Square Enix issues massive apology by relaunching Final Fantasy 14

Brian Ambrozy 14 Oct, 2011 at 5:03am ET Article published in Gaming

Today Square Enix announced Final Fantasy 14 version 2.0. This marks the first time in history that Square Enix (and perhaps any video game company) has ever had such a monumental failure that they’ve been forced to retract the entire game and relaunch it.

As stated in the Final Fantasy 14 section of “The best way to play every version of Final Fantasy“:

The final game was released to the public in late September of 2010, to critical bashing and yawns from fans. The game was, by all accounts, a buggy mess. Complaints ranged from interface issues to utterly broken quests, a failed MMO economy, and perhaps the most damning of all for an MMO: It was boring. One review said that “The kindest thing that can be said about the Final Fantasy MMO is that it has a nice intro movie.”

Well, Square Enix had to do something. The game was such a failure that they issued an official apology, and in Japanese company style, got rid of the entire senior staff and replaced them.

A summary of some of the major announcements they made today:
In December 2011 we can expect to see their new subscription-based billing
The PlayStation 3 version is launching between October 2012 and December 2012
There will be a “fundamental re-working of in-game maps”

Hopefully Final Fantasy 14 will find its legs. Fans both new and old really do want to see the franchise succeed—far more than they want Square Enix to crash and burn, at any rate. To see such a grand franchise with so much history and nostalgia behind it hobbled by such a poor installment was truly a shame for many of us. Hopefully version 2.0 makes right on what Square Enix has always promised gamers before: A truly remarkable fantasy world and gaming experience.

They released a bunch of screenshots and concept art as well:

Comments

14 Oct 2011 ~ 10:28am Bandrik This is rather interesting. After all of the previous mistakes that Square-Enix has made (such as the awkward cliffhanger ending that FF12 had), I would never have anticipated them to try and give FF14 a phoenix's rebirth.

The question now becomes: is this a case of "too little, too late?" In my mind, the Final Fantasy franchise (and pretty much the rest of Square-Enix) no longer holds its definitive place as the key player in the JRPG genre. Until they end their continuing decline of embracing mediocrity, they'll just be another JRPG-pumping machine.

It's a shame, really. But hopefully at least FF14 has a better future now, if nothing else.
14 Oct 2011 ~ 1:01pm primesuspect Just out of curiosity then, what is the key player in the JRPG genre now?
14 Oct 2011 ~ 2:52pm Bandrik That's the thing. There is none. I've had this conversation with several of my die-hard JRPG friends, and it's a recurring theme: Squaresoft used to be the king of RPGs in their eyes back in the SNES and PS1 days... but starting with the PS2, they've diminished in quality. Their games still deliver a punch of an experience... but they just don't have this vision, this spark that they used to have.

I can think of several other "must play" RPG makers from the SNES/PS1 days... but that list drops significantly on the last 2 generations of consoles.

As for today... I think that Atlas is the company I look to for quality. Monolith, too. There's probably a couple of others that I should be thinking of right now... but the fact that I can't is really signs of the times.

Of course, I'd love nothing less than for someone to open my eyes to something of grandness. Prime, what is your opinion? Is there a company that you feel is still a shining beacon of light for JPRG fans? How about games that have come out in this generation? There's definitely good games... but I'm looking for the stuff of legends. Where are my Chrono Triggers and Secret of Manas? My Lufias and Breath of Fires?

Eager minds await.
14 Oct 2011 ~ 3:10pm primesuspect The Dragon Quest series still holds that torch for me.

Namco has been knocking them out of the park with games like Eternal Sonata and the Tales series as well.

And oh man, Valkyrian Chronicles. Truly remarkable (although they are SRPGS, not strict RPGS)
14 Oct 2011 ~ 3:11pm primesuspect Bandrik, I wonder if you ever saw this article:

It's okay for a grown man to play Japanese video games.
14 Oct 2011 ~ 4:18pm Bandrik Yeah, Valkyrian Chronicles has caught my eye. It'll probably be the next current-gen RPG-ish game I'll play. Looks genuinely good, and I look forward to it.

Yeah, Namco has been doing pretty well. Forgot about them. I have Eternal Sonata, but I've only played it enough to test it out. Will get back to it later. The Tales series looks pretty shiny as well.

I don't remember the "grown man" article. Looks pretty cool though; I'll read it in a little bit.
14 Oct 2011 ~ 5:30pm Petra Considering that some (most?) publishers would have written the game's failure off and moved on, I think that this really says something positive about Square. Granted, my wife and I don't play MMORPGs...

Bandrik, aside from perhaps Dirge of Cerberus, I don't think that my wife or I have ever really been disappointed with a game from Square. I did find the pronunciation of marquis in FF12 to be rather infuriating, though.
15 Oct 2011 ~ 4:59am BHHammy Just a small fact update: it's not the first time a game's been pulled, and then later relaunched. See APB Reloaded.

I don't think the whole APB fiasco needs much explaining, since it became infamous back in it's heydey for actually failing and being shut down not even 90 days after launch, and actually became the head-on-a-pike example as to how game companies need to rethink their strategy on pay-to-play subscription games.

There's a couple of other MMO games that have also fallen under this, but APB actually went from subscription -to- F2P in the transition (though I believe the newer version suffers for it, but that's a discussion not for this article).
15 Oct 2011 ~ 11:40pm drasnor I have yet to play an Atlus title I didn't enjoy.
17 Oct 2011 ~ 1:18pm Mina-kun "[...]The game was such a failure that they issued an official apology, and in Japanese company style, got rid of the entire senior staff and replaced them."

I have to imagine that "got rid of the entire scene senior staff" means they were forced to commit seppuku.