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more on the TFLO cancellation

B

BuddyC

Member
Xbox Fansite Owners:

Last week, Official Xbox Fansite owner "Atsui" submitted questions regarding the cancellation of True Fantasy Live Online on behalf of all Xbox fansite owners in Japan. These questions were voluntarily compiled by fansite owners and are now being sent back to their Official Xbox Fansite Owner mailing list.

We recognize that Xbox owners were greatly anticipating the release of True Fantasy Live Online and were of great support to us. We have gathered a variety of staff members to answer your questions as best as we could.

Here are the answers we can provide:

Q: How far along in development was TFLO?

A: The virtual world of True Fantasy Live Online was relatively complete. It was a living, breathing virtual world by the time we concluded development.

The development of True Fantasy Live Online was a long, three-year endeavor for Microsoft. We were working very hard to get the game to our customers as soon as possible. However, when we were preparing the beta test program, we ran into problems in our efforts to build a stable online experience and were forced to make the regrettable decision to cancel development. Believe us when we say that it was a bitter decision to make considering the support you all gave us. We also housed deep love and attachment to the game.

Q: What was the most prudent reason for canceling the development of TFLO?

A: Many online games suffer long delays in order to work out all problems of developing such a game. With that said, we became very concerned at just how long it would take to finally wrap up development. Things became very indefinite and worrying and we thought of delaying the game yet again, but we took the difficult step in ending development of the game.

Q: Can you say for certain that TFLO development is dead? Is there any chance in the future that development will continue again?

A: Development of the game ended when we announcement its cancellation. However, there is ongoing debate and discussion within our company, but we cannot tell the public anymore than that.

Q: Clearly you were having trouble developing this game, yet you continued with a full-fledged beta test application process. Why is that?

A: When we began accepting applications for the True Fantasy Live Online's beta test program, we were deep in development of the game. It was not until afterwards when we investigated the game from a number of angles and decided to conclude development of the title.

Q:As for the TFLO properties you currently have (game world, characters, game interface, etc), is there any chance we'll see some remnants of it in the future? Perhaps in a different game?

A:As for saving the assets we have developed so far and using them in a future project, we really cannot disclose our internal discussions about this. However, the elements that people were excited for may be utilized at a latter date and in a different form.

Q: What can we get excited about now that True Fantasy Live Online is canceled?

A: On July 17 in Harajuku, Tokyo, Microsoft Game Studios announced eleven new titles. Among those titles are three new role-playing games and Halo 2 which was awarded three Best of E3 2004 awards. We were also happy to announce a domestically developed title, Phantom Dust.

We are also working very hard to bring you a new Japanese-developed role-playing game to take the place of the now-defunct True Fantasy Live Online.

Q: Would you like to give us fansite owners a message to announce to our readers?

A: Again, thank you all for your incredible support of True Fantasy Live Online. All of us at Xbox Japan want to say how sorry we are to have made the decision to end development of the game. It was truly discouraging to end development of a game that came out of Japan and captured the attention of the world. However, we have heard the voices of the fans and that has made us work even harder at bringing you exciting titles in the future. We will work hard to better service you all in the future.
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shamelessly stolen from 1up.com
 
F

Ferrarisimo

Member
"we ran into problems in our efforts to build a stable online experience "

Must have been one hell of a technical problem to cancel development outright. And what's weird, is that later on in that interview, it is mentioned that another RPG (presumably online) is in development to replace TFLO. It seems more prudent to invest the time to fix whatever problem they had rather than start from scratch.

But whatever, who knows what really went on.
 
S

seismologist

Banned
That just sucks. It sounds like they were in over their heads and the game could never live up to the promises.

How long was FFXI in development? The game has it's share of problems but for the most part SquareEnix really nailed it. I think it would be tough to beat.
 
L

lexbubble

Member
wait..so is this just complete done and gone. i can't believe that they would totally abandon all of that hard work (3 years..yikes) and not try to at least salvage something. Do you think that the online RPG that might be to replace it will make use of some of the already developed TFLO data, etc?
 
B

BuddyC

Member
lexbubble said:
wait..so is this just complete done and gone. i can't believe that they would totally abandon all of that hard work (3 years..yikes) and not try to at least salvage something. Do you think that the online RPG that might be to replace it will make use of some of the already developed TFLO data, etc?
Click to expand...

As for saving the assets we have developed so far and using them in a future project, we really cannot disclose our internal discussions about this. However, the elements that people were excited for may be utilized at a latter date and in a different form.
Click to expand...
 
S

SyNapSe

Member
.. that sounds like total crap. 3 years of development (and millions of bucks) and then they discover it was going to be difficult to build a stable online experience?

It's pretty damn hard to believe any corporation doesn't fully plot out everything for a multi million dollar project before it's signed off on and approved.
 
S

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
I'm going to jump out on a limb and say its partially beacuse they insisted on using headsets. With the number of people who would be using them in the same game world, that would just be too much bandwidth.

Then again, I may be wrong.
 
O

Outdoor Miner

Member
Maybe it's just being moved over to Xbox2, seeing how an MMO this far into the game would have outlived the console by years if not a decade (slight exaggeration).
 
T

Tellaerin

Member
Q:As for the TFLO properties you currently have (game world, characters, game interface, etc), is there any chance we'll see some remnants of it in the future? Perhaps in a different game?

A:As for saving the assets we have developed so far and using them in a future project, we really cannot disclose our internal discussions about this. However, the elements that people were excited for may be utilized at a latter date and in a different form.
Click to expand...

Wonder if that means they're going to be recycling some of the TFLO art assets in the next DraQue. :p
 
R

Redbeard

Banned
Microsoft also has Vanguard in the works. If that makes it's way to Xbox 2 (It's built on XNA, uses Live tech, and a controller/keyboard hybrid) would they be willing to pit these two games against each other?
 
T

Tellaerin

Member
Redbeard said:
Microsoft also has Vanguard in the works. If that makes it's way to Xbox 2 (It's built on XNA, uses Live tech, and a controller/keyboard hybrid) would they be willing to pit these two games against each other?
Click to expand...

I think they'd appeal to different crowds, honestly. TFLO's aesthetic would pull in anime fans and players who like cute Japanese RPG's, while Vanguard's more Western swords-and-sorcery style is more appealing to the Everquest-loving, AD&D-playing, Lord of the Rings-fan types. (I also think that TFLO would do better in Japan than Vanguard, and vice-versa. Publishing an MMORPG that would sell well in Japan would not be a bad thing for Microsoft.) Their best strategy would probably be to support both games. Between the two, they'd be able to offer something for everyone.
 
S

siamesedreamer

Banned
Suikoguy said:
I'm going to jump out on a limb and say its partially beacuse they insisted on using headsets. With the number of people who would be using them in the same game world, that would just be too much bandwidth.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing. Being able to talk to any person near you seems like that would cause some big headaches with the netcoding.

But, I have absolutely no clue as to how that stuff works. So, I'm probably wrong too.
 
M

Mrbob

Member
Q: Can you say for certain that TFLO development is dead? Is there any chance in the future that development will continue again?

A: Development of the game ended when we announcement its cancellation. However, there is ongoing debate and discussion within our company, but we cannot tell the public anymore than that.
Click to expand...

Translation: We have moved the game to Xbox 2 but we can't announce it yet.
 
W

WarPig

Member
neptunes said:
are we reading the same thing?

Don't they have DQ8 and Dark Cloud 3 to work on?
Click to expand...

More to the point, they have DQVIII to make them so much fucking money that they will all be able to buy Ferraris and their own Tahitian islands to retire to.

DFS.
 
N

novery

Member
The webmasters that put these questions together actually have a really good relationship with Microsoft. They all have registered their sites through Xbox.jp and everything was rosy until TFLO was canned. Everybody was pissed and I think Microsoft Japan was worried that it would lose a lot of support from these guys, hence the reply.

With that said, let me point out the nay-sayers from when I announced that these guys had sent their questions to Microsoft :)

http://www.ga-forum.com/showthread.php?t=516

Soul4ger said:
You'd have trouble, too, if you were working on DQVIII all the time.

These people make me laugh. Oh my God, they started fansites, check out their dedication!
Click to expand...

Sho Nuff said:
I'm sure they'll respond, too. (snicker)
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Sea Manky said:
negative7.jpg
Click to expand...

Mr_Furious said:
They're probably run by non-Japanese residing in Japan ;)

Seriously though, why the fuck would MS honestly listen to the 50 or so Japanese Xbox owners that would actually buy this.
Click to expand...
 
C

Culex

Banned
I'll throw in a gay tag of your choice you can give me if I'm wrong that TFLO will never surface again.
 
ManaByte

ManaByte

Member
vanguard_black_1024.jpg



Very shortly after MS announced they have entered a deal with Sigil Games to publish Vanguard, Asheron's Call 1 & 2 were given to Turbine and Mythica was canned.

Now True Fantasy Online was canned. Thus Vanguard is Microsofts ONLY MMORPG.

There are serious rumors going around that Sigil had a "no competition" clause in the deal they struck with Microsoft so there would be no MMORPG competition from MS in any way thus Vanguard would be MS's exclusive game in the genre.

Also of note, Vanguard is now an XNA project which opens the doors for it to appear on Xbox 2 or even possibly Xbox 1 as it is just running off the Unreal engine.
 
J

john tv

Member
ManaByte said:
There are serious rumors going around that Sigil had a "no competition" clause in the deal they struck with Microsoft so there would be no MMORPG competition from MS in any way thus Vanguard would be MS's exclusive game in the genre.
Click to expand...
It's not a ridiculous theory or anything, but it's not true.
 
N

neptunes

Member
seismologist said:
I wouldn't be surprised to see it resurface as a PS2 game.
Click to expand...

I could see that happening but if you look at the sales of ff11 you can expect the sales of this game to be lower.

besides TFLO and anything related belongs to Microsoft.
 
D

davis

Member
I feel sorry for Japanese xbox owners that were only anticipating this game.
Click to expand...


How about us its numer #5 Most Wanted Games in this months (XBN)Xbox Nation readers list. Behind Halo2 ,Fable, Doom3, Halflife 2.
 
S

Sho Nuff

Banned
Holy snap they replied!!! Shocking, perhaps they have a clue that FANSITES ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY BUY YOUR PRODUCT.

BTW, I bet 1000 yen that TFLO will resurface, too!
 
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