FFXI Sequel in the works

[Yeargdribble]

Plus its coming out for 360, PS3 and Vista, which means the graphical upgrade will definatly be visible.

But hopefully in 5 years we aren't gonna get screwed by the processing limitations of the 360 and PS3. Sure it will be an imporvement to what there is now. PS2 was nice looking when it was released. But if they refuse to upgrade things like Storage and only do recolors for the umpteenth time of current ingame models after this next gen game has been out for 3-4 years they will be making the same mistakes as they've made with FFXI by letting the hardware limitations of one of their platforms hold the game back for everyone that plays.







Another thing SE could learn from is the misakes of other MMO sequels. It's probably a better idea for them to simply expand the current game and move it to new platforms as they slowly phase out the older platforms. They could graphically expand the game and add a lot of new play options if they would put forth the effort. Look at stuff like EQ2. Several people quit EQ to go to EQ2 just to realize it sucked and quit. EQ1 still has more subscribers at 60% of its peak than EQ2 has ever had.

While I think character transfers are a bad idea for a completely new game SE needs to realize that there are a lot of people that want character transfers. As a company they know that this probably wouldn't actually work (would destroy the balance of any new game). They could just continue and expand and upgrade their current game and keep those that want better graphics and more storage happy while allowing people that want character transfers as well happy. Also, continuing to add jobs and areas and making the game truly vast would satisfy a lot of people's needs for something new.

MMO sequels have sucked and considering FFXI isn't a heavy hitter in the MMO world as it is their sequel will probably tank horribly unless they do something drastic, new and innovative. The one thing that SE might have going for it that will overcome this is that it is FF and that matters a lot. You could serve crap on a platter, put an FF logo on it, and plenty of people (especially in Japan where it has more of a cult following) would buy it, eat it, and pretend to enjoy it. I admit that I'm a fanboy as well and would probably by the FF labeled crap too which is just my point.


EDIT: From their recent announcement it at least sounds like they were smart about the sequel thing and probably learned from games like EQ/EQ2, L1/L2 etc.