blog Final Fantasy XIV - The Game that Unites Platforms

[TheZorch]

The story of Final Fantasy XIV is a pretty amazing one. It launched to much fanfare but soon players discovered the game was very lacking in pretty much everything. While the graphics were amazing the game itself didn't live up to the visual offering very little in the way of actual content. Most of the world was filled in with copy & pasted features so the graphics look great but you saw the same trees, the same fences, and the same buildings lined up as if they were put down by a stamping machine. Eventually, SquareEnix pulled the executive team behind the game and brought in new people who immediately went to work filling in the game's missing content. SE never charged players a subscription fee for the game and pledged not to do so until the game was fixed. In the end, the new Producer Yoshi-P. asked players whether they wanted them to fix the game or start over from scratch. The player community said to start over, and that is what SE did.

 

The result is one of the most amazing redemption stories in the history of video games. Rather than just throwing the original game affectionately called 1.0 by fans completely in the trash, SE decided to use its failure to fashion the backstory for the new game commonly referred to by its player community as 2.0. Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn launched and in a few short weeks had over 1 million subscribers. Today the game has over 5+ million subscribers and is considered the #2 most popular MMO in the world right behind World of Warcraft.

 

When 1.0 was in development, SE had planned on developing a Playstation 3 version. However, 1.0 failed and it wasn't until after 2.0 launched for PC that a PS3 version was developed. The PS3 was barely powerful enough to handle the game. Frame rates were low especially in visually intensive dungeon battles and raids, but what made FFXIV really stand out was the fact that console and PC players weren't segregated as they often are in other cross-platform games. The MMO brought players from both platforms together seamlessly and often you couldn't tell someone was playing on a PS3 unless you asked them, or when they complained about the lag. SE developed the Cross Hotbar which allowed someone with a controller play as smoothly as someone with a mouse & keyboard. The Cross Hotbar can be used on PC, the D-Pad and buttons on the controller (ABXY) corresponded to slots on the Hotbar and came in sets of two which you could select with the L2 and R2 triggers. This allowed console players to keep up with keyboard & mouse players on PC even during PVP. This was rather groundbreaking.

 

A PS4 version finally arrived which runs much better and SE even ported the game to Mac with mixed results. When the 3.0 expansion called Heavensward launched SE released an optional DX11 client for the game and when the 4.0 expansion called Stormblood launches the game will be going 64-bit and PS3 support will be discontinued. Regardless, you do have to look at what SquareEnix did with some astonishment. They united two gaming communities who are historically often at one another's throats and achieve some level of equality. Due to the innovative Cross Hotbar console gamers are left behind by people using a keyboard & mouse. It is an accomplishment that I think the rest of the gaming industry could learn from when making other cross-platform games. That there are creative and innovative ways in which you can allow gamers from both platforms play together without one having an unfair advantage over the other. 

 

The Gaming Industry has a lot to learn from the story of Final Fantasy XIV. How SE saved the game from total failure and united two ideologically opposed gaming communities in such a seamless way that you don't really think about it when playing. You don't wonder if that Tank or Healer is on PS4 or PC, you just go with the flow. There are no markers on characters letting you know what platform they're on, that was a smart move by SquareEnix. You just play the game, no worrying about whether someone is using a gamepad or a fancy mechanical gaming keyboard. You often can't tell if they are and that is the beauty of what SE accomplished with this game. When a developer makes a cross-platform game they should look at Final Fantasy XIV for inspiration. While what SE used might not work for every game it may be able to give them the inspiration to come up with new kinds of innovative gameplay styles that allow gamers from both platforms to play together seamlessly without either side having a distinct advantage or handicap. As the gaming industry continues to push Sony to accept more cross-platform gaming in the future we'll need innovative new ideas to keep the playing field even fair for all platforms.

 

--Michael C. Haney

Gamers Bay(TM) Senior Moderator/Community Manager

Host of "An Old Gamer Plays" and "An Old Gamer Rants"