Will FFXIV ever be played on PS3...

[Aeni]

Re: Will FFXIV ever be played on PS3...

That would impact discretionary spending no matter what, and doesn't really affect what the console manufacturers do, since they're primarily competing against one another.

Sales of video games continue to decline due to the economy, so saying that this doesn't affect what console manufacturers will do is fundamentally incorrect. It has everything to do with what the manufacturers will be doing. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo do not produce all of the parts that go into their consoles by themselves. Companies will require certain minimum to fulfill contracts and negotiating prices will be a tricky prospect. All of this will dictate the quality, quantity and the price of the machines that they intend to pitch to consumers.

Microsoft's Xbox division is largely irrelevant to their share price. Considering the Xbox division as a whole is still awash in several billion dollars of red ink, I don't really see where their shareholders could object any more strenuously than they already have.

Microsoft as a whole is awash in problems and confusion. Lack of direction, innovation and leadership is why their stock hasn't seen any real gains in the past 10 years. Sure, what their XBox division does isn't likely to destroy the company, but that's not the issue. The issue here is whether or not the company feels compelled to continually throw good money after bad in keeping that division "afloat". Because other parts of the company are taking hits, then it falls to management as to where R&D should go to and they'll more than likely divert the money to the more profitable projects.

Let's not forget Microsoft is currently involved in a number of patent lawsuits.

...I'm sorry, I really find it difficult to take Microsoft seriously in the context of mobile gaming. It's obviously not one of their core competencies. The XBL integration into Windows 8 may or may not be a good thing, but past history isn't encouraging (Windows Phone 7, Games for Windows Live). Microsoft's real problem is that they're going to try competing directly against Apple and Google in this arena, and both of those companies have huge market share and mind share in the mobile gaming space already.

I think we have a miscommunication here and this may come down to semantics. Mobile gaming is anything that has the ability to utilize a wireless network. This means that the DS, PSP/Vita are in the same category as iOS, Android, Amazon Kindle and Windows 7. There is no longer a distinction of these devices; only the distinction of the platform (or operating system). All these devices have the ability to connect to the internet via a wireless network or a mobile network and have the standard interface.

With that said, you can see why the "traditional" phone companies are looking to increase their focus in this area. If Nintendo and Sony are not careful, they could be swept away by Apple et al and become a novel footnote in the history of mobile gaming. With such high stakes, this is why both management of Microsoft and Sony have already hinted or expressed their strong desire to string a 5-year console development cycle into a 8-10 year cycle instead, opting to place their bets on the realm of mobile computing. Analysts see that eventually converging into the home console market and at which point there will be no distinction in any of these devices, just the development platform.

Technology moves so fast that the old way of thinking no longer applies.

Now, what is Nintendo doing with Wii U? I'm not sure. I think they got drunk with the success of Wii and DS that they might be making mistakes in 3DS and Wii U. Only time will tell ... but it does seem that Nintendo is clueless in how to respond to these technological convergence.

[Icemage]

Re: Will FFXIV ever be played on PS3...

I don't disagree with your analysis but you need to take a look at the broader picture.

1. Economists think that the world is (a) heading for a double-dip recession (b) never got out of the current recession (c) even worse, we're progressing from recession into depression.

That would impact discretionary spending no matter what, and doesn't really affect what the console manufacturers do, since they're primarily competing against one another.

2. Microsoft and Sony are beholden to shareholders as well as to economic pressures. Nintendo isn't immune either.

Microsoft's Xbox division is largely irrelevant to their share price. Considering the Xbox division as a whole is still awash in several billion dollars of red ink, I don't really see where their shareholders could object any more strenuously than they already have.

Sony's a somewhat touchier situation, but the PlayStation division has been one of the most visible and relatively successful divisions of the company in the past decade. I doubt the shareholders will second-guess Shuhei Yoshida if he indicates that the time is right to launch a new PlayStation home console.

3. Nintendo's current fiasco with 3DS has put doubts on their new entry into the console market and many experts have stated that it isn't a real evolution over PS3 and Xbox360 in terms of technical advances or revolutionary game play.

I don't see how the 3DS impacts the Wii U, to be quite honest. The Wii U does have a host of problems that need to be solved, but Sony and Microsoft would be completely insane to give Nintendo 3 years to fix their problems before launching a competitor. If Nintendo can't recapture the casual audience (difficult) and Sony/MS can keep the loyalty of the more core gamers (likely, due to PSN/XBL being vastly better than anything Nintendo can probably offer), this is their opportunity to send Nintendo back into last place - and more importantly expand their market share.

4. Sony is releasing the PS Vita which is arguably a PS3-lite in hand-held form. Expect them to pour their focus and energy into grabbing significant chunks of market share from the DS family. Expect the rest of the industry to be migrating some of their development to this new platform (others have already invested a portion of their resources to 3DS)

Vita will be out by next year in all regions. Time will tell if the Vita can muscle in and steal the thunder away from the 3DS, but the real question is where the development focus goes from here. Sony's got a lot of internal studios that they can assign to support their platforms, but you're right that even their development resources are finite, and 3rd party developers even more so. Still, this isn't any worse than what these companies had to deal when the Wii + PS3 + Xbox 360 + PSP launched within a year or so of each other.

5. Microsoft has been pouring resources into mobile gaming as well so expect them to diversify the XBox brand a bit. This means that of course they'll try to milk their current platform for all its worth. Since XBox sales are only now picking up, introducing a new console is akin to shooting oneself in the foot. Better to continue with a good trend than to introduce a possibly bad trend.

...I'm sorry, I really find it difficult to take Microsoft seriously in the context of mobile gaming. It's obviously not one of their core competencies. The XBL integration into Windows 8 may or may not be a good thing, but past history isn't encouraging (Windows Phone 7, Games for Windows Live). Microsoft's real problem is that they're going to try competing directly against Apple and Google in this arena, and both of those companies have huge market share and mind share in the mobile gaming space already.

I think the real key is how well or poorly the Wii U is received on launch. If the market shrugs and ignores it (like the 3DS), Microsoft and Sony are probably safe to delay launch new iterations as late as 2015. If it does even reasonably well, however - and it "should" - it's much more likely that Microsoft and Sony are probably both looking at 2013-2014 as a "most likely" launch window for their new hardware.

As such, my point is that the worst that might happen is that the console version of FFXIV gets delayed another year to run on better hardware, and possibly be multiplatform as well (assuming Microsoft yanks the stick out of their rear ends about people running subscription-based MMOs over XBL).


Icemage

[Aeni]

Re: Will FFXIV ever be played on PS3...

You really think they're going to let Nintendo have a three year head start? It's possible, but it would surprise me if we didn't see one or both of them announce something next year for release in late 2013, maybe 2014 at the latest. The Xbox 360 is already struggling with the storage limitation of DVDs, and the problem is only going to become worse as time passes, and Sony's got similar problems with the memory architecture of the PS3 limiting what they can do with PlayStation Network functionality.


Icemage

I don't disagree with your analysis but you need to take a look at the broader picture.

1. Economists think that the world is (a) heading for a double-dip recession (b) never got out of the current recession (c) even worse, we're progressing from recession into depression.

2. Microsoft and Sony are beholden to shareholders as well as to economic pressures. Nintendo isn't immune either.

3. Nintendo's current fiasco with 3DS has put doubts on their new entry into the console market and many experts have stated that it isn't a real evolution over PS3 and Xbox360 in terms of technical advances or revolutionary game play.

4. Sony is releasing the PS Vita which is arguably a PS3-lite in hand-held form. Expect them to pour their focus and energy into grabbing significant chunks of market share from the DS family. Expect the rest of the industry to be migrating some of their development to this new platform (others have already invested a portion of their resources to 3DS)

5. Microsoft has been pouring resources into mobile gaming as well so expect them to diversify the XBox brand a bit. This means that of course they'll try to milk their current platform for all its worth. Since XBox sales are only now picking up, introducing a new console is akin to shooting oneself in the foot. Better to continue with a good trend than to introduce a possibly bad trend.

[Icemage]

Re: Will FFXIV ever be played on PS3...

You realize that for both Sony and Microsoft, they want to run the current generation for at least a decade thereby putting a release of either of those "next gen system" far into the future ... in PS4 case, that's about 2015 at least...

You really think they're going to let Nintendo have a three year head start? It's possible, but it would surprise me if we didn't see one or both of them announce something next year for release in late 2013, maybe 2014 at the latest. The Xbox 360 is already struggling with the storage limitation of DVDs, and the problem is only going to become worse as time passes, and Sony's got similar problems with the memory architecture of the PS3 limiting what they can do with PlayStation Network functionality.


Icemage

[Aeni]

Re: Will FFXIV ever be played on PS3...

According to this article on adriasang, FFXIV is not expected to show up on PS3 until late 2012 at the earliest, with 2013 more likely.

Given that time frame, I stand by my earlier assertion that it would be better for Square-Enix to just forget about launching on PS3 and just make it for the PS4 and/or Xbox 720 instead if they absolutely insist on having a console version.


Icemage

You realize that for both Sony and Microsoft, they want to run the current generation for at least a decade thereby putting a release of either of those "next gen system" far into the future ... in PS4 case, that's about 2015 at least...

[Icemage]

Re: Will FFXIV ever be played on PS3...

According to this article on adriasang, FFXIV is not expected to show up on PS3 until late 2012 at the earliest, with 2013 more likely.

Given that time frame, I stand by my earlier assertion that it would be better for Square-Enix to just forget about launching on PS3 and just make it for the PS4 and/or Xbox 720 instead if they absolutely insist on having a console version.


Icemage

[Mezlo]

Re: Will FFXIV ever be played on PS3...

/random

[Takelli]

Re: Will FFXIV ever be played on PS3...

well that was still a PS2 limitation, it is why we could not have more then 80 slots, and it why SE had to work around it by have different instances of 80 slot inventory bags.

I want to know how PS2 caused the 80 slot limit. I mean... There where other video games that had huge inventories in them.

[Aeni]

Re: Will FFXIV ever be played on PS3...

Are you sure? Last time I checked, FFXIV has a huge memory footprint on PC, and Square-Enix's commentary about the PS3 version was that they were struggling with getting everything to fit into the PS3's less-than-256MB-after-OS-requirements.

If they release it on PS3 it's going to leave the game limping along in a couple years because the console will be holding back development of features (as the PS2 did to FFXI). Considering how sucktastic Square-Enix's development teams have been of late, that's not a good situation to be in.


Icemage

I'm not sure where you're getting that FFXIV is a memory hog. Here's a comparison: SC2 takes up about 400+ MB, WoW takes up 800+ MB(more or less). FFXIV is currently at 330MB for me. It's been running for 4 hours straight now.

You cannot make an apples-to-apples comparison of memory architecture between the PS3 and the PC, so that's already a non-issue.

[Kailea]

Re: Will FFXIV ever be played on PS3...

How many times did we hear "PS2 limitations" on FFXI for issues like inventory and then we had all these gobbie bag expansions, Aht'Urghan storage locker, expansions for those and let's not forget the Mog Satchel! which we could have if we paid out for a security token!

well that was still a PS2 limitation, it is why we could not have more then 80 slots, and it why SE had to work around it by have different instances of 80 slot inventory bags.

[Emmanuell]

Re: Will FFXIV ever be played on PS3...

Its not exactly PS3's fault that SE plays up to the graphical arms race to a game's detriment. Meanwhile, WoW is successful because you could have a PC from eight years ago and still run the game just fine and it be as playable there as any other PC. Its one of the reasons WoW doesn't die off - Other MMOs just keep on revving up those graphics, but WoW remains accessible to the lowest common denominator as PC builds go.

This is a very good point that you bring up. My concern is that we lose a lot of players when it is not on multi platforms but if the game is good. The person will find away to play the game. I don't have a graphics card to handle FFXIV but if need be I will buy a gaming computer. Some people do not have the money to go out and do that. That is why a lot of people still want to see it come out on PS3. In regards to everything FFXI is still a great game and the game has changed a lot. WoW just has a young fan base and always will.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Will FFXIV ever be played on PS3...

You're forgetting one fundamental thing here:

(1) PC gamers are never happy
(2) SE lies about what they can do with games.

How many times did we hear "PS2 limitations" on FFXI for issues like inventory and then we had all these gobbie bag expansions, Aht'Urghan storage locker, expansions for those and let's not forget the Mog Satchel! which we could have if we paid out for a security token!

Seems that issue got rectified every time, just not as quickly as we would have liked.

And if its not PS3 limitations, it'll be PS4 limitations the second the PC version looks slightly better and SE will play to the elitism as their scapegoat for any potential issues they face. You know, like they did with PS2.

Meanwhile WoW still plays just fine on PCs that came out almost eight years ago and no one says the guys using such PCs are "holding the game back."

Its not exactly PS3's fault that SE plays up to the graphical arms race to a game's detriment. Meanwhile, WoW is successful because you could have a PC from eight years ago and still run the game just fine and it be as playable there as any other PC. Its one of the reasons WoW doesn't die off - Other MMOs just keep on revving up those graphics, but WoW remains accessible to the lowest common denominator as PC builds go.

[Icemage]

Re: Will FFXIV ever be played on PS3...

They managed to get a game like FFXIII working on the PS3 so I don't see there being any problem as long as they don't port the PC version to the consoles. I'm sure they've already have the PS3 version in place but are constantly tweaking it to mirror the PC version in terms of the infrastructure (new storage upgrades, UI updates, etc) They would not NOT release a PS3 version with all the resources already spent. I think I remember seeing a version running on the PS3 from one of their promo clips a while back.

Are you sure? Last time I checked, FFXIV has a huge memory footprint on PC, and Square-Enix's commentary about the PS3 version was that they were struggling with getting everything to fit into the PS3's less-than-256MB-after-OS-requirements.

If they release it on PS3 it's going to leave the game limping along in a couple years because the console will be holding back development of features (as the PS2 did to FFXI). Considering how sucktastic Square-Enix's development teams have been of late, that's not a good situation to be in.


Icemage

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Will FFXIV ever be played on PS3...

I don't think its realistic to even hold out for PS4 or any future console.

While PC developers and gamers talk big shit about consoles and their capabilities right now, most people DON'T want Sony and MS even thinking about next gen consoles yet. Production costs only started coming down in the last year or so, who on earth would want them spiked through the roof again?

They don't need to compete with PCs, PC ebbs and flows. It falls short at the start of any new console generation and gets better as the consoles age. That's just normal. What isn't normal is the cost of development and all this experimentation with DLC and revenue streams.

No one is ready and, to be perfectly honest, the so-called leap in graphics just isn't that impressive but instead just a sign of diminishing returns. Why strap developers for cash further when we're not going to get that much out of it?

[Aeni]

Re: Will FFXIV ever be played on PS3...

XIV is not ready in any way, shape or form. If anyone ever complained about the new player experience in XI they would probably kill themselves if they ever played XIV.

I think most people talked about progress for FFXI. That's not an issue in FFXIV. Other than that, I didn't have a problem getting started in beta and it was 5x more awful.

---------- Post added at 05:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:51 PM ----------

Realistically, I think Square-Enix would want to wait for the next generation of consoles. Putting FFXIV on PS3 puts a lot of limitations on the development of the game due to limitations in RAM. Especially considering how terrible their work pipeline is right at the moment; I'd rather see S-E really dig down and fix the PC version than split resources for the PS3 version simultaneously while jumping through the hoops of making it playable on a console.

They managed to get a game like FFXIII working on the PS3 so I don't see there being any problem as long as they don't port the PC version to the consoles. I'm sure they've already have the PS3 version in place but are constantly tweaking it to mirror the PC version in terms of the infrastructure (new storage upgrades, UI updates, etc) They would not NOT release a PS3 version with all the resources already spent. I think I remember seeing a version running on the PS3 from one of their promo clips a while back.