It may be a seemingly immovable MMO institution, but Square Enix boss Yoichi Wada believes World Of Warcraft's days as king could be numbered - if his company sets out to achieve exactly what it wants with Final Fantasy XIV.
A giant in its own right, the upcoming bout of Final Fantasy is heading to PC and PS3 in 2010, and Wada thinks it could pose some serious threat to Blizzard's own MMORPG.
In an interview with Develop, he said: "WoW is a tough competitor, but whether you are talking about EverQuest, Ultima or Lineage there has never been a company that has a continuously successful number one and two MMO [e.g. as in a sequel bigger than the original]".
And when asked directly whether FFXIV could topple WoW from pole position in the market, he added: "yes, but the flipside is that [World of Warcraft] are a tough competition."
Making video games is all about having great ideas and lofty ambitions. Wada appears to have loads by the bucketload.
So what do you think? What does FFXIV need to do to rival WoW? And is WoW beatable as the most popular MMO game out there? Over to you...
I've heard of too many 'WoW-killers' before to really get any hopes up about this, but setting your sights high doesn't hurt, and FFXIV has more of a chance than any of the others because of the FF branding alone,
Sadly when games companies set out to make "killer" title it often goes the wrong way. Its always better if they set out to do their own thing, but will see. FF-XIV should be interesting though.
Hm. Big words yet not impossible. While I've never played "WoW" and probably won't since I'm discinlined to pay a monthly subscription fee on top of paying for the installation packages, I would like to see someone equal or surpass "WoW"'s success. That said, I won't be holding my breath.
Personally the only MMO that I'm currently aware of where I am half-way considering giving it a try and paying the subscription fee is the planned "The Secret World". It has fantastical creatures and mythology yet is set in a familiar contemporary modern day world with conspiracy theories and secret organizations. More please!
FF certainly has a tremendous amount of gaming pedigree, yet to me it seems the JRPG way of doing things has grown very stale indeed. Some much needed innovation wouldn't go amiss...At least have some brush, trees, plants, tables, etc. as part of the background during combat scenes! The open grass plains with a few hills in the distance just don't cut it, IMO.
I have dabbled in WoW and couldn't get into it. But I still can't see this game getting anywhere near it. WoW is just a behemouth of an MMO. I don't even think Blizzard thought it would be as successful as it is.
Hm. Big words yet not impossible. While I've never played "WoW" and probably won't since I'm discinlined to pay a monthly subscription fee on top of paying for the installation packages, I would like to see someone equal or surpass "WoW"'s success. That said, I won't be holding my breath.
Personally the only MMO that I'm currently aware of where I am half-way considering giving it a try and paying the subscription fee is the planned "The Secret World". It has fantastical creatures and mythology yet is set in a familiar contemporary modern day world with conspiracy theories and secret organizations. More please!
FF certainly has a tremendous amount of gaming pedigree, yet to me it seems the JRPG way of doing things has grown very stale indeed. Some much needed innovation wouldn't go amiss...At least have some brush, trees, plants, tables, etc. as part of the background during combat scenes! The open grass planes with a few hills in the distance just don't cut it, IMO.
Precisely the reason I've had zero interest in anything Final Fantasy related for the past decade.
The problem with things like the Secret World - and any other MMO coming out these days - is that they may well have nice ideas, or an intriguing storyline, but they have to provide the player with enough to do and enough of a reason to want to see their character through to the top level.
There have been plenty that have shown promise, but they tend not to keep their subscribers beyond a few months - when they inevitably re-sub to WoW, usually.
I think - at this stage of the game - they shouldn't really be looking to topple WoW. It's a game that has constantly expanded and been refined, so it's highly unlikely that any MMO will have the polish and attention to detail that WoW has within any reasonable amount of time.
EVE has shown that you don't have to go head to head with Blizzard to still be a success.
The only MMO that will make the slightest dent in WoW will be Blizzard's own upcoming MMO and even then, it'll have a hard time. FFXIV will (obviously) be heavily eastern influenced and will therefore almost certainly be a grind-fest.
The only MMO in development that's caught my attention at all is APB simply because it's not really a traditional MMO and it's finally bringing some originality to the online world. I'll grant that The Secret World seems to be creating an interesting place to be (surely one of the more important aspects of a successful MMO) but I was let down by Funcom's last attempt so won't be getting my hopes up just yet.
As popular as the Final Fantasy name is, an eastern MMORPG could never top that of a western. It might sound harsh but for example even though Aion is about as close to WoW as you can get, ALOT of people were put off by the asian graphic style and design of the world and characters. People are much more willing to play a game and roleplay in a western fairy-tale world than that of an asian one. It's just a problem with cultures and willingness to accept and things out of their comfort zone. So in my eyes, this new FF MMORPG will do no better than their last one.
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