Final Fantasy XV Comrades Delayed

[Andromeda]

Square Enix announced yesterday that they'll be pushing back the release of the Comrades DLC, the coop multiplayer mode into November. They said it was to make final adjustments to the DLC content and create the best possible online experience. Given that it is a short delay, they likely have some important last minute bugs that needed to be fixed before release. Additionally, for the Japanese the cost of the DLC outside of the season pass increased. It wasn't made clear if this affects the other regions as well or is only a Japan only change. Season passes come with the DLC as part of the bundle, so it should not affect the price.

Source: Final Fantasy XV’s Online Expansion Pack Delayed To Sometime In November - Siliconera

[Rowan]

Delays and price increases lmao, its become such a long running joke with square now. They really are abysmal.

[Andromeda]

It's only pushed back to November. And it's not like they enjoy delaying their content or products. Game development is not a straightforward sort of things these days and at the size they work at they are trying to do right, but problems happen. And FFXV was only delayed once. It took years to come out, but that's not really the same thing as being delayed.

[Rowan]

It's only pushed back to November. And it's not like they enjoy delaying their content or products. Game development is not a straightforward sort of things these days and at the size they work at they are trying to do right, but problems happen. And FFXV was only delayed once. It took years to come out, but that's not really the same thing as being delayed.

Cmon, what do you think im criticizing here? Im not bagging game development, im bagging square. In comparison to their competitors, they are awful in terms of PR, release dates and general development. Im sick people making excuses for them out of some nostalgic aspect, which should have shriveled a long time ago since they have spit on their fanbase for the past 10 years. All we get are announcements and then delays. Announcements of crappy mobile games which seem to be given the utmost priority and then more focus on their monthly cash cow ff14. You can say this is where the market is heading, but its only heading where people are willing to follow. Unfortunately our generation is the only one that knows what its like to play a quality single player offline game. People would rather pull out their phones instead of their consoles aaaaaaand this is the result. Priority given to P2P monthly games, in-app-game purchases, multiplayer, DLC and everything else takes a backseat because its no longer as lucrative. Sure, can blame other companies for contributing to this aids, but thats assuming no individual company is without its merit.

Remember when free to play online with play-station? Xbox thought, screw it, lets make them pay. Then after a while sony figured "well if they're doing it, we can too".
"for the players"
If you buy into this you're a fool. The only thing they care about is your money. There is no substance, no love or even by the looks of it, effort put into games anymore. I have been disappointed with almost every release lately with the exception of the few games (persona 5, witcher 3) and im starting to realize its not because im wearing my 'nostalgia' goggles, its because I'm seeing constant examples of the debased, rotting skeleton of what once used to be the glory of videogaming, sucking at the **** of capitalism. Don't presume to think square is innocent for following trends, they are just as guilty as the rest of them if not more-so.

[Andromeda]

The Japanese market has changed a ton, which sadly has gone mobile. As a business they have to do things that are going to make them profitable like you said. It's a common topic these days, but games are the cheapest that they have ever been when comparing against inflation. They're still only $60, I remember buying FFX for $70 on the PS2. But $60 has been the price for years, the likelihood is that the price of games needs to increase to probably $90-100 maybe even more, but gamers would throw a fit over something like that.

But when you say Square, are you talking about everyone in the company, the Corporate heads or the dev teams? Square is a broad generalization. Corporate Square like you said only is interested in profits, because that keeps the company running. The dev teams that's a completely different sort of beast. They get dictated in the end by the Corporate heads, but they're the ones with the passion and heart still. Those people aren't trying to make bad games, but circumstances beyond their control can create bad environments or poor games. One thing that Square has suffered from is the transition to the modern space. If you notice, the younger and fresher blood that's leading the dev teams these days are doing things completely different than things in the past. People like Tabata and Yoshida know the value of the fans and community, you can see in the way that they interview and reach out.

[Rowan]

The Japanese market has changed a ton, which sadly has gone mobile. As a business they have to do things that are going to make them profitable like you said. It's a common topic these days, but games are the cheapest that they have ever been when comparing against inflation. They're still only $60, I remember buying FFX for $70 on the PS2. But $60 has been the price for years, the likelihood is that the price of games needs to increase to probably $90-100 maybe even more, but gamers would throw a fit over something like that.

But when you say Square, are you talking about everyone in the company, the Corporate heads or the dev teams? Square is a broad generalization. Corporate Square like you said only is interested in profits, because that keeps the company running. The dev teams that's a completely different sort of beast. They get dictated in the end by the Corporate heads, but they're the ones with the passion and heart still. Those people aren't trying to make bad games, but circumstances beyond their control can create bad environments or poor games. One thing that Square has suffered from is the transition to the modern space. If you notice, the younger and fresher blood that's leading the dev teams these days are doing things completely different than things in the past. People like Tabata and Yoshida know the value of the fans and community, you can see in the way that they interview and reach out.

In Australia, new games are still released for $99 (you might be able to pick them up for around $85 from competitors). I guess what im trying to say can be summarized as such;

One man had a dream to make video games.
It was not proving as lucrative as he had hoped and he was quickly running out of money.
He decided to make one final game before quitting and getting a 'real job'.
He created this game exactly how he wanted it to be, albeit using what was available to him at the time.
he crafted a game that would be a testament to a story he needed to tell, and would be told time and time again in various forms in the years to come.
he followed his dream and made his final fantasy transition from game to film
it failed, he was shamed and forced to resign from the company.
Now the company makes decisions based on what they think people want instead of being creative and trying something new
its a shell of its former self and very few original staff remain who understand what it means to be passionate about telling a story.
The result?
Over-dramatized, soap opera cliche's riddled with boring mechanics both from game-play and technical standpoints as well as convoluted story lines and pretentious terms.

This is precisely why we are seeing so many remakes.