Today’s Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn post is especially interesting for those of you that have never played a subscription MMO before, as well as those of you who wonder if a monthly subscription is really for you.
When you buy a single-player game, the expectation is usually the same. Buy the game for the full price, and some DLC will follow. Final Fantasy XIV is fundamentally different, as it’s an MMO that will run for years.
With Final Fantasy XIV, your subscription fee will guarantee you regular content updates throughout the lifetime of the game. The first update hit last December with Patch 2.1: A Realm Awoken, and we’ve just launched the feature site for Patch 2.2: Through the Maelstrom.
Just a few features (not even all) that will have been added to the original game with 2.1 and 2.2 updates:
- New Main Scenario Quests, continuing your story
- Two new raids
- Housing
- New Dungeons
- New Dungeon Hard Modes
- New primals to fight: Leviathan and Good King Moggle-Mog XII
- A new difficulty for primal fights, Extreme Mode
- Player versus Player Combat
- Treasure Hunts
- New factions (Beast Tribes) with Daily Quests
- Tons upon tons of new quests of all kinds
- New customization options for your characters
- Tons of optimizations and new features for the game
…and the list goes on and on (honestly, it does — you can check out the patch notes for Update 2.1 here). There’s something in it for everyone — no matter if you like to casually make your way through the game, or if you’re a hardcore, endgame raider. And remember: all of that for the subscription fee starting at $12.99, no PlayStation Plus required.
But it doesn’t end there; we’ve got a lot of stuff planned for the future. You’ve learned by now that there’s housing — how about having a basement in your house where you and your mates can build your own airship? Awesome, right?
This is what you get for your subscription: a world that will constantly evolve and expand, for years and years to come. If you want to have a go at it, remember that our second PS4 beta phase will take place from April 4th to the 7th (and yes, you’ll be able to carry characters created during beta 2 into the final game). We’re launching on April 14th, and if you want in, feel free to pre-order now.
Looking forward to seeing you all in Eorzea!
Subscription pool not as big as you thought it would be? when is this going free to play?
Ok, that was a bit mean, but I have bought almost all of your titles I really love the games just no to hot on this sub issue and never have been with mmo’s.
So since I have the PS3 version already, I get to just download the PS4 version for free correct? I very well may sink a few months into this one. I enjoyed the little bit I did get to play on PS3.
I hope you guys fix the problem with it emailing the code? Plus the error when have the code, it says it isn’t right -_-
As one of “those of you that have never played a subscription MMO before”, this “subscription fee starting at $12.99” better be an ANNUAL fee, cos no way am I paying over 3 times my PS Plus subscription just for 1 game (and that’s not considering the Black Friday prices for PS+, otherwise it’s 5 times). I assume you don’t need a refresher on what a PS Plus subscription gets me (honestly, “the list goes on and on”)?
@Jayrabbit
FFXI is still Pay to Play with monthly subscription, so good luck waiting for Free to Play.
I for one is enjoying the fact it’s not free to play as RMT is already somewhat annoying.
and 12.99 is monthly.
I love final fantasy, I played the beta of FFXIV on PS3 and loved it, but no way I´m paying $12.99 per month. :(
This should be free to play with plus and not the other way. I liked the game even though i’m not much into mmorpgs but i’m not willing to pay a 12.99 monthly fee.
@1 FFXIV ARR is doing extremely well. I don’t remember what the total user figure was (I think 3.5million subscribers and 500k log ins on average a day), but it’s by no mean struggling. It’s also about to be released on PS4 (obviously) and in China (huge deal).
All that said, I am a firm believer that if you enjoy MMOs or the Final Fantasy, it is WELL worth the $12.99/mo fee. That sub fee will give you far more play time and value than any other PS4 game on the market imo.
Thats what you say Hergen, but as I recall FFXI had a subscription fee and sold expansions. I know the sub fees help maintain servers and help get these great patches out. As a veteran ffxi player, I never regretted paying for the fees but what has changed is the competition for our time. I spent 100+ hrs on ffxi on my pc but this was during the ps2 era when online functionality wasnt as common, now every game has it and I already spent 90+ hrs on battlefield 4. So its not a matter of if the money is justifiable but the value and worth of a game for my money. Thats the problems I see you guys facing when trying to get sub fees on a console.
Ya good luck with that waiting for it to go F2P.
The subscription base is going strong with 3+ million player base at the moment.
I never understand why a $13/month subscription is such a big deal, if anyone can afford a $60 a game every 4 months, then they can pay for this subscription and enjoy the game’s ever updating contents. Besides, $13 a month is less than $.50 cents a day.
I can’t wait to fully sink into this game. I’ve bought it on ps3 thanks to the awesome ps plus sale near the end of 2013 and put in a couple of hours and loved it but wanted to save the rest for ps4. My Lancer is going to be a god-like Dragoon :D so worth the $13 a month. And hey if you dont wanna play it for a while but think you’re wasting money, you’re not since you didnt pay for the next month. So win.
Sorry but i still refuse to spend $30-40 on the base game plus a subscription. If you were smart, you would let people at least download the game client free from psn then charge the monthly fee. Square is a big enough company that you could afford that.
Even though I HATE subscription based models, I pre-ordered the collector’s of this game after having a blast with the Beta. However, I don’t agree with this continuous time monthly fee model. I am a very busy person, and it sucks to know that by paying for an entire month, I might end up not enjoying much play-per-money. I would much rather have a model based on actual time played. This way, I could pay just for what I actually enjoy, and not for an entire month where I might end up playing only have of that, or even less.
Also, I don’t agree with charging for the game AND the subscription. The game itself should be free on PSN, and charged on disc, for those that want to have a box on the shelf.
I;ve heard nothing but good things about this game. However there is no way I could ever justify a monthly fee for a single game. Sorry – Id play it otherwise
*also, if the game is pay-to-play, I’d expect ALL software to be free. Double charging your consumers for both the game and potential expansions as well as for a subscription is a bit greedy
The game was on sale for 10$ regular edition and 15$ for the CE on the Ps store a couple of months ago. Game was again on sale during the Final Fantasy sales a couples of weeks ago, price were not as good but still better than 40$ With the free upgrade to ps4 peoples have no reason to cry about the cost of the game.
Played the beta and loved it even though I don’t like MMO’s but yea 13 a month on top of having to buy the game is way too much money. If the game was free and I had to pay to play I’d do it for a while or if I have to pay full retail and didn’t have to pay a subscription I’d do that
I’ve only played 1 MMORPG (Guild Wars 1) and thought it was awesome but never have entered the subscription model game. As someone with a huge passion for Final Fantasy games it definitely calls to me, however I think what keeps me away is that I like to play other games too and I would feel obligated to play to get my money’s worth. I think that’s why the subscription model hasn’t brought me in. That, combined with a sizable backlog of games it’s hard to justify FOR ME. Plus, in the end I will always know I can go back to the world in my backlog…something I can’t say in the distant future with XIV.
Am I bashing it? No. If anything, I think it looks incredible and would love to jump in. If you were talking $5-6 a month then it’s harder for me to say no. As a parent in the middle of his adulthood, I would want something that required less of a commitment with me balancing my work, kids, and life in general.
I think the MMORPG that can grab the people that want a reduced commitment will open themselves to a new customer. Even if our hours were limited per month on a limited plan, you’re still allowing me into the world and I can still pay you for your services :).
Hope your launch goes well !
60 bucks for the game AND a monthly suscription?
Are you kidding me?
Haven’t you seen Guild Wars 2, a great MMORPG without fees?
I’m a BIG fan of classics Final Fantasy and SquareSoft, but this is too much Square-Enix greeding and blindness.
I hope this game fail BIG TIME.
faraway25 above said it well. “what has changed is the competition for our time”
If this was some 5 years ago, perhaps, sine there wasn’t as many games to play. Now my backlog is sky high and PS Plus is piling on more games than I have the time. Do I dedicate myself to playing just ONE game for a couple of years – if you are paying $13 a month, you better be playing the heck out of it – or do I enjoy half a dozen games each month? The answer is clear.
This may be acceptable to people who play one or two games a year (and they already have FIFA, Madden, CoD, BF), but to those who are more diverse in their gaming, no go. Not to mention that the playing field is littered with tons of free-to-play RPGs (eg. Destiny of Spirits, Samurai and Dragons on Vita, countless on PC) and many not even micro-transaction driven.
Charging both for the subscription AND the base game is just greedy. Give me the base game for free and charge me monthly based on usage (someone mentioned $0.50 per day, so assuming one plays for 7 hrs a day, let’s say $0.50 per 7 hr, capped at $13 per month), I can try. After that, it’s up to your game itself to make me want to go back again and again.
I love all these “Charging both for the subscription AND the base game is just greedy”, that is the same as saying “I paid Sony for PS3, so I shouldn’t have to pay for any Sony games.”
You pay for all the work they put into the product, and you pay to use THEIR servers, NOT Sony’s PSN or PS+ servers, and you pay so that you get new content every few months.
This kinda sounds like that failing business model WoW had….
btw, FFXI is still around and still getting expansions and content updates 11 years later with a subscription based model.
Anyway, its a great game, and I don’t mind sacrificing 2 cups at starbucks or eating out for 1 lunch every month to play it.
I’m curious how trophy progress will work from PS3 to PS4. Especially the ones that go by totals, like enemies killed and storyline.
Will all those stats carryover and are the ps3/4 trophy lists the same or separate?
Thanks!
Well, I remember what it’s like to feel that 13 bucks a month is too much so I’m not going to dump on any of the moaning myrtles but maybe some of you can try not to be so bitter?
I’ve never played an MMO because I can’t stand computer gaming but I am interested in FFXIV and ESO because I can play on my PS4. I have FFXIV pre-ordered.
looks like i’ll only be playing this for 4 days then. *Only playing through the Beta phase*
Your game looks fun and I wish you success but I just don’t have the time to invest in your game. With a subscription I feel pressured to stick to just that game. Imagine if I had to pay to play Battlefield every month? I play that game on and off a few months apart and If I decided “Hey I wanna play a few rounds” I don’t want to have to suddenly pay for a whole month when I’ll likelyonly play it for a few days. This pricing model just won’t work for me and it’s a waste of money when ps+ is constantly giving me more games to play through and enjoy.
Make the game free to play and then treat all these expansions and updates like DLC and charge for those individually. That way I won’t feel punished if I don’t religiously play your game and only your game.
When do owners of the PS3 version get to upgrade to ps4 version? Do we get on early?
@23 stlthriot – They all carry over since then are stored server side. You can actually complete all the requirements on the PC version, boot up the PS3 version and watch all the trophies (with a few exceptions) pop you qualify for.
Paying for a monthly subscription aside from PS Plus which I already pay? NO THANKS $QUARE ENIX.
It’s $9.99/mth if you pay for 3+ months, I think. It might be 6+ months. That’s like paying for Netflix. I use Netflix far less than I use FFXIV. I’m proud to be a FFXIV subscriber. Great content and great updates!
@29
$14.99 is the price if you pay month to month. = $89.94
$13.99 if you pay 3 months at a time. = $83.94
$12.99 if you pay for 6 months at a time. = $77.94
$9.99 if you paid for 3 months in a row of Final Fantasy 14 1.0(2011) = $59.94
@27
You actually have to earn them. Like if you have done more than 1000 FATE’s already, you have to do one FATE and you will get the trophy. So they’re retroactive, but you need to do one of each to grab the trophy.
@25
This F2P model makes no money. P2P content is better, less or no hackers, better community, lots of free content. FFXIV will NEVER be F2P, and your opinion is that of the minority. They’re almost up to 2 million subscribers monthly. For argument’s sake will say the majority are on the $12.99 plan, that would rake in just shy of $26 Million a month. You will never make that kind of money on elective pay. That money is used to run servers, maintenance on servers, pay employees their salaries. The game has often been on sale for $10-15 making you only pay for a month of subscription as the cost of the game.
@21
If you have time to play 7 hours a day, you must be a kid or unemployed. MMO’s are reasonable, and when you consider that in 6 months you will only spend $77.94 plus $10-15 for the game–been so many sale on it its ridiculous–that is likely what you would spend on a game anyways. 6 months is a long time. Thats about the cost of a typical Collector’s Edition of a game. I still have time to play other games. I am playing Dark Souls 2, and Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls tomorrow along with The Witch and the Hundred Knights. There is no difference to P2P. It does not affect gaming budget. I set aside $600 a year for video games(honestly very small and does not include price of new consoles). You also have clearly never played an MMO that wasn’t F2P. The amount of content in a P2P game is 10 X that of a F2P one. So while you do the same mundane things over and over, I continually have new things to do on a regular basis. F2P just can’t compete with P2P.
@20
Subadictos
First: Guild Wars 2 total sales. 3.5 million. Times $49.99 = 175 Million. To be fair that is a highly inflated profit since the game was not a consistent $50 with sales, however we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
Second: FFXIV, not including the initial cost of the game at all, has already made 182 Million in it’s 7 months. Now this is supposing that everyone is on the $12.99 pay plan, which is very unlikely. So many say well in case they decide to quit, they pay monthly. Also to account for the few 100K that get to play for $9.99. The game has already made more than Guild Wars 2 did in it’s life, in only 7 months.
Also, FFXIV ARR on PS4 is only $39.99. Checked Gamestop, Amazon, Bestbuy and Wal-Mart.
I loved the demo/beta that was just released a few weeks back for PS4. I really really want to play this game, but I just cant. I cant pay 12 or so a month to play these MMOs anymore, it’s just not worth it for me. (cancelled WOW after playing since 2004 about a year ago). I dont have the time to play games like I used to so I cant see paying monthly for a game that in a months time might see me pop in a few times a month here and there. Please, offer a Free To Play option to this game. I dont care about collecting this and that, I just want to enjoy the journey and the story elements of the game. Thanks.
@ArchAngelMai
You forgot to mention those prices are if you choose to be able to have 8 charas made on each server.
There’s also and option for just 1 chara (on each server i believe) for just $12.99 a month. This option you only pay each month at a time.
I’m sorry but ill never pay 60 on a game then 15 a month for it after, EVER, even if i won the lotto. If the game was free from the start it would be easier to pay monthly for. Destiny will be far bigger than this game and it’s just 60 dollars. Paying monthly is dying. The quicker these companies realize this the quicker people will jump on board to play their games and pay in game content. I spent tons of money on DC after it went free to play. Elder Scrolls will become free to pay and so will you, it’s going to happen so I don’t know why you guys beat this dead horse. 60 for the game, 15 a month, then more money on DLCs? lmfao.
NEED CASUAL GAMER PRICING
I agree that subscription fees don’t work for people who can’t commit all of their free time to one given game. It would have been nice to offer a subscription service option based on the number of hours of play. That way if I buy a block of time I can chip away at the game at my own leisure. The console world is definitely different from the PC world of gaming. It’s not like the two logins play together in the same universe anyway right?
Like the monthly subscription fee is unlimited hours for someone that could be a great value who plays every day. That person might actually play 150 hours a month. For the casual gamer they may only play 20 hours in 2-3 weeks time. Maybe you should charge $10 for 30 hour blocks. It will be a lot easier to measure your server capacity. And new users will get a taste of what Final Fantasy is all about without the added pressure to quit the next month and no added pressure to play towards the last day. I mean if there is no end to this game there shouldn’t be a problem to charge by the hour. You get what you put into the game.
So in short Offer unlimited access and charge have by the 30 hour blocks. You could do 30 hours for $10 and 10 hours for $5.
Trying to say keep your $13 all access plan alive but also offer a casual gamer option to buy 10,20,30hr blocks of time that don’t expire in the short term. We could gift card him them to friends and see if they get hooked. Note you could also put a 300 hour on this. That way once you’ve put that much time into the game you’re forced to go for full access at some point if you feel one price model will dominate the other. Problem-solved.
I want SE to bring out those subscription cards to NA sometime this year. It’s a great game well worth the price and every PS4 owner should try the beta out.
Put a 300hr cap on the casual gamer plan. $20 gets 50hrs. $100 gets 300hrs.
@32, If a person has less than 7 hrs a day to play, and he has to allocate this <7 hrs among other games (Dark Souls 2, Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls, The Witch and the Hundred Knights), then the amount of time he spends on FF14 per month will be much much less, meaning the price he pays per hour is even more expensive.
As I mentioned, the monthly subscription only works for people who are going to be dedicated to a couple of games. It's not going to attract those who play a lot of different games (not to mention PS Plus subscription feeds us a lot every month). To attract these players (the majority?), they need to change to a usage-based plan at an attractive price. $0.50 per 7 hrs is affordable, per 5 hrs is reasonable, per hr is unacceptable. Change or have an alternate pricing scheme (capped at $12.99), set the price and see if more players accept it.
@33, So FF14 makes more money than Guild Wars 2, what does that tell you? The developers of Guild Wars 2 are stupid, they should be more greedy and charge their players recurring subscription fee instead of just selling at a one-time price of the game? I am glad there are such developers around.
This will be the first mmo that I will p2p. I bought it on ps3 on psn for 10 bucks. Will upgrade once I get a ps4.
Amazing comeback this series was able to do.
Thanks to Yoshida-san and his team for the amazing work they did!
@41
Yes because you’re greedy if you continue to pump out new content often for your paying fans so the game never gets old, and you’re evil for paying your employees for the tens of thousands of man hours they put into it. Yes I love a game where when I am done with it, there is no reason to keep playing. Replay value is important. Games like GW2 give no incentive for people to keep playing the game. Hence why it’s user base is already dead. FFXIV has grown from 1 million, to almost 2 million and it is still growing. This is what P2P offers. Continual new things to do, most 1 time fee games lack content and become boring quickly. That’s why they sell poorly. Sure they release new content on occasion, but it pales in comparison. I don’t waste any money on FFXIV, in fact I get more bang for my buck from 14 than any other game. Most games people spend $60 on they get 15-30 hours of fun. Unless it’s an RPG where it may reach 40-100+. Even still, those don’t come close to what think you should get out of a game. What you want, does not exist.
Plus you have to factor in the initial cost of making the game.
TO BE CONTINUED-TOO LONG
@41 Continued…
This is FF14’s second making. It launched in 2011 and tanked, it became F2P, and tanked so bad they fired the whole staff and started at square 1. 2 years later A Realm Reborn released. Since the actual cost of the game is unknown, but given that its been made twice…300 million is probably grossly underestimating when the games first failure was par for the cause of SE almost collapsing. Not to mention FFXIII tanking as well. The average person is willing to pay $8 for an hour of fun, whether it a video game or other form of entertainment. MMO’s give you a lot more than that.
6 months from now, I will not be playing games Dark Souls 2 or Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls, however with huge patch content every 3 months on 14, I will likely still be playing.
People don’t realize how little you actually spend on an MMO with how much replay you get. I have about 800 hours on 14, and in 2 days, so much content to keep me busy until the next huge patch in early July.
April 4th can’t get here soon enough! Im ready to get back to this game baby! WU TANG!! XD
To everyone complaining that this is a subscription based game or that it should go free to play, you are… (Insert word here that is negative).
Where do you think this game will go without being subscription based or should it be F2P with a cash shop so you can top the leader boards with my epic bought gear? To make characters and costumes it takes a designer and the designer needs to get paid for that work. To those who spout free to play obviously need to take a few courses in business 101.
The reason for the subscription and it’s actually cheaper than most f2p based games is to keep it running do you know how much it costs for a server? That will in fact hold thousands of people? No? Do you know how much time and energy it costs to make a new patch? No? oh you don’t make games so stop with the it’s costs money… It costs THEM money as well..
Side note
Always say no to Pay2Win games. One game has a subscription IE FFXIV 12.99 that’s $154 a year. Now a cash shop an outfit you want 10.00 oh look at that mount 20.00 I want to buy a house 300.00. See where I’m going with this when you have a pay system I have seen people that spend over $4000 and some as high as $15000 on “Free 2 play games” It’s a joke
@41 This is not completely true As I have a lot of games to play as well, but I play games religiously until I beat them so if I know that I’m going to be spending my time on another game why would I pay for my subscription that month? If I know that I will come back to the game for more than at least 7-14 days in game time yes I mean played time, as I have College then My work is done. but if I know that I won’t get my money’s worth not that 12 dollars is that much I won’t get it.
Will it be possible to just buy a subscription fee for FFXIV off the PSN in the coming months. I can easily pay off 6 months in advance. Is the only way to pay for the subscription off the FFXIV site so far? I hope this changes
$60.00 + $12.99 / mo. or $215.88 for the first year is too darn expensive.
I get hundreds of hours of enjoyment from netflix every year for only $7.99 / mo. $215.88 is about as much money as I spent on all of my games last year and you’re asking that much for 1. AND if I stop my subscription, I can’t play any more.
Do you have any idea how ridiculous your pricing is? $60.00 should get you a 12 month subscription. Then it shouldn’t be any more than $7.99/mo.