Final Fantasy XIV is racing at full speed towards the latest expansion Shadowbringers. And the MMORPG seems to be doing better than ever before. But what is the reason for this?
What is happening with FFXIV right now? Only a few days remain until the release of the new expansion Shadowbringers on July 2. The next major expansion of FFXIV will bring as much content as normally fits into a full-fledged J-RPG, according to director Yoshida.
On June 18, Square Enix prematurely activated two new servers for the European data centers: Twintania (Light Center) and Spriggan (Chaos Center). Originally, both servers were supposed to go online with the launch of Shadowbringers to accommodate the load of new and returning players.
However, Yoshida stated in the recent producer stream that the European servers are slowly reaching their limits in terms of character capacity. Therefore, the decision was made to activate Twintania and Spriggan ahead of schedule.
Peak subscription numbers since the reboot
What do the player numbers look like? Final Fantasy XIV seems to be bursting at the seams right now. But financially, Square Enix’s MMORPG seems to be doing well too. Recently, director Yoshida announced that it has reached the limit of 16 million registered accounts.
And although this number does not represent active paying players, the number of active subscriptions has also continued to rise, according to Yoshida. FFXIV is currently at its highest subscription level since the game’s relaunch in 2013.
The last peak noted in the investor report in 2018 was reached in 2017, a few months after the release of the Stormblood expansion.
A census site operated by player LuckyBancho, which is well-known in the community, estimates that FFXIV might currently have around one million active players.
This number should be taken with a grain of caution, as it is not official.
This is what Yoshida says about the sales numbers: In an interview with the Japanese site 4gamers, Yoshida also mentioned that Shadowbringers has now received more than double the amount of pre-orders compared to its predecessor Stormblood.
The Collector’s Editions of Shadowbringers were already sold out within a day after the start of pre-orders.
For an MMORPG with monthly subscription fees, which was declared dead at the launch in 2010, this is quite an achievement.
What strategies is the development team pursuing?
Yoshida repeatedly emphasizes that the success of Final Fantasy XIV rests on two pillars:
- Regular content updates
- and the community
Of course, there are many other reasons why Final Fantasy XIV works for many players (and not for others). But community and updates come up repeatedly in interviews with Yoshida.
This is the content strategy: The content updates in Final Fantasy XIV come at intervals of about 3.5 to 4 months. The developers ensure that the old content remains in use as well.
There are contents in FFXIV that new players must complete in order to progress in the game, discover new areas, and unlock expansions. The use of content at low levels through dailies and weeklies ensures that new players have no trouble finding groups for old mandatory content.
This and other “catch-up mechanics” help new players catch up with veterans, even though starting FFXIV can be very slow.
This is how the developers distribute the updates: At the same time, the developers try to distribute the content of the new updates as well as possible to keep players in the game. For example, with the release of the Shadowbringers expansion, a new hardcore raid called Eden will also be introduced to FFXIV. However, the raid will go online staggered with the expansion:
- First, the expansion appears (July 2)
- 2 weeks later, the normal mode of the raid comes (July 16)
- 2 more weeks later, the hardcore version follows (July 30)
This prevents the developers from having the content rushed and skipped right at the beginning. This pattern of patch segmentation has been used for several years.
Even if the amount of content feels thin for some veterans, this strategy by the developers seems to keep many players in the game.
Community events
This is the community strategy: Communication between the development team and players takes place through regular “Producer Letters”. These are live streams that inform players about the latest updates, changes, and decisions made by the developers. Thus, players always know what they will get for their money.
Outside of the game, regular events are intended to create good spirits among the fans. Especially in Germany, Final Fantasy XIV is often represented at many conventions and gives away large amounts of promo gifts, such as the popular “I BEAT” shirts.
These are the fan gatherings: Scattered throughout Europe, so-called “Fan Gatherings” are organized by Square Enix for FFXIV players and their friends. These are evenings where fans come together in a rented location and enjoy their time together.
The gatherings lead to a stronger bond of the community with the game because they often meet their guild members for the first time outside the game and make new friendships.
What’s next for FFXIV? The development team expects a significant increase in active players with the release of the Shadowbringers expansion. In the last producer stream, Yoshida mentioned that the team will closely monitor the status of the servers and ensure situations like queueing before an instance do not occur again.
In any case, Final Fantasy XIV can look forward to a strong financial year in 2019.
