaning SE itself. Just saying it's not universal that more choices are always better.

There are pros and cons. In a realm of no other choices yes more freedom is better in a realm of competition specialization allows for more a focus on that one thing to deliver hopefully something better for the customer. Let's say for the sake of argument (and also because it's generally too at least once you take out the issues like crazy lines and price point) that someone wanting a burger would much rather go to In N out than place that offers chicken too and that a person wanting a chicken sandwich would much rather Chik. By diversifying you got neither customer base and instead got the ones in mixed company that want both at the same time... and even then that sometimes wont work as the quality drops enough they wouldn't eat there regardless. Though Wendy's still makes great burgers.

On the other hand how well do you think a fast food place that basically combines all the food types would do lol?

But to bring it back to SE and ffxi there's a difference between targeting certain customer bases and ditching currently paying customer base. Not only that but some of your most diehard and loyal customers. Especially for the game that well for a long *** time bled money

Like one famous pirate said: "There is no distinction between online life and real life. You can only be away from keyboard but never actually quit."

FFXI is going slowly into hibernation. It's like 16? this year? It's on a long term care plan now with life support. It's still a cash cow and still make decent money for minimal cost but not a growing piece of the revenue base.

FFXI remake isn't going to be the game like the current one. They will have to reinvent the wheel and hopefully attract a fresh blood. The dynamics would be very very different than both FF11 and FF14. They will have the catch the next 'wave' of trent. FF11 was Everquest with DnD spirit while FF14 is the new WoW spirit with open-world feeling.

Hopefully, they won't be going down the DOTA route or Overwatch route. It's not out of the realm of possibility though. There is a strong shift from the old 'dice-roll' RPG into more quick action and skill based PvP/PvE amount the younger generation. I haven't seen any strong come-back of the old RPG. Only the old niche crowd seem to like them.

I looked at SE financials. I'm not a pro but it seems like a 'meh' company. It's not a risky company and it does have some growth recently but I wouldn't want to bet too much into it. There are better companies out there in the gaming community.

It lost money in 2013 so that's the hit from FF14 but has been growing since so I guess FF14 wasn't that bad but they had been branching out a lot since FF14 days.

It is at the point where it can explore its next cash cow though. They seem to have enough cash to absorb another FF14.

That was kind of the point, lol.

That's exactly what Chic-Fil-A did.

And McDonalds. They lowered their menu (near the beginning) to things that sold the most.