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[Draugoth]

Will Square ever reach a point where that free trial is extended to the full game? Director Naoki Yoshida told Eurogamer it won't, though the free trial will likely be expanded further.​

I believe the free trial will continue to be expanded, but we have no plans of making the client itself free at the moment. Since a huge amount of time and money has been invested in the expansion packages, the revenue from sales of the expansion package itself is still very important in order to continue to make expansions on this scale. We would like to constantly aim for the best on the business side as well to continue making a lot of content to be enjoyed."

Yoshida's comments come as A Realm Reborn, the infamous restart of Final Fantasy 14, reaches its tenth anniversary this year. The game has proven incredibly successful since then, becoming in 2021 the company's most profitable game in the series.

But at what point does Yoshida and his team move on from Eorzea to a new game?

"We don't have plans to move on to a new game as that would be something even more difficult than having the realm be 'reborn'," he said. "That might change if I am hit with some kind of inspiration though."

 

[MechaDOOM]

There is no need to extend the free trial. What I understand is that it's good and is more than enough for players to decide if they want to pay for the game or not.

 

[MagiusNecros]

I don't think he can make any other game since he primarily only has MMO experience and a lot of the FFXIV design philosophy bled into FFXVI. Which is pretty telling of his reluctance to deviate.

I think going forward FFXIV is going to be similar to Guild Wars 2 where at some point earlier expansions become free to play.

Current expansions are going to require a sub. Although I'd love it if FFXIV adopted a buy to play model like GW2 has.

 

[Neilg]

The free trial takes about 80 hours to finish. It's fine.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

"No plans to play game with subscription," NeoGAF user says.

 

[Griffon]

The free trial is already absolutely massive and is literally half the game (up to the third expansion) for free without any of the shitty caveats that F2P games have.

 

[Griffon]

The free trial takes about 80 hours to finish. It's fine.

You're out of date, this is more like 300 hours now.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

They should just stop making single-player offline Final Fantasy and focus solely on the MMORPG

It's the only thing related to modern Final Fantasy that is not a disgrace

 

[Griffon]

I think going forward FFXIV is going to be similar to Guild Wars 2 where at some point earlier expansions become free to play.

Already the case, you can play the game up to and including Stormblood for free.

edit: I fucked up, this all should have been a single post

 

[jshackles]

I'm okay with the length of the free trial, but I sure wish there were a way to go backwards from a paid account to a free one. As it is now, once you upgrade from a free account to a paid account - your account is now forever a paid account and can never go back.

There are times I think "I should re-sub to FFXIV" but then realize I'd probably just spend a few weeks leveling up my gardening skills or some shit without touching the expansions.

So as it is, I have a free account and a separate paid one, and never shall the two interact.

 

[omegasc]

Played with GAF members back when it released, "non-stop" for about 6 months, until the coil of bahamut required more than my internet latency could handle, and timezones made playing it with the guild very hard. Not sure if the people I played with are still here though. I would love to pay once and get back to it as a single player experience, but I don't want to pay for a sub. It's a great game, though, and made me believe YoshiP is one of the good guys in gaming.

edit: there's also the issue with accounts pointed by jshackles .

 

[Larxia]

Something that sucks with the free trial is that it's not available if you bought the game before, and even if it might sound like it makes sense, it can be a shame in some situations, like mine.

I bought the game on Steam yeaaars ago, but only played it for a few hours during the free 30 days, and never subscribed again.
Now there is this free trial that's actually huge, the whole base game + some expansions, it's way more than what I played back then, but I couldn't use that if I wanted, because I already bought the game, so I'm doomed to have to pay a subscription to play for what's inside the free trial It's like being punished for buying it back then.

I just really don't like subscription based models, makes me feel forced to play.

 

[jshackles]

I bought the game on Steam yeaaars ago, but only played it for a few hours during the free 30 days, and never subscribed again.
Now there is this free trial that's actually huge, the whole base game + some expansions, it's way more than what I played back then, but I couldn't use that if I wanted, because I already bought the game, so I'm doomed to have to pay a subscription to play for what's inside the free trial It's like being punished for buying it back then lol.

Yep same here, I ended up opening another account on the free tier and just starting over.

What sucks is that, for a while, you could log into your free account from the launcher that could be downloaded on Steam. That was super-duper handy. Nowadays, they've fixed that loophole, so you've got to go hunting for the "free client" and install and patch that separately outside of Steam.

 

[Larxia]

Yep same here, I ended up opening another account on the free tier and just starting over.

What sucks is that, for a while, you could log into your free account from the launcher that could be downloaded on Steam. That was super-duper handy. Nowadays, they've fixed that loophole, so you've got to go hunting for the "free client" and install and patch that separately outside of Steam.

Oh, the free trial was never available officially on Steam? I thought it was. Then if it's not possible to play the free version on Steam, I guess it doesn't matter about having to use a different account, the main issue for me was about not being able to play it for free on my main steam account.

But yeah if I could have accessed the free version on steam, I might have given it a try again at some point, more casually, without the "pressure" of a monthly sub.

 

[jshackles]

Oh, the free trial was never available officially on Steam? I thought it was. Then if it's not possible to play the free version on Steam, I guess it doesn't matter about having to use a different account, the main issue for me was about not being able to play it for free on my main steam account.

But yeah if I could have accessed the free version on steam, I might have given it a try again at some point, more casually, without the "pressure" of a monthly sub.

Correct, the free trial wasn't ever available on Steam - only the "first thirty days free with purchase".

If you have even a passing interest in the game, I'd recommend starting a new account / character. The free trial could potentially take literally hundreds of hours to complete at this point as the base classes are all available and can be leveled up to 60 (or is it 70 now that Stormblood is included?). The biggest limitations for actual gameplay are 1) you cannot form a party or join a guild (the duty finder will still match you up with an appropriate party for raids and dungeons, you just can't make ad-hoc parties) and 2) you're locked out from the market board and a few other QoL features like hiring retainers.

The latter really sucks for the crafting classes - but personally I don't sweat it too much. Not being able to create a proper party sucks if you planned on playing with others, but it's fine for solo play.

 

[Fake]

 

[Ozzie666]

I rahter see Square step up and makegame purchases cross platform for the game and expansions. It would be nice to be able to play on PC then swap to PS5 on occasion, without being slammed with double the costs. The monhly sub should be enough to offset a second free copy on a different platform. Or include this in collector editions or something.

I do have to wonder if this is the last FF online, it's like lightening in a bottle just like War Craft. Not sure they can duplicate the succes again.

 

[TheInfamousKira]

Damn this thread making me want to try XIV

 

[Doom85]

I do have to wonder if this is the last FF online, it's like lightening in a bottle just like War Craft. Not sure they can duplicate the succes again.

I certainly hope not, purely because I’d rather Yoshi-P stick to the MMO FFs since his first single player outing wasn’t what I was looking for in a FF title.

 

[Arsic]

This game funds other games in the company to get green lit I imagine. Keep making $. WoW still has a sub.

14 also has one of the most gracious free trials in the business to get you into it too.

I do wonder if games like WoW and 14 may somehow see gamepass include or discount subs to these games. Like if I could play WoW classic because of gamepass I’d play more regularly . Or if 14 on gamepass allowed for a 50% discount for monthly sub I’d likely never get rid of the subscription to 14.

 

[Mister Wolf]

I went ahead and bought it off Steam today. Hope I enjoy it.