Did FFXI bomb where you are?

[xDark-Yunax]

In England there was really no interest in this title. The people that did buy it mostly sold it.
How did you recieve it?

Edit: I'm not speaking for all of England here, just my bit of it.

[Zargabaath]

In perspective, before and still after WoW, most MMO don't have a huge player base, so Final Fantasy XI having a stable 500,000 is very good. For a Final Fantasy MMO it may not have done as well as expected, but Square's first foray into a different genre was successful - they are creating another FF MMO because of the success FF XI brought.

As for my area in the world, I know a few people played but didn't stay with it, playing WoW instead for the most part. I played FF XI and thought it was a good game that needed some things fixed; I still sometimes have the urge to play the game.

[Andromeda]

It peaked at around 1.5 million users I think, which was pre-WoW. But after WoW it ran pretty evenly at like 500,000 users even today. When I gone the population really has not deceased. In fact, I'd imagine that they will be getting some more old players back with the level cap going up to 99 by the end of the year.

Square does continue to say that FFXI is the most successful FF game that they have ever had. This is due to having 500,000 subscriptions paying about $13 a month every month for the past 8 to 9 years. It is certainly not the money that Blizzard is making, but that is still better than any FF game that they have ever produced, even FFVII. So I'd say even if it was not successful in some regions, in the end it is the most successful series of the franchise and will stay that way until FFXIV is out for at least a decade unless FFXIV manages to grab a really large user base for a long period of time.

[loaf]

FFXI may have gone down in subscribers since WoW came out, but also when Sony released the good ol PS2 slim....

[xDark-Yunax]

It peaked at around 1.5 million users I think, which was pre-WoW. But after WoW it ran pretty evenly at like 500,000 users even today. When I gone the population really has not deceased. In fact, I'd imagine that they will be getting some more old players back with the level cap going up to 99 by the end of the year.

Square does continue to say that FFXI is the most successful FF game that they have ever had. This is due to having 500,000 subscriptions paying about $13 a month every month for the past 8 to 9 years. It is certainly not the money that Blizzard is making, but that is still better than any FF game that they have ever produced, even FFVII. So I'd say even if it was not successful in some regions, in the end it is the most successful series of the franchise and will stay that way until FFXIV is out for at least a decade unless FFXIV manages to grab a really large user base for a long period of time.

This doesn't sound familiar! That sounds like an awful lot of users. And do you really think it's the best or is that a general opinion of the company? I've never heard anyone say their favourite is XI!
I don't know if I believe it was successful though - do you base success on how much money a game pulls in? What with the addictive quality most MMOs seem to have, does it really mean anything? I think they should be counting copies sold, not money paid in.

[Andromeda]

If you read my post carefully, you'll note that I never said it was the best. I never said it was everyone's favorite or that Square believes it to be best. All I said is that it was the most successful, which is defined by the profit that it has made. In an interview by one of the producers from the FFXI Development Team that specifically said that FFXI has made more money than any of their FF games and was thus the most successful game in the series.

For a company interested in making money, generally if something has made more money than even FFVII and will continue to increase that gap (note that the interview I read it from is now a couple years old at least). I think from a company stand point that is a success and something that they would want to do again.

[Rocky]

I don't know if I believe it was successful though - do you base success on how much money a game pulls in?

I'd say yes. If a game has the ability to continually make people pay a monthly fee for a number of years, then I would say that it seems like a successful game to me.

Though I haven't played FFXI (for very long at least lol), I thought it was a much "tougher" game than WoW. It's good in a way that there is going to be a more dedicated group of people that play FFXI, but it will also drive off potential players with it's learning curve, which is safe to say larger than WoW.

I'm pretty excited to see stuff about FF14 though, I'd like to get it when it comes out and be a part of that.