Yoshida’s Game Development Lessons from FFXIV Version1.0

Yoshida’s Game Development Lessons from FFXIV Version1.0

We are about to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. It was originally released on PC and PlayStation 3 in August 2013.

This was the real beginning of the fan-favorite MMO that we all love. To get to this point, however, the MMO had first to experience the failed FFXIV release, which launched on September 30, 2010.

Interview with GameSpot: Naoki Yoshida, lead producer of FFXIV, said that Creative Business Unit III learned a lot from the initial failure. It’s about being open and honest with your community.

Yoshida stated that the audience lost trust because the project was failing and they had failed us.

“We lost trust in the media and we needed to regain that trust before the game could be rebuilt.

It was clear that being open and honest about what you can do, what you can’t, why it’s impossible, and why it’s possible, is the best way to rebuild trust. Communication, honesty, and open communication are key to proving that we can trust the player, the fans, and the media.

FFXIV supporters appreciate this aspect of the team. They are open to discussing the reasons for future changes.

The FFXIV keeps players informed about the game’s direction through the Lodestone, Live Letters, and the Lodestone. This is before you get to the consistency of HTMLXIV’s expansions, major patches, and other features.

We learned how important this was in Final Fantasy XIV and we were able to transfer that into Final Fantasy XVI. We are trying to be open with Final Fantasy XVI. Yoshida stated that we could have just said “Yeah, this game’s great. It’s everything you imagined.”

“But we came out saying, ‘Okay. We’re not an open universe.’ Knowing that many players would be confused, we made it one of our first words.

He said, “It’s not an Open World?” But explaining why we don’t have an open environment, why we made the decisions, and what they bring to it, hopefully, shows them that we are being honest and that they can enter the experience knowing what our goals are.” They won’t be surprised if they get into the game and try it out for themselves. They will know what they are getting.