Square-Enix preparing for Final Fantasy XIV recurring billing

@ClownyDaggers
What aboot ff11

@ClownyDaggers

Well, they're charging $9.99, which is 3 dollars cheaper than even a FFXI subscription, and that is about average for what people usually spend on a cash shop. They know that their product still isn't worth full price, but they need to start charging something so that they can get some additional funds coming in, so this is the best compromise.

@JohnFordColey Additional funding...Talk about one of the most expensive games ever..You pay a $60 price tag...and if you want the game they meant to put out...You better cough up even more...

@ClownyDaggers
They'll shut the game down before going F2P with a cash shop. That being said, I think they'll do all right; they can't do any worse than they are now, as players leaving at this point will have about as much effect as players dropping a beta test and any subs they -do- pick up will only help. I know I plan to pay for a sub, and as crazy as it sounds I'm probably not the only one.

@Tizmah

FFXIV didn't even launch with a $60 price tag, it was $50, and I'm sure you can buy the game now for less than $20 easily. Early adopters got a year of free play time, and they decided to charge $5 less a month than their competition. Not to mention the fact that everybody who buys the game is getting free game time once 2.0 comes out.

The economics of the situation demand that SE charge something for the game, but they've done a good job of making it hurt a little less. Of course, all of this could have been avoided if they just launched with a competent product, but I have confidence that the team in charge knows what they're doing.

@JohnFordColey

What is being forgotten is that the $9.99 is only for ONE character. That's ONE in the ENTIRE game. Not per server.

If you want more characters, you have to cough up more money per month for each character. If you choose to buy an extra character, it is about $12.99. A third costs you $15.00 a month.

@Space Cobra
I've said it before, and I'll say it again--boy, do they ever need to drop that.

$1 for extra retainers is understandable, because that's primarily what people used the alts they paid for in FFXI anyway. I know the argument is that you only "need" one character since you can switch jobs and classes at will, but it would help a lot with early player retention, I'll wager, if a person who had just started playing didn't need to delete their level 10 original and all the progress they'd gotten so far just to try out a different race or hairstyle.

@Space Cobra

Alright, that's pretty crappy. I thought SE stopped that with FFXIV (never bothered to make more than one character at a time). Charging people for what will more than likely be a bank alt/crafting character is bad business. Still, you can use one character to play all the classes, so it's not as if it locks people out from certain content. I just wish SE would cut it out.

@JohnFordColey You don't need a bank or alt crafting character in XIV. The ONLY, and I mean ONLY reason you'd ever need an alt is if you decided you wanted to play a different race. Most of the people complaining about this have either never played the game, or are complaining because that's just something they enjoy doing.

If you really want a second character, you can pay another 3 dollars and up your bill to that of any other mmo on the market. Of course, if you end up liking that second character you can just delete your first one, because again, there is no reason to have more than one character in this game.

Is it silly they charge for character slots? I think so. It's also just a really silly thing to complain about.

@(Unverified)
I played FFXI for years and I was used to the charge for extra character slots. I had quite a few of them myself. FFXI came out quite a while ago, though, and they already charge extra for more than one retainer. It's silly, and that's reason enough to complain about it, because I want to see the game do well and it really isn't particularly welcoming to slap people with a fee for trying out an alt when most games allow you at least two or three slots. Even two slots would be better, with a charge for any over that. It just makes the game look unnecessarily restrictive and punishing right off the bat.

@JohnFordColey

"Well, they're charging $9.99, which is 3 dollars cheaper than even a FFXI subscription, and that is about average for what people usually spend on a cash shop."

Simply not true.

In f2p games, the average amount spent (across all players) is somewhere around the $2 mark - cos 95% of players in a f2p game will never spend a cent on it.

@(Unverified)

Also to add, what if I have two sets of communities/friends on two different servers?

There are two servers I am interested in that have a strong presence of like-minded folks (RP). So, now I can only choose one server and only one? If there was only one Mmega-Server, you may have more of a point, but there isn't.

Again, other games gives you a better value and more flexibility. And really, if I want to be a big bruiser some of the time and a scrawny-looking human other times, why shouldn't I?

@DancingCow
"In f2p games, the average amount spent (across all players) is somewhere around the $2 mark - cos 95% of players in a f2p game will never spend a cent on it."

reference?

@foomchee

That's the main thing that kept me from playing. I love the open character development system, love FF etc.

But eg. fatigue - which I know they've since removed - was just insane. A developer silly enough to implement something like that.... well I couldn't even imagine what other follies I'd find in there.

@Chiren
They are putting in an auction house. It wasn't technical difficulties that kept it out in the first place.

@Chiren Perhaps you should put in a few minutes of research before taking a crap on a game when you have no idea what you're talking about.