Final Fantasy XIV
Most MMORPGs struggle with issues at their first launch. This is almost inherent to the nature of the game. Even extensive alpha and beta phases with thousands of participants often aren’t enough to find even the most pressing bugs, let alone simulate a launch with hundreds of thousands of genre enthusiasts.
Most games could never recover from their crash landing. The most famous exception is certainly Final Fantasy XIV. When the MMORPG from Square Enix first launched in September 2010, it had an almost historically poor start, as this first version was lacking in many areas.
That we will soon be able to play the expansion Evercold is entirely due to the relaunch of FFXIV with A Realm Reborn:
To ensure that the important Final Fantasy brand is not permanently damaged, the Japanese made a bold decision: they took the game offline, appointed a new responsible person, and created a noticeably improved version with a lot of effort.
It was released in August 2013 as Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn and has since then been continuously improved through extensive patches and expansions. Today, FFXIV is one of the most important and best MMORPGs on the market. How Square Enix achieved this in detail will be covered in the following articles:
Something comparable has only been achieved by Bethesda and Zenimax with Elder Scrolls Online by turning the endgame and character progression on their heads after a mixed launch, creating a world full of freedoms that still exists today. The important lesson from these two examples: It is indeed possible to turn a difficult start into a great success, but it requires an enormous effort that only a few studios can manage.
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