Yesterday, Square Enix has officially announced Final Fantasy XIV Mobile , a mobile version of the critically acclaimed MMORPG. However, curiously, the game’s Japanese Twitter account has posted a 13-minute video interview with Naoki Yoshida, which goes into deeper detail about the aspects of the game.
Some of these questions bring some really interesting points, but in specific, two interesting ones were talked about. I’ve translated two of those questions below.
Q: From where will the Final Fantasy XIV mobile game begin its story?
Naoki Yoshida: Just like the original, the mobile version will begin its story from Version 2.0, which is when A Realm Reborn was originally released. Of course, the original game is already in its Version 7.0 and still progressing, so there will be a A lot of content and story to go through, but we plan to release all of that content at a reasonable pace.
However, we will also be keeping a close eye on everyone’s feedback, to make sure we don’t go too fast or too slow with the update schedule. So if you could play the game and leave your feedback, that would be great.
Q: What are your plans in regards to monetizing the game?
Naoki Yoshida : Ever since I got into the game design industry, monetization has to be one of the key concepts when it comes to creating a game. As you know, the original Final Fantasy XIV works on a subscription-based model. But to bring that to mobile, we of course have to think of making it free to play. But then comes the question: “how are we going to monetize it?”
There are many games where their proposals revolve around implementing a gacha system of sorts so they can earn a lot of revenue, but that’s not what we are planning to do. To respect the original Final Fantasy XIV , the proposal from LIGHTSPEED focused on how long a mobile user would play the game, rather than trying to make money through gacha.
Personally, I want each and every person to enjoy Final Fantasy XIV for as long as they can, while only receiving a little bit of money from players as part of the monetization. So please, do not get too hung up on the cost — enjoying the game is what I want everyone to do.
『ファイナルファンタジーXIV モバイル』が初公開、冒険者たちが気にしているのは…？
モバイル版の開発のきっかけ、原作の膨大なコンテンツをどのように再現するのか、マネタイズ設計、今後のリリース計画などを伺うために、… pic.twitter.com/svO2eW6fkc— FFXIV_MOBILE【公式】 (@FFXIV_MOBILE_JP) November 20, 2024
